[ti:Could the US Regulate What Americans Eat?]
[by:www.21voa.com]
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[00:00.04]Nine out of 10 American adults
[00:03.64]have unhealthy metabolisms,
[00:06.12]mostly because of the food they eat.
[00:10.96]Experts say it might be time for the government
[00:15.24]to regulate what Americans put in their mouths.
[00:21.24]Dariush Mozaffarian is a heart doctor
[00:25.36]at Tufts University in Massachusetts.
[00:30.20]He said the food industry is the only area of the economy
[00:36.04]"where we have the majority of products being knowingly dangerous,
[00:40.88]and we leave it up" to the public to decide what to have.
[00:46.44]If there is a product that hurts people,
[00:49.48]"we get rid of it," Mozaffarian said.
[00:53.80]To look at someone's metabolic health,
[00:56.84]doctors measure things like blood sugar,
[01:00.08]cholesterol and blood pressure.
[01:04.04]People who are in poor metabolic health
[01:07.28]are at increased risk of getting diabetes,
[01:11.24]heart disease and other serious health problems.
[01:16.68]"When you have nine out of 10 adults being metabolically unhealthy,
[01:22.12]largely due to diet-related illnesses,
[01:25.48]you know we have a broken system," Mozaffarian said.
[01:31.76]A big part of the problem is that Americans eat a lot of junk food.
[01:36.44]Junk foods are processed foods like sweets or potato chips
[01:42.60]that provide little nutritional value and are high in fat, salt and sugar.
[01:50.72]A study by the National Institutes of Health
[01:54.28]found that junk foods account for 1 out every 7 calories in adults
[02:01.04]and 1 out of every 5 calories in children.
[02:06.80]Junk foods are hard to resist
[02:09.80]because they contain things the body wants and needs.
[02:15.40]Sweet, salty and fatty foods
[02:18.80]"are things that are very necessary to live,
[02:21.80]they're energy providing," said Linda Bartoshuk.
[02:26.24]She is a professor of food science at the University of Florida.
[02:33.64]The problem, she said, is that the body has a hard time
[02:37.92]knowing when to stop wanting them.
[02:41.68]"We take in too much salt, too much sugar, too much fat,
[02:47.08]and it produces all kinds of illnesses," Bartoshuk said.
[02:53.40]Mozaffarian is among health experts who are calling for more policies
[02:58.20]to help Americans eat healthier foods.
[03:02.80]He would like to see the federal government
[03:05.48]improve nutrition in existing food programs,
[03:09.88]like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
[03:15.32]and Meals on Wheels.
[03:19.00]SNAP provides financial aid to poor families to buy food,
[03:24.04]and Meals on Wheels delivers meals to older Americans.
[03:30.48]Mozaffarian also thinks food nutrition
[03:33.96]should be included in the health care system.
[03:38.28]Even though Americans are getting less healthy,
[03:41.96]the United States spent $3.8 trillion on health care in 2019.
[03:50.24]Doctors, for example, could write prescriptions for healthy foods
[03:55.28]that are partially or fully paid for, Mozaffarian said.
[04:01.28]He also thinks there could be more nutritional education
[04:05.08]for health care workers, and students in medical school.
[04:11.20]And while Mozaffarian believes nutritional education would be effective,
[04:16.80]changing Americans' diet is most important, he said.
[04:23.56]"We're going to need to fix the food, right,
[04:27.08]so that parents and kids who are busy
[04:30.36]and out wanting to enjoy their lives
[04:33.12]can get nutritious, affordable food," he said.
[04:38.12]I'm Dan Novak. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM