美国国家公共电台 NPR Pork Tacos Topped With Fries: Fuel For Mexico's Diabetes Epidemic

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Global diabetes¹ rates have been increasing dramatically over the past 20 years. In Mexico, 14 percent of adults now suffer from diabetes. It is, in fact, the leading cause of death there, and it's having a huge impact on Mexico's health care system, as NPR's Jason Beaubien reports.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Speaking Spanish).

JASON BEAUBIEN, BYLINE³: Part of what's driving Mexico's diabetes problem is that it has an abundance of incredibly rich and inexpensive food.

ANAIS MARTINEZ: So this is the deep-fried tamale that I was telling you about.

BEAUBIEN: Anais Martinez is showing me a pyramid of tamales wrapped in corn husks next to a bubbling cauldron of oil.

MARTINEZ: And we are in Merced Market, which is the second-biggest market in the city, Mexico City.

BEAUBIEN: Martinez is a designer in the Mexican capital.

MARTINEZ: I was born here. I grew up here.

BEAUBIEN: She also studied gastronomy⁴ here and now moonlights giving street food tours. She's pointing out a bulging⁵ tamale sandwich that costs 10 pesos or roughly 50 cents.

MARTINEZ: So, you know, they're just like a corn dough⁶ patty mixed with lard, and then they put it inside the corn husk or the banana leaves, steamed and then after they've done all of that, they deep fry it.

BEAUBIEN: And when it comes out of the fryer, they stick it in a white bread bun to make a sandwich.

MARTINEZ: So it's just like carbs and carbs and fat and fat. But yeah, it's actually really good.

BEAUBIEN: Rich, fatty street food like this is available all over Mexico at bus stops, at schools, on street corners and is affordable⁷ to the masses. This is part of what's driving Mexico's burgeoning⁸ diabetes epidemic⁹.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Speaking Spanish).

BEAUBIEN: One of the country's top nutritionists says that for roughly two hours a day, Mexicans can afford a diet heavy in carbohydrates¹⁰, sugar and fat that delivers way more than the U.N.'s recommended daily intake¹¹ of 2,000 calories. A study in 2015 showed Mexico to be the leading consumer of junk food in Latin America. In addition to the rich tacos and kilos of processed food, Mexicans love to wash down their meals with a soda¹² or an agua fresca, a sugary fruit drink ladled out of massive, five-gallon glass jars.

MARTINEZ: It’s not just the actual fruit. It’s fruit, water and lots of sugar because they have to compete with Coca-Cola in everyone’s taste buds.

BEAUBIEN: Until just recently, Mexico was the largest per capita consumer of soda in the world. That dubious¹³ distinction now falls to Argentina with the U.S. and Chile not far behind. Excessive body fat is one of the main contributors to the onset¹⁴ of Type 2 diabetes, and obesity¹⁵ rates have been climbing steadily¹⁶ in Mexico. Now the country is one of the most overweight nations in the world, coming in just behind the United States. Mexican health officials are well aware of the problem. Late last year, the health minister declared diabetes to be a public health emergency. It was the first time Mexico has ever made such a declaration that wasn't targeting an infectious disease.

CARLOS AGUILAR SALINAS: This new facility is focusing diabetes and metabolic¹⁷ disorders¹⁸.

BEAUBIEN: At the National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition in Mexico City, Dr. Carlos Aguilar Salinas is walking through a brand-new research and treatment complex for diabetes.

SALINAS: Diabetes is one of the biggest problems in the health system in Mexico. It's the first cause of death. It's the main cost for the health system.

BEAUBIEN: Treating a patient with a severe case of diabetes in Mexico, he says, can cost upwards¹⁹ of $40,000 a year. But the bigger problem, Aguilar says, is that the Mexican health system isn't prepared to treat the sheer number of complex diabetes patients that are showing up in its clinics every day.

SALINAS: The Mexican system, health system, is very efficient to treat infectious disease. However, for chronic²⁰ disorders, which education, continuous care, it's much more complex than the infectious disease approach.

BEAUBIEN: Recognizing the huge task of treating diabetes, Mexican officials are putting much of their efforts into trying to prevent it. In 2014, the country slapped a controversial five-cents-per-liter tax on soda that started to put a dent² in consumption. There were also new rules limiting advertisements for junk food. New public service announcements encourage people to exercise more. And there's a major push to restrict what foods are allowed to be sold in schools. The head of the World Health Organization's office in Mexico City, Dr. Gerry Eijkemans, says Type 2 diabetes didn't used to be much of a problem in the region.

GERRY EIJKEMANS: It used to be a disease of the rich, you know? In Western Europe and in the U.S., it was really the people who had the money who were obese²¹ and overweight, and now it’s actually the opposite.

BEAUBIEN: And now, public health officials in Latin America have to pivot²² to deal with this complex, chronic disease.

EIJKEMANS: In order to prevent an infectious disease, you, you know, eliminate or you reduce the mosquitoes, and you're basically done, you know, not that it's easy, but it's much easier than to change the way society is basically organized and encourages people to consume unhealthy, high-caloric food with lots of fats and sugars.

BEAUBIEN: An article earlier this year in the medical journal The Lancet warned rising levels of increasingly severe obesity mean that worldwide populations are on the brink²³ of a catastrophic epidemic of diabetes. In Latin America, Mexico isn't on the brink of that epidemic. It's already there. Jason Beaubien, NPR News, Mexico City.

1 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。

2 dent   

n.凹痕，凹坑；初步进展

参考例句：

• I don't know how it came about but I've got a dent in the rear of my car.我不知道是怎么回事，但我的汽车后部有了一个凹痕。
• That dent is not big enough to be worth hammering out.那个凹陷不大，用不着把它锤平。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 gastronomy   

n.美食法；美食学

参考例句：

• He studied gastronomy but cannot make a living as a cook.他学习了烹饪但却无法靠厨艺过活。
• Burgundy has always been considered a major centre of gastronomy.勃艮第大区一向被视为重要的美食中心。

5 bulging   

膨胀； 凸出（部）； 打气； 折皱

参考例句：

• Her pockets were bulging with presents. 她的口袋里装满了礼物。
• Conscious of the bulging red folder, Nim told her,"Ask if it's important." 尼姆想到那个鼓鼓囊囊的红色文件夹便告诉她：“问问是不是重要的事。”

6 dough   

n.生面团；钱，现款

参考例句：

• She formed the dough into squares.她把生面团捏成四方块。
• The baker is kneading dough.那位面包师在揉面。

7 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

8 burgeoning   

adj.迅速成长的，迅速发展的v.发芽，抽枝( burgeon的现在分词 )；迅速发展；发（芽），抽（枝）

参考例句：

• Our company's business is burgeoning now. 我们公司的业务现在发展很迅速。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• These efforts were insufficient to contain the burgeoning crisis. 这些努力不足以抑制迅速扩散的危机。 来自辞典例句

9 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

10 carbohydrates   

n.碳水化合物，糖类( carbohydrate的名词复数 )；淀粉质或糖类食物

参考例句：

• The plant uses the carbohydrates to make cellulose. 植物用碳水化合物制造纤维素。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• All carbohydrates originate from plants. 所有的碳水化合物均来自植物。 来自辞典例句

11 intake   

n.吸入，纳入；进气口，入口

参考例句：

• Reduce your salt intake.减少盐的摄入量。
• There was a horrified intake of breath from every child.所有的孩子都害怕地倒抽了一口凉气。

12 soda   

n.苏打水；汽水

参考例句：

• She doesn't enjoy drinking chocolate soda.她不喜欢喝巧克力汽水。
• I will freshen your drink with more soda and ice cubes.我给你的饮料重加一些苏打水和冰块。

13 dubious   

adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的

参考例句：

• What he said yesterday was dubious.他昨天说的话很含糊。
• He uses some dubious shifts to get money.他用一些可疑的手段去赚钱。

14 onset   

n.进攻，袭击，开始，突然开始

参考例句：

• The drug must be taken from the onset of the infection.这种药必须在感染的最初期就开始服用。
• Our troops withstood the onset of the enemy.我们的部队抵挡住了敌人的进攻。

15 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。

16 steadily   

adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地

参考例句：

• The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
• Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。

17 metabolic   

adj.新陈代谢的

参考例句：

• Impressive metabolic alternations have been undergone during embryogenesis.在胚胎发生期间经历了深刻的代谢变化。
• A number of intoxicants are associated with metabolic acidosis.许多毒性物质可引起代谢性酸中毒。

18 disorders   

n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调

参考例句：

• Reports of anorexia and other eating disorders are on the increase. 据报告，厌食症和其他饮食方面的功能紊乱发生率正在不断增长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The announcement led to violent civil disorders. 这项宣布引起剧烈的骚乱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

19 upwards   

adv.向上，在更高处...以上

参考例句：

• The trend of prices is still upwards.物价的趋向是仍在上涨。
• The smoke rose straight upwards.烟一直向上升。

20 chronic   

adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的

参考例句：

• Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
• Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。

21 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。

22 pivot   

v.在枢轴上转动；装枢轴，枢轴；adj.枢轴的

参考例句：

• She is the central pivot of creation and represents the feminine aspect in all things.她是创造的中心枢轴，表现出万物的女性面貌。
• If a spring is present,the hand wheel will pivot on the spring.如果有弹簧，手轮的枢轴会装在弹簧上。

23 brink   

n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿

参考例句：

• The tree grew on the brink of the cliff.那棵树生长在峭壁的边缘。
• The two countries were poised on the brink of war.这两个国家处于交战的边缘。