VOA标准英语2010年-Mississippi Has Highest Rate of Childh

Residents of Mississippi favor pork barbecue, fried catfish¹, buttery biscuits and gravy² and tamales. Generations of eating calorie-laden foods have lead to Mississippi's designation as having the fattest kids in the nation. But the southern state, where 40 percent of the children are overweight or obese³, is fighting that ranking.

A seventh grader eating a salad - from a school cafeteria. Others picking fresh fruit.

Gym class. 30 minutes every day. These are the changes Mississippi is making after being named number one in childhood obesity⁵.? And, the students are learning why better choices are necessary.

"To stay healthy and do things, it helps you later on in life, when you are older," said 13-year-old Jofunta Smith.

Mississippi wants to promote more students like Victoria Parrish - this 13 year-old lost 20 kilograms by eating better and playing softball. "My change in heart (came) I guess because I felt it was time to change myself," she said.

And, her school - Byhalia Middle - changed itself.

Five years ago, this is what the cafeteria used to serve. White bread, canned fruit, lots of sauces. Today, it's whole grains, one percent milk, fresh fruit and vegetables."

Ninety-Five percent of the school is on free or reduced lunches. But the subsidies⁶ are too low to buy more fresh produce. So Byhalia gets some vegetables from the high school greenhouse.

Manager Joyce Shaw prohibits sodas⁷ in her cafeteria and offers fresh fruit smoothies instead. She hopes school habits don't end here. "Maybe when they go to the grocery store with their parents, they'll let them know: 'Mom, we had kiwi at school today, let's buy some of those.' I'm hoping they will take it home and start eating nutritionally at home," she said.

That's difficult for a state like Mississippi, where high calorie foods have been the tradition for generations. Plus, some citizens live in areas called "food deserts," where traditional grocery stores are miles away. This is the only store within walking distance for Bobbie McDaniel. And it offers few fresh vegetables. "You can't get them if you don't raise them in your garden. You can't get them here."

School nurse Emmily Hurdle⁸ calculates BMI--Body Mass Index. Then, she counsels students on why it should be lower. "You always think of high blood pressure, diabetes⁹, and these are things we don't ever want to have to treat. It would be so much better if we could prevent them," she said.

In addition to counting calories, Mississippi law recently mandated¹⁰ 30 minutes of physical activity each day. Coach Henry Hood⁴ says he's fighting a new generation that doesn't know how to play. "When I was a child, we had to go out and play. We didn't have the video games, and the wii (video game) sets that we stayed inside and played with. So our recess¹¹ outlet¹² was playing and hunting and fishing, and doing those things," he said.

Nurse Hurdle is shared between eight schools, in her quest of obesity prevention. "I could teach it 24 hours a day, seven days a week and I still would not get through in a school year what I needed to get done," she said.

She has a few more years, before these kids graduate from planned lunch menus and scheduled exercise. And before they get the chance to grow into overweight adults, which statistics show 4 out of 5 could become.
 

1 catfish   

n.鲶鱼

参考例句：

• Huge catfish are skinned and dressed by hand.用手剥去巨鲇的皮并剖洗干净。
• We gigged for catfish off the pier.我们在码头以鱼叉叉鲶鱼。

2 gravy   

n.肉汁；轻易得来的钱，外快

参考例句：

• You have spilled gravy on the tablecloth.你把肉汁泼到台布上了。
• The meat was swimming in gravy.肉泡在浓汁之中。

3 obese   

adj.过度肥胖的，肥大的

参考例句：

• The old man is really obese,it can't be healthy.那位老人确实过于肥胖了，不能算是健康。
• Being obese and lazy is dangerous to health.又胖又懒危害健康。

4 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。

5 obesity   

n.肥胖，肥大

参考例句：

• One effect of overeating may be obesity.吃得过多能导致肥胖。
• Sugar and fat can more easily lead to obesity than some other foods.糖和脂肪比其他食物更容易导致肥胖。

6 subsidies   

n.补贴，津贴，补助金( subsidy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• European agriculture ministers failed to break the deadlock over farm subsidies. 欧洲各国农业部长在农业补贴问题上未能打破僵局。
• Agricultural subsidies absorb about half the EU's income. 农业补贴占去了欧盟收入的大约一半。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 sodas   

n.苏打( soda的名词复数 )；碱；苏打水；汽水

参考例句：

• There are plenty of sodas in the refrigerator. 冰箱里有很多碳酸饮料。 来自辞典例句
• Two whisky and sodas, please. 请来两杯威士忌苏打。 来自辞典例句

8 hurdle   

n.跳栏，栏架；障碍，困难；vi.进行跨栏赛

参考例句：

• The weather will be the biggest hurdle so I have to be ready.天气将会是最大的障碍，所以我必须要作好准备。
• She clocked 11.6 seconds for the 80 metre hurdle.八十米跳栏赛跑她跑了十一秒六。

9 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。

10 mandated   

adj. 委托统治的

参考例句：

• Mandated desegregation of public schools. 命令解除公立学校中的种族隔离
• Britain was mandated to govern the former colony of German East Africa. 英国受权代管德国在东非的前殖民地。

11 recess   

n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处）

参考例句：

• The chairman of the meeting announced a ten-minute recess.会议主席宣布休会10分钟。
• Parliament was hastily recalled from recess.休会的议员被匆匆召回开会。

12 outlet   

n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄

参考例句：

• The outlet of a water pipe was blocked.水管的出水口堵住了。
• Running is a good outlet for his energy.跑步是他发泄过剩精力的好方法。