全球每年因肥胖"損失2萬億美元"
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.
根據麥肯錫(McKinsey)諮詢師的研究，肥胖正在成爲一個沉重的經濟問題，全球近三分之一的人口處於超重或肥胖狀態，造成的經濟損失足以和軍事衝突或吸菸相比。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.
如果當前趨勢不受到抑制，15年內，全球成年人中，將有一半超重。醫療保健預算的壓力將因此不斷加大。在週四發佈的一份長達150頁的報告中，麥肯錫的分析師們認爲，全球每年因肥胖導致的損失達2萬億美元，相當於全球經濟產出的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.
上述估計是根據經濟生產率方面的損失、醫療保健系統成本以及用來減緩肥胖影響的投資得出的。相比之下，對全球經濟來說，軍事衝突、戰爭與恐怖主義導致的損失爲2.1萬億美元，吸菸導致的損失也與此類似。
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.”
該報告第一作者理查德•多布斯(Richard Dobbs)表示：“如今，肥胖是一個至關重要的全球問題，必須爲此展開全面干預。任何單方面干預措施可能只會產生很小的影響。”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.
過去十年，肥胖問題一直在從發達經濟體向不那麼富裕的國家擴散。如今，被視爲超重或肥胖的人大約有21億，是營養不良人數的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.
世界衛生組織(WHO)稱，肥胖是一種流行病，與多種高發的非傳染性疾病有關，它們包括2型糖尿病、癌症和心臟病。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認爲，每年有280萬人的死亡與超重有關。今年早些時候，WHO將建議的食糖消耗量削減了一半，從佔成人熱量攝入量的10%降至它認爲較理想的5%。此外，麥肯錫的報告還研究了74種用來應對肥胖問題的措施，並據此爲英國開出了藥方。在英國，37%的人口處於超重狀態，四分之一的人處於肥胖狀態。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.
英國衛生部下屬的英國公共衛生(Public Health England，簡稱PHE)估計，到2034年以前，如果肥胖比例降至1993年的水平，英國國民健康服務(National Health Service)每年將節約12億英鎊的開支。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.
麥肯錫提出的建議包括減少快餐比例、修改對加工食品的規定、改變食品飲料推銷方面的規定、在教育父母方面投入資金、在學校和職場引入健康食品、以及令在校生加強鍛鍊。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首席營養學家埃利森•泰德斯通(Alison Tedstone)表示：“該報告對於肥胖方面的爭論十分有益。PHE一貫表示，只靠簡單的教育信息不足以應對肥胖問題。“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.”
“超重和肥胖是一個十分複雜的問題，必須在個人和社會層面同時採取措施。這其中的社會層面包括了行業層面、國家和地方政府層面以及志願者方面。對該問題不存在簡單化的‘特效藥’解決方案。”
