It is calculated that by the year 2230, the entire population of the USA will be dangerously overweight. Nine years ago only one in eight was obese (肥胖) . Nowadays in five Americans one is obese and the number continues to rise. One of the problems is the big amounts of what they eat. The drink and food portions (分量) are so large in America that a new vocabulary has appeared on the menus to fit the portions. Food sizes no longer stop at large, but run through jumbo, supreme, monster and super size.
Everybody is not only eating more, but alsoconsumingmore and more junk food. And everybody knows what food like this can do to their weight and health. Americans eat about 20 teaspoons of sugar a day, twice the suggested safe amount and 25 percent more than 10 years ago.
Besides, most of the Americans sit at a desk all day, go past a drive-through restaurant, head home, open the garage door and head for the armchair, television with voice control and mobile phone resting on the arms. Everything is electric, and everything has been motorized or electrified.
The growth of obesity among children is also worrying American health experts. Children are spending long hours sitting, watching TV, surfing the Internet or playing computer games. As a result, 12 percent of teenagers are overweight.
The Center for Disease Control has already warned the nation about an epidemic (泛滥) of obesity, but it is hard for people to give up their eating habits even if they know about the health risks they run.
