全球每年因肥胖"损失2万亿美元"
Fat is becoming a weighty economic issue. Almost a third of the world’s population is overweight or obese, levying an economic cost that rivals that of armed conflict or smoking, according to research by McKinsey consultants.
根据麦肯锡(McKinsey)咨询师的研究，肥胖正在成为一个沉重的经济问题，全球近三分之一的人口处于超重或肥胖状态，造成的经济损失足以和军事冲突或吸烟相比。The strain on healthcare budgets is set to mount because unless current trends are curbed, half the global adult population will be overweight in 15 years’ time. In a 150-page report, published on Thursday, the consultants put the global annual cost of obesity at $2tn – equivalent to 2.8 per cent of the world’s economic output.
如果当前趋势不受到抑制，15年内，全球成年人中，将有一半超重。医疗保健预算的压力将因此不断加大。在周四发布的一份长达150页的报告中，麦肯锡的分析师们认为，全球每年因肥胖导致的损失达2万亿美元，相当于全球经济产出的2.8%。
The estimate is based on loss of economic productivity, costs to healthcare systems and investment required to mitigate the impact of obesity. The cost to the world economy of armed conflict, war and terrorism is $2.1tn, similar to that levied by smoking.
上述估计是根据经济生产率方面的损失、医疗保健系统成本以及用来减缓肥胖影响的投资得出的。相比之下，对全球经济来说，军事冲突、战争与恐怖主义导致的损失为2.1万亿美元，吸烟导致的损失也与此类似。
Richard Dobbs, the report’s lead author, said: “Obesity is now a critical global issue, requiring a comprehensive intervention strategy rolled out at scale. Any single intervention is likely to have only a small impact on its own.”
该报告第一作者理查德•多布斯(Richard Dobbs)表示：“如今，肥胖是一个至关重要的全球问题，必须为此展开全面干预。任何单方面干预措施可能只会产生很小的影响。”The problem of obesity has been spreading from advanced economies to less-wealthy countries over the past decade. About 2.1bn people are regarded as overweight or obese today – a figure two-and-a-half times the number that are undernourished.
过去十年，肥胖问题一直在从发达经济体向不那么富裕的国家扩散。如今，被视为超重或肥胖的人大约有21亿，是营养不良人数的2.5倍。The World Health Organisation has described obesity as an epidemic that is connected to a plethora of non-communicable diseases, including type 2 diabetes, cancer and heart disease.
世界卫生组织(WHO)称，肥胖是一种流行病，与多种高发的非传染性疾病有关，它们包括2型糖尿病、癌症和心脏病。It attributes 2.8m deaths a year to heavy body weight and, earlier this year, halved its recommendation for sugar consumption from 10 per cent of an adult’s daily calorie intake to what it described as an ideal of 5 per cent. The McKinsey report studied 74 measures being taken to address the problem of obesity, from which it drew up recommendations for the UK, where 37 per cent of the population is overweight and one quarter obese.
WHO认为，每年有280万人的死亡与超重有关。今年早些时候，WHO将建议的食糖消耗量削减了一半，从占成人热量摄入量的10%降至它认为较理想的5%。此外，麦肯锡的报告还研究了74种用来应对肥胖问题的措施，并据此为英国开出了药方。在英国，37%的人口处于超重状态，四分之一的人处于肥胖状态。Public Health England, part of the UK’s health department, has estimated that if obesity were reduced to 1993 levels, the National Health Service would save £1.2bn a year by 2034.
英国卫生部下属的英国公共卫生(Public Health England，简称PHE)估计，到2034年以前，如果肥胖比例降至1993年的水平，英国国民健康服务(National Health Service)每年将节约12亿英镑的开支。The McKinsey recommendations include smaller portions of fast food; reformulation of processed foods, changing food and drink promotions, investing in education for parents, introducing healthy meals at school and in the workplace, and including more exercise at school.
麦肯锡提出的建议包括减少快餐比例、修改对加工食品的规定、改变食品饮料推销方面的规定、在教育父母方面投入资金、在学校和职场引入健康食品、以及令在校生加强锻炼。Alison Tedstone, chief nutritionist at Public Health England, said: “This report is a useful contribution to the obesity debate. PHE has consistently said that simple education messages alone are not enough to tackle obesity.
PHE首席营养学家埃利森•泰德斯通(Alison Tedstone)表示：“该报告对于肥胖方面的争论十分有益。PHE一贯表示，只靠简单的教育信息不足以应对肥胖问题。“Overweight and obesity is a complex problem which requires action across individual and societal levels involving industry, national and local government and the voluntary sector. There is no single ‘silver bullet’ solution.”
“超重和肥胖是一个十分复杂的问题，必须在个人和社会层面同时采取措施。这其中的社会层面包括了行业层面、国家和地方政府层面以及志愿者方面。对该问题不存在简单化的‘特效药’解决方案。”
