首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Food and drink play a major role in Christmas celebrations in most countries, but in few more so than in Mexico. Many families
Food and drink play a major role in Christmas celebrations in most countries, but in few more so than in Mexico. Many families
admin
2013-01-12
34
问题
Food and drink play a major role in Christmas celebrations in most countries, but in few more so than in Mexico. Many families over the festive season will do little more than cook and ingest a seemingly constant cycle of tortillas, fried beans, meat both roasted and stewed, and sticky desserts for days on end. Thus does the extended family keep on extending--further and further over their collective waistlines.
Lucky them, .you might think. Except that Mexico’s bad eating habits are leading to a health crisis that most Mexicans seem blissfully unaware of. Obesity and its related disorder, diabetes, are now major health concerns in a country where large rural regions are still concerned more with under nourishment than with over-nourishment. In its perennial rivalry with the United States, Mexico has at last found an area in which it can match its northern neighbor--mouthful for mouthful.
The statistics are impressive, and alarming. According to the OECD, Mexico is now the second fattest nation in that group of 30 countries. A health poll in 1999 found that 35% of women were overweight, and another 24% technically obese, Juan Rivera, an official at the National Institute of Public Health, says that the combined figure for men would be about 55%, and that a similar poll to be carried out next year will show the fat quotient rising. Only the United States, with combined figures of over 60%, is head.
That situation also varies geographically. Although Mexicans populate the north of their country more sparsely that the south, they make up for it weight-wise. A Study published by the Pan-American Health Organization a month ago showed that in the mostly Hispanic population that lives on either side of the American-Mexican border, fully 74% of men and 70% of women are either overweight or obese.
Moreover, even experts have been surprised by how rapidly the nation has swollen. Whereas the 1999 poll showed 59% of women overweight or obese, only 11 years previously that figure was just 33%. Nowhere is the transformation more noticeable then in the prevalence of diabetes, closely linked to over-eating and obesity. In 1968, says Joel, Rodriguez of the Mexican Diabetes Federation, the disease was in 35th place as a direct cause of mortality in Mexico, but now it occupies first place, above both cancer and heart disease. With about 6. 5m diabetics out of a population of 10Om, Mexico now has a higher rate than any other large country in the world. Not surprisingly. Mr. Rodriguez argues that Mexico is in the grip of an "epidemic".
Nor does it tax the brain much to work out that the causes of these explosions in obesity and diabetes are the Mexican diet and a lack of exercise. For most Mexicans, food consumption, not just at Christmas but all year round, is an unvarying combination of refried beans tortillas, meat and refrescos, or fizzy drinks; they consume 101 litres of cola drinks per person per year, just a little less than Americans and three times as much as Brazilians.
Meanwhile, the lack of exercise, Mr. Rivera argues, is a symptom of rapid urbanization over the past 30 years. Obesity and diabetes rates remain slightly lower in rural areas, indicating that manual labor endures as an effective way to stave off weight gain. In Mexico City, though, pollution and crime have progressively driven people out of the parks and the streets, so most now walk as little as possible--preferably no further than from the valet-parking service to the restaurant. To combat the fat, health professionals say that the country must first realize that it is indeed in the grip of an epidemic. Other diseases, such as AIDS and cancer, have captured most of the publicity in recent years; obesity and diabetes have been comparatively neglected.
But these arc also, as in other developing countries, mainly problems of the urban poor. It is a symptom of their growing prosperity that these parts of the population have, probably for the first time, almost unlimited access to the greatest amount of calories for the smallest amount of money, But with little knowledge of nutritional values, their diets are now unbalanced and unhealthy.
Low-carb products and other dietary imports from the United States have already made an appearance on the posher Mexican supermarket shelves. They may go into be shopping baskets of the rake-thin and utterly unrepresentative models who dominate the country’s advertising hoardings. But they are still comparatively expensive. For the heaving mass of the population, things may have to get worse before the government, doctors and consumers realize that things have got to start getting better.
The phrase "on end" in the first paragraph can be replaced by ______.
选项
A、until all been consumed
B、upright
C、continuously
D、until the last day
答案
C
解析
前文提到饮食在墨西哥的重要性,随后作了具体说明。此处on end是指“连续不断地”,故答案为C。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/LzHYFFFM
0
考博英语
相关试题推荐
Atradegroupforliquorretailersputoutapressreleasewithanalarmingheadline;"MillionsofKidsBuyInternetAlcohol,La
AttheKyotoconferenceonglobalwarminginDecember1997,itbecameabundantlyclearhowcomplexithasbecometoworkoutint
71.TheinternationalsoftwaremarketrepresentsasignificantbusinessopportunityforU.S.microcomputersoftwarecompanies,b
Bothplantsandanimalsofmanysortsshowremarkablechangesinform,structure,growthhabits,andevenmodeofreproductioni
He______betweenlifeanddeathforafewdaysbutthenhepulledthrough.
Thelittlegirlworeaverythincoat.Asuddengustofcoldwindmadeher______.
Thequestionofwhetherwarisinevitableisonewhichhasconcernedmanyoftheworld’sgreatwriters.Beforeconsideringthis
______thegiftinbeautifulgreenpaper,Sarahdepartedfortheparty.
Whilewalkingalongtheicyriverbanks,wecouldseecracksintheice______inalldirections.
AstheCupFinalwasdrawingcloser,theinjuryofthebestplayerwasa______forthewholeteam.
随机试题
城市群发展到成熟阶段的最高空间组织形式是()。
theplacesI’vebeento,Ienjoyedtherestaurantherethemost.
用BaSO4重量分析法测定Ba2+时,若溶液中还存在少量Ca2+、Na2+、CO32-、Cl-、H+和OH-等离子,则沉淀BaSO4表面吸附杂质为()。
其他权益的价格在此未具体说明,泛指所有权价格,使用权价格以外的各种权益的价格。概括起来,从权益角度来看的现实中的房地产估价对象,主要有下列几种的是()。
使用说服疏导法进行师德教育的前提首先是要坚持()原则。
我国近代学堂乐歌中最早依词谱曲的齐唱歌曲《黄河》的曲作者是()
阅读下面的短文,完成问题。矛盾普遍存在于客观世界中,模糊性亦寓于万物运动之中。鸡蛋可以孵鸡,当小鸡未啄出蛋壳时,总不能说它仍是蛋,亦不可称之为鸡,突变的事物会呈现短暂的模糊性,而另一些事物放到漫长的时间里考察也会使模糊性突出显现。铅块上
军事卫星对于()相当于()对于沙漏
鲁班因丝茅草划破手而发明锯;邓录普因手握充水的橡皮管感觉到其弹性而发明了充气轮胎,均属于()
WhoistrueofLisa?
最新回复
(
0
)