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  3. The proportion of children in America who are overweight has tripled over th

The proportion of children in America who are overweight has tripled over th

游客2024-01-02  18
问题     The proportion of children in America who are overweight has tripled over the past 20 years and now exceeds 17% , according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC). The health problems that this causes include hypertension and type-2 diabetes, formerly known only among the nation’ s overweight adult population. A group sponsored by the National Institute on Ageing has warned that this may be the first generation ever to have a shorter lifespan than their parents.
    All the while, the proportion of children who take part in daily exercise at high school has dropped from 42% in 1991 to only 28% in 2004, according to the CDC. Snacking has greatly increased; the Government Accountability Office found in 2003 that 99% of America’ s high schools now sell snacks and other food as well as providing lunches.
    In an attempt to get the problem tackled at local level, Congress in 2004 passed an act directing school districts that get money from the national school-lunch programme to create "wellness" policies by the start of the 2006-07 school year. The districts were told to set standards for nutrition, physical activity and education about good food, then make sure that schools actually implement them.
    One year after the deadline, the results are haphazard. School districts’ plans range from a few paragraphs long to more than 25 pages. Some states, like Texas and Arkansas, have pre-emptively set standards for school districts under their jurisdiction, forcing schools to ban fizzy drinks and junk food while increasing the amount of exercise the pupils take. Others offer guidelines rather than mandates , with no repercussions for schools that don’ t comply. And in some areas, schools are being eased into change very slowly. Oregon’ s legislature passed a bill in June that gives its schools ten years to meet its new physical-education requirements.
    Last October the School Nutrition Association(SNA), a pressure group, analysed health policies from the 100 largest school districts in the country, which account for almost a quarter of the nation’ s primary-and-secondary-school students. Many districts had indeed created guidelines for nutrition education, physical activity and school food, as required, but the rules tended to be fairly broad. Some policies merely defaulted to the state recommendations and some to the federal government’ s minimal requirements. The physical-activity guidelines were also varied; only 62% of schools made physical education obligatory.
    Action for Healthy Kids, another schools-oriented NGO, also looked at a smattering of policies last year. Of the 112 districts it analysed, only 30% specified a time requirement for physical-education classes and 42% offered only general guidelines for the sort of food and drink allowed to be sold in the schools. Cafeterias where nachos, French fries and cookies are tucked alongside salads, juice and fresh fruit do not encourage children to eat well.
    The SNA has now done a follow-up. It found that less than half of the schools were implementing their nutrition-education guidelines and enforcing vending-machine rules. The sporty bits fared better, with 64% of the schools meeting their physical-education requirements.
    Bringing the issue to a local level is meant to make up for the dearth of guidelines from the federal government. Other than banning chewing-gum and sweets from the cafeteria at lunchtime, there are no national guidelines for food sold outside the school lunch programme, nor are there any requirements for physical education. So far, the 2004 act does not seem to be doing enough to change that.
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答案                         胖了，还越来越胖
    根据美国疾病与预防中心的数据显示，近20年，美国肥胖儿童的人数翻了两番，现在超过了17％。因肥胖而引起的健康问题有高血压、二型糖尿病，以前，这些疾病只有肥胖的成年人才可能患上。国立老年研究所资助的研究人员发出警告：这代儿童的寿命可能首次要比他们的父辈短。
    一直以来，根据美国疾病控制与预防中心的数据显示中学生参加日常锻炼的比率由1991年的42％下降到了2004年的28％。越来越多的孩子喜欢吃零食。2003年政府责任办公室调查发现，美国99％的中学目前除了提供午餐以外，还兼售其他食品。
    为了从根源上解决问题，2004年国会通过了一项法案，规定获得国家校园午餐资助项目的学区必须在2006至2007学年开学前制定相关“健康"政策，同时规定这些学区制定与营养、体育活动以及健康饮食教育的一系列相关标准，并确保学校能切实遵守准则。
    距法案规定的期限已经有一年之余了，各地的实施成效却显得仍然杂乱无章。学区制定的计划标准不一：有的只有短短几段话，有的则长达25页。像德克萨斯、阿肯色等州的学区早就应各州司法部门的要求，为各自辖区的学校制定了标准：一面强制学校禁止销售碳酸饮料和垃圾食品，另一面则加强学生的体育锻炼。其他州则只是制定了指导性方针而没有要求学校强制执行，面对校方不履行准则时也没有做出任何回应。另外有些地区的学校改革期限拉得很长，显得相对缓慢，如6月，俄勒冈州立法机构通过了一项法案，要求该州的学校10年内要达到新的体育教学要求。
    去年10月，美国高压组织——学校营养协会分析了全国最大的100个学区的健康政策。这100个学区的学生人数将近占全国中小学生总数的1／4。许多学区确实依照要求制定了营养教育、体育活动以及学校饮食方面的相关规定，但都相对宽泛。其中有些规定并没有履行州政府的提议，有的则只符合联邦政府规定的最低要求。体育活动的规定也各式各样，只有62％的学校把体育课列为必修课。
     “为了孩子健康”是美国定位于学校的另一个民间组织。去年，这个组织也对部分政策做了一些研究。研究发现，112个学区里只有30％的学区有体育教学课时的要求细则，42％的学区仅泛泛规定了学校内可销售的食品和饮料种类。一些餐厅把烤干酪辣味玉米片、炸薯条和饼干放在沙拉、果汁和新鲜水果的旁边出售，这种行为有悖于学生健康饮食的理念。
    现在，学校营养协会进一步采取行动。它发现遵守营养教育规则、实行自动贩卖机规则的学校还不到一半。学生体育成绩取得进展的学校里，有64％的学校达到了体育课的要求。
    从根源上解决这个问题也就意味着联邦政府得补全规则，而不是禁止在校内食堂午餐时间出售口香糖、水果糖。因为国家并没有出台校外午餐时间不得出售相关食物的规定，校外也没有相关体育锻炼的体育教育规则。就目前来看，2004年通过的法案要改变这一现状，显然还不够完善。
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