背景介绍：
印度美食以其丰富的香料、独特的烹饪技巧和口味多样性而闻名于世，吸引了无数食客。然而，与此同时，印度饮食也存在一些健康问题。印度美食中广泛使用油脂和香料，使得菜肴口感浓郁，但也增加了热量和脂肪的摄入。同时，印度饮食中碳水化合物的比重相对较高，特别是在主食方面，如米饭、面包和土豆等。这些食物富含碳水化合物，虽然提供了能量，但过多摄入也容易导致一系列健康问题。
Indian food is
great. Perhaps too great
印度菜很棒，也许是太好吃了
Long associated with hunger, India is now confronting an epidemic of obesity and lifestyle diseases
长期以来，印度一直与饥饿为伴，如今却面临着肥胖症和生活方式疾病的流行
In 1999 Chittaranjan Yajnik, an Indian doctor and researcher, was photographed with his friend and collaborator, John Yudkin, a British professor of medicine. Then in early middle age, both men appear trim and healthy. Indeed, the two had the same “body-mass index”, a widely used if imperfect measure of obesity: 22.3, around the middle of the ideal range.
1999年，印度医生兼研究员奇塔拉詹·亚尼克与他的朋友兼合作者、英国医学教授约翰·尤德金合影。当时两人都已步入中年，身材苗条，看起来非常健康。事实上，两人的“体重指数”相同，这一衡量肥胖程度的指标虽不完美但应用广泛：两人的体重指数均为22.3，接近理想范围的中间值。
But further testing revealed a stark difference. Body fat made up just 9.1% of Dr Yudkin’s mass. The result for Dr Yajnik was more than twice as high, at 21.2%. This came to be known as the Y-Y paradox and helped popularise the concept of the South Asian “thin-fat” body type.
但进一步的检测揭示了明显的差异。尤德金教授的身体脂肪仅占其体重的9.1%，而亚尼克博士的这一比例则高出两倍多，达到21.2%。这就是著名的“Y-Y悖论”，并使南亚“瘦胖”体型的概念深入人心。
“Thin-fat” is a metaphor for India today. The country suffers from a dual burden of poverty-induced undernutrition and a growing overweight population. According to the latest figures, among 15-to-49-year-olds, 19% of women and 16% of men are underweight.
“瘦胖”如今已成为印度的隐喻。印度承受着贫困导致的营养不良和超重人口不断增加的双重负担。根据最新数据，在15至49岁的人群中，19%的女性和16%的男性体重过轻。
At the same time, 24% of women and 23% of men are overweight. India is replacing one problem with another: in the decade and a half to 2021, the proportion of thin women halved even as that of fat ones doubled.
同时，24%的女性和23%的男性超重。印度正在用一个问题取代另一个问题：在截至2021年的十五年间，体重过轻的女性比例减半，而体重过重的女性比例翻了一番。
Among men, both the fall and the rise were even more pronounced. According to a new study by the Lancet, a medical journal, 9.8% of Indian women and 5.4% of men are obese, up from 1.2% and 0.5% in 1990.
在男性中，这一下降和上升的趋势更加明显。根据医学杂志《柳叶刀》的一项最新研究，印度女性和男性的肥胖率分别为9.8%和5.4%，而1990年的这一比例分别为1.2%和0.5%。
India is not alone in this dilemma. But with a population of 1.4bn, the scale of the problem is greater than anywhere else. Several factors, some of which are unique to India, make it fiendish to solve.
印度并非唯一面临这种困境的国家。但考虑到印度拥有14亿人口，因而问题的规模比其他任何地方都要大。印度面临一些独特因素，这些因素使得这一问题难以解决。
The first of these is genetics. As Dr Yajnik demonstrated, Indians are genetically predisposed to adiposity, which is a gentle way of saying that they have less lean body mass and more fat. Worse, this fat tends to gather around the middle, which puts pressure on vital organs.
首先是遗传。正如亚尼克博士所示，印度人在遗传上更容易发胖，即他们的瘦体重较少，而脂肪较多。更糟糕的是，这种脂肪往往集中在腰部，对重要器官造成压力。
The second culprit is the Indian diet. Though cuisines vary dramatically across India, certain things are common, such as a focus on grain. The centrepiece of a meal in the West tends to be protein, with carbohydrates and vegetables on the side, notes Krish Ashok, whose book “Masala Lab” explained the science of Indian cooking.
其次是印度人的饮食习惯。尽管印度各地的美食差异很大，但也有一些共同点，比如注重谷物。克里希·阿肖克在《Masala Lab》一书中解释了印度烹饪的科学，他指出，在西方，一顿饭的主角往往是蛋白质，碳水化合物和蔬菜只是配角。
“In India it’s the other way round…rice or wheat is the star of the show.” Grain is a carbohydrate, packed with sugars to provide energy. Among the middle class, sedentary lifestyles mean that energy expenditure is low and carbohydrates turn into deposits of fat.
而“在印度，情况恰恰相反……米饭或小麦是主角。”谷物是一种碳水化合物，富含糖分以提供能量。在中产阶级中，久坐不动的生活方式意味着能量消耗低，碳水化合物会转化为脂肪堆积。
Overconsumption of grain affects the poor too, for whom meat, fruit and fresh vegetables are luxuries. Around 10% of the poorest quintile are overweight, compared with around 39% of the richest. Government welfare programmes that provide free or subsidised food to hundreds of millions of Indians chiefly distribute wheat, rice and sugar.
谷物摄入过多也会影响穷人，对他们来说，肉类、水果和新鲜蔬菜都是奢侈品。印度最贫困的五分之一人口中约有10%的人超重，而在最富裕的五分之一人口中，这一比例约为39%。政府福利计划向数亿印度人提供免费或补贴食品，主要是小麦、大米和糖。
The third factor is the role of religion and caste, combined with the politicisation of food. Despite India’s reputation as a predominantly vegetarian country, 70% of women and 83% of men eat fish, chicken or meat at least occasionally, according to government figures.
最后是宗教和种姓的作用，以及食品的政治化。尽管印度以素食国家而闻名，但根据政府数据，70%的女性和83%的男性至少偶尔会吃鱼、鸡或其他肉类。
Yet animal protein is rarely prioritised in nutritional advice and attempts to introduce it are sometimes met with hostility, says a nutritionist who has sat on various government committees. Several states refuse to serve eggs as part of a programme that provides free school lunches to poor pupils.
然而，一位曾在多个政府委员会任职的营养学家表示，动物蛋白在营养建议中很少被优先考虑，而且引入动物蛋白的尝试有时会遭到抵制。有几个邦拒绝在向贫困学生提供免费学校午餐的计划中提供鸡蛋。
The result of all this is a growing health crisis. Cardiovascular disease alone is responsible for around 27% of deaths in India, more than all infectious diseases, according to the Global Burden of Disease, a big study. Another 3% of deaths are directly attributable to diabetes (and many more indirectly).
所有这些因素的结果就是日益严重的健康危机。根据《全球疾病负担》这一大型研究显示，在印度，约27%的死亡可归因于心血管疾病，超过所有传染病导致的死亡人数。另有3%的死亡直接归因于糖尿病（还有许多是间接导致的）。
As India gets fatter these problems grow bigger. Between 2009 and 2019 the proportion of deaths and disability caused by heart disease grew by 30%. Those caused by diabetes grew by a staggering 60%. A recent survey by the Indian Council of Medical Research estimated that 101m Indians live with diabetes. Another 136m are pre-diabetic.
随着印度人越来越胖，这些问题也日益严重。从2009年到2019年，由心脏病导致的死亡和残疾的比例增长了30%。由糖尿病导致的死亡和残疾的比例更是惊人地增长了60%。印度医学研究理事会最近的一项调查显示，印度有1.01亿人患有糖尿病，另有1.36亿人处于糖尿病前期。
