Fat Young Aussies Ruin Sporty Image Forget fit, tanned and sporty ?the new generation of Australians is fast becoming fat, pale and lazy. A love of junk food, television and computer games has sent the country's waistline ballooning, with Australians weighing in as the world's second fattest nation after the United States. Rather than hitting the beaches, thousands of young Aussies are heading for the couch with a bag of popcorn, with one child in every four classified as overweight or obese. The trend is squashing the widely-held image of Australians being sun-bronzed and superfit. "The rate of obesity, particularly among children, seems to be going up faster in Australia than anywhere else in the world, but we don't know why," said Dr Peter Williams, president of the Dietitians Association of Australia. Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, estimate 60 percent of men, 50 percent of women and 25 percent of children are overweight or obese ?a huge jump from five percent in the 1960s. A sedentary lifestyle and a changing diet has doubled the number of obese Australians and trebled the army of fat children in the past decade, pushing direct health costs related to childhood obesity to about A million (294 million pounds) a year. Data shows childhood obesity in Australia is rising at the rate of one percent a year, a trend which suggests half of all young Australians will be overweight by 2025. Australia's rapid weight gain has health agencies and state governments racing to find ways to encourage people to get on their feet and shed some kilograms ?while sending the weight-loss industry skipping to the bank, pocketing A billion a year.



忘掉匀称的体格、棕褐的皮肤以及四射的活力吧，新一代的澳大利亚人正在迅速变得肥胖、苍白和懒惰。对垃圾食品、电视和电脑游戏的爱好使这个国家的腰围像气球一般鼓胀起来，澳洲人已经成了仅次于美国人的世界第二肥胖民族。成千上万的澳洲年轻人宁愿捧着爆米花躺到沙发上也不愿到海滩嬉戏，1/4的孩子进入了超重或肥胖者的行列。大众心目中肤色黎黑、壮健非常的澳洲人形象正在因这样的趋势而灰飞烟灭。澳洲营养学家协会主席彼得·威廉姆斯博士说："肥胖率尤其是儿童肥胖率在澳洲的增长速度似乎比世界任何地方都要快，可我们不知道为什么。"根据澳大利亚统计局的数字，大约有60%的男子、50%的妇女和25%的儿童超重或肥胖，大大超过了20世纪60年代的5%。在过去10年里，怠惰的生活方式和饮食结构的变化使肥胖的澳洲人数目翻番，肥胖儿童的数目更达到了原来的3倍，有关儿童肥胖问题的直接健康支出由此增加到了大约每年8亿3千万澳元(2亿9千4百万英镑)。资料显示澳洲肥胖儿童的比例正以每年1个百分点的速度上升，这意味着到2025年澳洲儿童将有一半体重超标。澳洲人飞速增长的体重使得卫生机构和政府部门竞相寻找能鼓励人们运动减肥的良方，同时也使减肥业赚得盘满钵满，每年收入超过10亿澳元。



　　Remarks：现代的生活方式不仅破坏自然，更使我们与自然隔绝，飞速增长的赘肉正是过度发展的物质文明的绝妙比喻。这真的意味着人类的幸福吗？

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