Some baby-boomers – the generation defined as those born during or immediately the Second World War – will remember the rationing of sweets and sugar in the UK in the 1950s. Wartime food shortages forced people to adopt new eating patterns and most people ate less meat, fat and sugar than they had eaten before, but people who had previously consumed a poor diet were able to increase their intake of protein and vitamins because they received the same ration as everybody else. Although the children of the 1940s may never have seen a pineapple, it is thought that by the end of the war, the population was healthier than it is now. Many people had a better diet during the war and the early 1950s and this had a marked effect on health outcomes; infant mortality rates declined, and the average age at which people died from natural causes increased (British Nutrition Foundation 2019). There was less tooth decay and being overweight or obese was unusual. In the late 1950s and early 1960s economic, agricultural and social developments here and in most other high-income countries, saw the variety, availability and marketing of food increase whilst the cost in terms of percentage of income, fell. In tandem, overweight and obesity have increased. The World Health Organisation estimates that worldwide, obesity has more than doubled since 1980 and most of the world’s population live in countries where overweight and obesity kill more people than underweight (WHO 2019). Obesity is preventable but the simplistic explanation, that it is just a feature of excessive energy intake over energy expenditure is inaccurate (BMA 2015). Factors which determine individual lifestyle choices are many and varied. Living in the UK and many other developed countries is to live in an obesogenic environment. We have easy access to energy-dense foods with the easiest access being in the most sociallydeprived areas; lifestyles have become dominated by sedentary pursuits. Influences including smart technology and fear of crime in our open spaces, mean children today spend less time outdoors and have less independence that even a generation ago. Eating outside of the home has increased and the foods consumed outside the home are often high in energy and fat. These are just a couple of the factors that make it difficult to maintain a healthy weight and evidence shows that it is easier to prevent obesity or overweight than to treat or reverse it. There is no doubt that obesity and overweight are a major public health concern (OECD 2019). In the last year of primary school, on average, six children out of a class of 30 are obese and a further four are overweight, twice as many as 30 years ago (Davies 2019). Obesity disproportionately affects children living in deprived areas and some ethnic minority groups. Dame Sally Davies stepped down from her tenure as Chief Medical Officer for England in September 2019 and her final report ‘Time to Solve Childhood Obesity’ (Davies 2019) INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HEALTH PROMOTION AND EDUCATION 2020, VOL. 58, NO. 1, 51–53 https://doi.org/10.1080/14635240.2019.1692431

中文翻译：

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肥胖流行：是时候制定积极的国家健康饮食战略了

一些婴儿潮一代——被定义为在第二次世界大战期间或刚出生的那一代人——会记得 1950 年代英国对糖果和糖的配给。战时食物短缺迫使人们采取新的饮食方式，大多数人吃的肉、脂肪和糖比以前少，但以前饮食不佳的人能够增加蛋白质和维生素的摄入量，因为他们得到了相同的和其他人一样配给。尽管 1940 年代的孩子们可能从未见过菠萝，但人们认为到战争结束时，人口比现在更健康。在战争期间和 1950 年代初期，许多人的饮食更好，这对健康结果产生了显着影响；婴儿死亡率下降，人们死于自然原因的平均年龄增加（英国营养基金会 2019）。蛀牙较少，超重或肥胖是不寻常的。在 1950 年代末和 1960 年代初，这里和大多数其他高收入国家的经济、农业和社会发展见证了食品的种类、供应和销售增加，而按收入百分比计算的成本下降。与此同时，超重和肥胖也有所增加。世界卫生组织估计，自 1980 年以来，全球肥胖人数增加了一倍多，世界上大多数人口生活在超重和肥胖导致的死亡人数多于体重不足的国家（WHO 2019）。肥胖是可以预防的，但简单的解释，即它只是摄入过多能量超过能量消耗的一个特征是不准确的（BMA 2015）。决定个人生活方式选择的因素多种多样。生活在英国和许多其他发达国家，就是生活在致肥环境中。我们很容易获得高能量食物，最容易获得的是在社会最贫困的地区；生活方式已被久坐不动的追求所支配。包括智能技术和对我们开放空间犯罪的恐惧在内的影响，意味着今天的儿童在户外的时间更少，独立性也比一代人少。外出就餐已经增加，并且在户外食用的食物通常含有高能量和高脂肪。这些只是导致难以保持健康体重的几个因素，有证据表明，预防肥胖或超重比治疗或逆转肥胖或超重更容易。毫无疑问，肥胖和超重是一个主要的公共卫生问题（经合组织 2019）。在小学的最后一年，平均每班 30 名儿童中有 6 名肥胖，另有 4 名儿童超重，是 30 年前的两倍（Davies 2019）。肥胖严重影响生活在贫困地区和一些少数民族的儿童。萨莉·戴维斯夫人于 2019 年 9 月辞去英格兰首席医疗官的职务，并在她的最终报告“解决儿童肥胖问题的时间”（戴维斯 2019 年）2020 年国际健康促进与教育杂志，第 2 卷。58，没有。1, 51–53 https://doi.org/10.1080/14635240.2019.1692431 是 30 年前的两倍（Davies 2019）。肥胖严重影响生活在贫困地区和一些少数民族的儿童。萨莉·戴维斯夫人于 2019 年 9 月辞去英格兰首席医疗官的职务，并在她的最终报告“解决儿童肥胖问题的时间”（戴维斯 2019 年）2020 年国际健康促进与教育杂志，第 2 卷。58，没有。1, 51–53 https://doi.org/10.1080/14635240.2019.1692431 是 30 年前的两倍（Davies 2019）。肥胖严重影响生活在贫困地区和一些少数民族的儿童。萨莉·戴维斯夫人于 2019 年 9 月辞去英格兰首席医疗官的职务，并在她的最终报告“解决儿童肥胖问题的时间”（戴维斯 2019 年）2020 年国际健康促进与教育杂志，第 2 卷。58，没有。1, 51–53 https://doi.org/10.1080/14635240.2019.1692431