The United States currently spends $147 billion on obesity-related health care annually. Previously, one could have argued that these were affluent countries’ diseases, but the United Nations announced last year that chronic metabolic disease (including diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and dementia) is a bigger threat to the developing world than is infectious disease, including HIV.
如今，美国每年要花费1470亿美元用于与肥胖有关的医疗。从前，人们会说，肥胖是富贵病，但去年联合国宣称慢性新陈代谢病（包括糖尿病、心脏病、癌症和痴呆症）对发展中国家的威胁要甚于包括艾滋病在内的传染病。