VOA慢速英语2015 西方饮食对健康和环境都有害

 

Western Diet Bad for Human Health, Environment 西方饮食对健康和环境都有害

From VOA Learning English, this is the Health Report.

这里是美国之音慢速英语健康报道。

The spread of Western eating habits around the world is bad for human health and for the environment. Those findings come from a new report in the journal Nature. 

西方饮食习惯在全世界的传播对人类健康和环境都有害，这些发现来自《自然》杂志上的一份新报告。

There are ways to solve this diet-health-environment problem. But they will require a change in eating habits. And what we eat can be a product of culture, personal taste, price and ease.

现在有办法可以解决这一饮食、健康和环境问题，但需要改变饮食习惯，而我们的饮食可能是文化、个人口味、价格和舒适性的产物。

David Tilman is a professor of ecology at the University of Minnesota. In the study, he examined information from 100 countries to identify what people ate and how diet affected¹ health.

大卫·蒂尔曼是明尼苏达大学的生态学教授，在这项研究中，他从100个国家收集信息，来发现人们吃什么，以及饮食如何影响到健康。

Mr. Tilman noted² a movement beginning in the 1960s. He found that as nations industrialized, population increased and earnings³ rose. More people began to adopt what has been called the Western diet.

蒂尔曼注意到20世纪60年来开始的一个变化，他发现随着各国工业化，人口开始增长，收入也在增加，越来越多的人开始遵循所谓的西方饮食方式。

The Western diet is high in refined, or processed, sugar, fat, oil and meat. By eating these foods, people began to get fatter -- and sicker.

西方饮食含有的精炼糖、脂肪、油和肉很多，人们吃了这些食物后边的越来越肥，也越容易生病。

“The excess, let us say, in the 15 richest nations of the world, right now is on the order of about 400 or 500 extra calories a day that are eaten beyond what people need, and that leads people to gain weight.”

“可以这样说，目前在全世界15个最富有国家中，人们每天多摄取了400到500卡路里的热量，饮食量超过了所需量，这就导致人们变胖。”

David Tillman says overweight people are at greater risk for non-infectious diseases like diabetes⁴, heart disease and some cancers. 

大卫·蒂尔曼说，超重者患上非感染性疾病的可能更大，包括糖尿病、心脏病和一些癌症。

“Diabetes is shooting to very high rates in the United States and across Europe. Heart disease is a major cause of mortality in the Western countries. Unfortunately when people become industrialized, if they adopt this Western diet, they are going to have these same health impacts, and in some cases if you are Asian, you have them more severely⁵ than even happens in the West.” 

“在美国和整个欧洲，糖尿病的发病率很高，心脏病也是西方国家人口死亡的主要原因。不幸的是，随着人们进入工业化，如果他们采取西方的饮食方式，那就会受到同样的健康影响，在一些情况下如果你是亚洲人，你受到的影响会比西方人更大。”

China, he says, is an example where the number of diabetes cases has jumped.

他说中国就是一个例子，该国的糖尿病病例已经骤增。

“... from less than one percent to 10 percent of the population having diabetes as they began to industrialize over a 20-year period. And that has not leveled off yet. That is still going up. And that is happening all across the world, in Mexico, in Nigeria and so on, just nation after nation.”

“在20年间，随着中国的工业化，糖尿病患者比率从不到1%增长到10%，而且这个比率尚未稳定下来，还在不断上升。全世界都是这样的情况，在墨西哥、尼日利亚等国都是如此。”

And, a diet bad for human beings, it seems, is also bad for the environment. As the world’s population grows, experts say more forests and tropical areas will become farmland for crops or grasslands⁶ for grazing cattle. These areas will be needed to meet the increasing demand for food. 

而且看来，对人类有害的饮食方式对环境也有害处。随着全世界人口的增长，专家说越来越多的森林和热带土地变成农田，用来种植作物或供放牧。这些地区需要满足人们对食物日益增长的需求。

“We are likely to have more greenhouse gas released in the future from agriculture because of this dietary shift than all the greenhouse gas that right now comes out of all the cars, and all of the airplanes, boats and ships, all forms of transportation. So our change in diet is likely to be worse for the world for climate warming than all the transportation sources we use right now.”

“未来农业释放的温室气体会更多，因为这种饮食方式释放出的温室气体比目前汽车、飞机、船舶等各种形式的交通工具所排放的所有温室气体都要多，所以我们的饮食变化对世界气候变暖的影响比我们目前使用的所有交通资源要更恶劣。”

Mr. Tilman calls the link between diet, the environment and human health, “a trilemma.” This is a play on the word “dilemma⁷” -- a problem offering a difficult choice. He says one possible solution is leaving the Western diet behind.

蒂尔曼说饮食、环境和人类健康之间的关联是“三难”，三难是基于两难的说法，两难是面临艰难选择的难题。他说一个可能的解决办法就是远离西方饮食习惯。

Words in This Story

graze -– v. (of cattle, sheep, etc...) eat grass in a field

dilemma – n. a situation in which you have to make a difficult choice

1 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

2 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

3 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

4 diabetes   

n.糖尿病

参考例句：

• In case of diabetes, physicians advise against the use of sugar.对于糖尿病患者，医生告诫他们不要吃糖。
• Diabetes is caused by a fault in the insulin production of the body.糖尿病是由体內胰岛素分泌失调引起的。

5 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

6 grasslands   

n.草原，牧场( grassland的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Songs were heard ringing loud and clear over the grasslands. 草原上扬起清亮激越的歌声。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Grasslands have been broken and planted to wheat. 草原已经开垦出来，种上了小麦。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 dilemma   

n.困境，进退两难的局面

参考例句：

• I am on the horns of a dilemma about the matter.这件事使我进退两难。
• He was thrown into a dilemma.他陷入困境。