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But the expanding waistline is not only a problem of lower-income Americans who dine too often on fast food. Today, the typical American is overweight, according to the CDC, which estimates that 64 percent of American citizens are carrying too many pounds for their height. Obesity and sedentary living are rising so fast that their health consequences may soon supplant tobacco as the No.1 preventable cause of death, the CDC predicts. Rates of heart diseases, stroke and many cancers are in decline, while life expectancy is increasing—but every-rising readings on the bathroom scale may be canceling out what would otherwise be dramatic gains in public health.
然而，不斷變大的腰圍并不僅僅是常吃快餐的低收入美國(guó)人的問(wèn)題。根據(jù)聯(lián)邦疾病控制中心估計(jì)，如今，美國(guó)人普遍超重，64%的美國(guó)公民身高和體重比例失衡，體重偏重。聯(lián)邦疾病控制中心預(yù)測(cè)，迅速增加的肥胖和久坐不動(dòng)的生活方式所導(dǎo)致的健康問(wèn)題可能很快會(huì)取代煙草成為排名第一的可預(yù)防的致死病因。心臟病、中風(fēng)和很多癌癥的發(fā)病率在減少，預(yù)期壽命在增加——但是，體重秤讀數(shù)的不斷增加可能會(huì)將其抵消，否則這會(huì)是公眾健康上獲得的顯著成果。
OK, it's hard to be opposed to food. But the epidemic of obesity epitomizes the unsettled character of progress in affluent Western society. Our lives are characterized by too much of a good thing—too much to eat, to buy, to watch and to do, excess at every turn.
是的，要與食物對(duì)抗是很難的。然而，肥胖的蔓延成為富足的西方社會(huì)發(fā)展不穩(wěn)定這一特點(diǎn)的典型例證。我們生活的特征是好東西太多——太多要吃的、要買的、要看的和要做的，事事都過(guò)量。
Sometimes achievement itself engenders the excess: today's agriculture creates so much food at such low cost that who can resist that extra helping?
有時(shí)候本身會(huì)引起過(guò)量：當(dāng)今的農(nóng)業(yè)以那么低的成本創(chuàng)造了那么多的食物，誰(shuí)還能忍住不吃那份額外的食物呢？
Consider other examples in which society's success seems to be backfiring on our health or well-being.
想一下其他的例子，社會(huì)的成功似乎與我們的健康或康樂(lè)背道而馳
