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══════════════════【立報】═══════════════════ |
| 教 育 專 題 深 入 報 導《2006-09-08》 |
| 本期內容 | |
| 國際專題：肥胖成世界流行病，專家憂心 | |
| ◎吾思吾師 找回教師熱情與尊嚴徵文比賽 | |
| 國際專題：肥胖成世界流行病，專家憂心 | |
| 策劃、編譯■唐澄暐、侯美如 | |
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俗話說小時候胖不是胖，但現在「肥胖」可能真的會成為不可小覷的問題。專家在9月3日召開的國際肥胖會議（International Congress on Obesity）上提到，肥胖已漸漸成為全球流行病，並以逐年愈增的糖尿病及心血管等疾病威脅各國醫療系統，新世代人類更有因此縮短壽命之虞。 主持會議的齊邁特教授（Paul Zimmet）以「肥胖是全球災禍」，為與會2千5百名來自世界各地的專家及健康局官員揭開為期6天的肥胖會議；預計4百名研究學者將在會議上發表研究報告。同時也身為國際糖尿病學會董事的齊麥特指出：「這個奸詐狡猾、鬼鬼祟祟的流行病就要吞噬全世界了。肥胖對我們造成的威脅，不小於全球暖化和禽流感。」 與會專家指出，全球各地為了肥胖所衍生疾病所花上的治療費用已難以計量，光是澳洲及英美等地每年就需耗資數十億和肥胖搏鬥。「這不只是個科學或是醫學議題，我們面對的也是經濟危機，一場全球公認將會撼動健康衛生系統的危機。」國際肥胖工作小組主席詹姆士教授（Philip James）指出，他帶領的小組由全球醫療組織組成，主要處理肥胖相關問題。詹姆士以經濟的角度切入，直指各國政府都是因肥胖在醫療上高額的支出，才不得不注意到正在直線上升的全國肥胖率。 而其中最嚴重的是兒童肥胖率。專家指出過重的孩子將來罹患慢性病的風險更高，並甚至因為肥胖而早逝。雪梨皇家阿爾弗雷德王子醫院（Royal Prince Alfred Hospital）專攻兒童健康的史坦貝克醫師（Kate Stein-beck）甚至指出，這個世代的孩子們將會是歷史上第一個因為肥胖而先父母離開人世的世代。根據史坦貝克，澳洲每4個小孩就有一個過重或肥胖、一半的女性全部過重、男性甚至有3分之2都營養過剩，這讓澳洲名列全世界最胖的國家之一，她並指出美國的情況更糟。 根據世界衛生組織，全球超過10億人體重過重，其中3億都是肥胖人口，他們比一般人更容易罹患糖尿病、心血管疾病、高血壓、中風及各種癌症。齊邁特主席估計，實際肥胖人口數據將會更高，加上每年漸增的營養不良人口，全球營養均衡失調的不健康人數甚至已達6億。然而，從各國與會代表發言可以發現，較富裕健康的國家似乎帶起了多吃少動的壞習慣，而亞、非及拉丁美洲等發展中國家也慢慢跟進這個慢性死亡的風潮；在雪梨大學（University of Sydney）研究兒童健康的包爾（Louise Baur）教授認為，現代化的生活已漸漸對維持健康體重不利，我們的居所鄰近通常都缺乏公共運動器材。而與會代表也指出，個別健康諮詢、設計節食及運動計畫等傳統解決肥胖問題的方法已不適用，為了打擊日益橫流的肥胖問題，需要政府、企業及社區團體的互助。 雖然也有專家提出新的解決辦法，要求政府禁止一切針對兒童推出的垃圾食物網告，但他們也了解廠商方面的反彈將會是施行上最大的阻力，因此禁令並不是短期內可行的計畫。國際打擊肥胖特別小組成員史威波恩教授（Boyd Swinburn）則認為，「這將會掀起一波針對禁令的政治抗爭，但我們的確不該為會讓孩子發胖的食物打廣告。」對此，國際肥胖研究學會（International Asso-ciation for the Study of Obesity，IASO）總裁布查德教授（Claude Bouchard）也宣佈，身為各醫療組織的領頭，IASO也同意率先將廣告禁令列為官方政策。 （URL：http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=qw1157290560197S121） The world is in the grip of a fat pandemic that threatens to overwhelm every coun-try's health system with diseases such as diabetes and heart disease and shorten the life span of future generations, experts at an inter-national conference warned on Sunday. "Obesity is an international scourge," Pro-fessor Paul Zimmet, the chairman of the meeting of more than 2500 experts and health officials, told delegates in a speech opening the International Congress on Obesity. "This insidious, creeping pandemic of obe-sity is now engulfing the entire world." "It's as big a threat as global warming and bird flu," said Zimmet, an Australian expert on diabetes. Other experts at the conference said the cost of treating health problems related to be-ing overweight was immeasurable on a global scale, but was estimated at billions of dollars a year in countries such as Australia, Britain and the United States. "We are not dealing with a scientific or medical problem, we're dealing with an enor-mous economic problem that, it is already ac-cepted, is going to overwhelm every medical system in the world," said Professor Philip James, the chairman of a global task force set up by medical organizations that deal with weight-related problems. He said governments had been forced to confront rising obesity rates because of the expense of treating related health issues. Among the most worrying problems is skyrocketing rates of obesity among children, which made them much more prone to chronic diseases as they grow older and could shave years of their lives, experts said. The children in this generation may be the first in history to die before their parents be-cause of health problems related to weight, Professor Kate Steinbeck, an expert in chil-dren's health at Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, said in a statement. The World Health Organisation says more than 1 billion adults around the world are overweight and 300 million of them are obese, putting them at much higher risk of diseases such as diabetes, heart problems, high blood pressure, stroke and some forms of cancer. There are now more overweight people in the world than people who are undernour-ished, who number about 600 million, Zim-met said. People in wealthy countries were leading the world in overeating and not doing enough physical activity, but those in developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America were fast learning the bad habits, delegates said. But the traditional way of dealing with the issue - focusing on getting individuals to ad-just their diet and exercise - had failed, and a more multifaceted response involving gov-ernments, business and community groups is needed, they said. Experts also said governments should im-pose bans on junk food advertising aimed di-rectly at children, although they acknowl-edged such restrictions were unlikely to come about soon because the food industry would lobby hard against them. "There is going to be a political bun fight over this for some time, but of course we shouldn't advertise junk food to children that makes them fat," said Professor Boyd Swin-burn, a member of an international task force on combatting obesity. Leaders of the International Association for the Study of Obesity, an umbrella group for medical organisations dealing with weight-related and children's health issues, on Sunday approved backing such advertising bans as official policy, its president, Professor Claude Bouchard, announced. One in four children in Australia is over-weight or obese, said Steinbeck. Half of Aus-tralia's adult women are overweight, and two thirds of men, she said. The rates were among the highest in the world, with the United States worse, she said, without giving figures for the US. Modern life has created an environment that is counterproductive to staying a healthy weight, experts said, including neighborhoods that were increasingly being built with not e-nough public space for esidents to exercise, said Professor Louise Baur, a child health ex-pert at the University of Sydney. The conference will hear research and pa-pers from almost 400 experts before wrapping up on Friday. - Sapa-AP |
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| 吾思吾師 找回教師熱情與尊嚴徵文比賽 | |
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