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肥満大国アメリカ
成人の7割が標準体重を超えていて、3人に1人は肥満、さらに青少年の17%、軍隊の20人に1人が肥満だという経済大国アメリカ。肥満関連の医療費に年間11.6兆円が費やされるというが、健康が財産に例えられるなら、彼らの財産はかなり貧弱だと筆者は思う。
America the obese
America has a morbid fascination with its own bad eating habits. On any given day, you're bound to find some article somewhere on the unhealthiest meals available, complete with gut-churning, heart-stopping pictures of mountainous burgers, grease-slicked fries, and enormous burritos. My own personal favorite -- not to eat, but as a food concept -- is fried butter balls. These are frozen balls of butter coated in a cinnamon-honey batter that are deep-fried and then coated in a sugar glaze. They beat chicken-fried bacon and deep-fried Oreos any day.
Despite all the warnings, people continue to consume junk food more than ever. As a result, while models and actors get thinner and, ironically, more is known about nutrition than before, America is getting fatter. This is hardly news, but the figures are startling. In 2008, around 70 percent of adult Americans were overweight, and roughly one in three were obese. More worrying still, 17 percent of children and adolescents were obese. Even one in 20 in the U.S. military were diagnosed as obese.
Obesity has now become the second leading preventable cause of death in the United States after tobacco. According to various studies, around $150 billion (11.6 trillion yen) is spent on medical costs linked to obesity-related diseases each year. Heart disease and diabetes are just some of the physical risks associated with obesity, not to mention the psychological damage from the social stigma often unfairly associated with it. Obesity among children is of particular concern as it has such an impact on their health as an adult.
An interesting question is whether obesity is a personal or a social problem and therefore whether the government should intervene in and regulate people's diet. After all, ideally people should be allowed to eat what they want in a free society. Yet tens of billions of dollars in often false or misleading advertisements are spent each year on food, while powerful lobby groups ensure that unhealthy food remains on the table. It was the food industry that last year successfully lobbied Congress to absurdly declare pizza in school lunches a vegetable.
Moves have been made to fight what some have called an epidemic. Some states have banned sodas from schools. New York City was the first city to ban trans-fats and to insist that calorie counts be listed on all menus. First lady Michelle Obama marked the second anniversary on Feb. 9 of her "Let's Move" project to bring healthier, more affordable food to children and encourage a more active lifestyle. But is this the right approach? Its success is difficult to gauge. Meanwhile, if health is wealth, Americans are doing rather poorly.
- has a morbid fascination with 〜
- 〜に病的に引き付けられている
- On any given day
- どの日でも、毎日のように
- (are) bound to 〜
- 〜するに違いない
- unhealthiest meals available
- 手に入る中で最も不健康な食事
- gut-churning
- 胃がむかむかするような
- heart-stopping
- 心臓が止まるかと思うような
- mountainous
- 巨大な
- grease-slicked
- 油でぎとぎとした
- burritos
- ブリトー(肉やチーズや豆などをトルティーヤで巻いたメキシコ料理)
- fried butter balls
- 揚げバター
- batter
- 衣
- deep-fried
- 揚げた
- sugar glaze
- 砂糖衣
- chicken-fried
- 衣をつけて揚げた
- Oreos
- オレオ(クッキーの商品名)
- nutrition
- 栄養
- hardly
- どうみても〜ではない
- startling
- 驚くべき
- adolescents
- 青年期の若者
- were diagnosed as 〜
- 〜と診断された
- preventable
- 予防できる
- Heart disease
- 心臓病
- diabetes
- 糖尿病
- associated with 〜
- 〜と関係のある
- social stigma
- 社会的不名誉
- intervene in 〜
- 〜に干渉する
- regulate
- 〜を管理する
- tens of billions of dollars
- 数百億ドル
- lobby groups
- ロビー団体
- ensure that 〜
- 必ず〜するように努めている
- absurdly
- ばかげたことに
- epidemic
- 流行病
- have banned
- 〜を禁止した
- sodas
- 炭酸飲料水
- trans-fats
- トランス脂肪
- calorie counts
- カロリー量
- “Let's Move" project
- ミシェル・オバマ大統領夫人が呼び掛けた全米での食育活動
- gauge
- 〜を測定する