VOA慢速英语2022--美国抗击糖尿病危机

America Battles Diabetes¹ Crisis

A small, but growing, movement is trying to find a way to deal with the problem of diabetes in the United States. This movement is made up of special programs, doctors, hospitals and health officials that are concerned about increasing evidence that the food system in the United States is making people sick. The food system has made it easier and less costly² for people to eat too many processed foods.

A Reuters news agency report earlier this year suggested that diabetes represents a major public health failure in the United States. The number of Americans with the disease has grown quickly in recent decades even though spending on new treatments has increased as well.

Diet, or the foods that people eat, plays an important part in the life and health of people with diabetes, yet it is rarely dealt with in the U.S. healthcare system. Government programs, insurers and medical providers spend billions of dollars on costly medications, operations and medical devices to treat patients.

Devon Klatell is the Rockefeller Foundation's managing director of food initiatives. Klatell said that the U.S. has "under-invested," meaning not spent enough time and effort, "in food and nutrition within the healthcare sector³." She added, "There is overwhelming evidence that our food system is making lots of us sick."

Poor diets, along with less active lifestyles, are directly linked to type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease. Highly processed foods full of sugars and fats play a part in the high blood sugar levels and obesity⁴ that often lead to type 2. Of the estimated 34 million Americans with diabetes, about 95 percent are type 2. About 1.6 million Americans have type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease of unknown cause that requires lifelong insulin shots.

Unlike type 1 patients, those with type 2 diabetes may be able to manage or reduce the severity of their illness through diet and exercise, greatly reducing the risk of very bad health problems. With the right diet, some may even be able to live without medication.

A small number of special programs seek to make it easier for patients to eat right. These programs take many forms. In Pennsylvania, doctors write diabetes patients prescriptions⁶ for healthy food to be filled at food pharmacies⁷ that look like small grocery stores. In Santa Barbara, California, a clinic offers bags of fresh food every week to dozens of diabetes patients.

Dr. Namino Glantz is an associate director at the Sansum Diabetes Research Institute, which runs the Farming for Life program in Santa Barbara.

Glantz said, "We can improve people's health as much by offering vegetables as we can in many cases by offering medication."

Dr. Yamini Teegala is chief medical officer at Rocking Horse, a food program. Teegala believes there is a difference between giving drugs and eating healthy foods.

"A prescription⁵ drug impacts an individual," Teegala said. "Healthy food and eating habits affect communities for generations to come."

Words in This Story

overwhelming – adj. very great in number, effect, or force

autoimmune – adj. Relating to autoantibodies or T cells that attack molecules⁸.

insulin – n. medical: a substance that your body makes and uses to turn sugar into energy

impact – v. to have a strong and often bad effect on (something or someone)

1 diabetes   

n.糖尿病

参考例句：

• In case of diabetes, physicians advise against the use of sugar.对于糖尿病患者，医生告诫他们不要吃糖。
• Diabetes is caused by a fault in the insulin production of the body.糖尿病是由体內胰岛素分泌失调引起的。

2 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

3 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

4 obesity   

n.肥胖，肥大

参考例句：

• One effect of overeating may be obesity.吃得过多能导致肥胖。
• Sugar and fat can more easily lead to obesity than some other foods.糖和脂肪比其他食物更容易导致肥胖。

5 prescription   

n.处方，开药；指示，规定

参考例句：

• The physician made a prescription against sea- sickness for him.医生给他开了个治晕船的药方。
• The drug is available on prescription only.这种药只能凭处方购买。

6 prescriptions   

药( prescription的名词复数 )； 处方； 开处方； 计划

参考例句：

• The hospital of traditional Chinese medicine installed a computer to fill prescriptions. 中医医院装上了电子计算机来抓药。
• Her main job was filling the doctor's prescriptions. 她的主要工作就是给大夫开的药方配药。

7 pharmacies   

药店

参考例句：

• Still, 32 percent of the pharmacies filled the prescriptions. 但仍然有32%的药剂师配发了这两张药方。 来自互联网
• Chinese herbal pharmacies, and traditional massage therapists in the Vancouver telephone book. 中药店，和传统的按摩师在温哥华的电话簿里。 来自互联网

8 molecules   

分子( molecule的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The structure of molecules can be seen under an electron microscope. 分子的结构可在电子显微镜下观察到。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules. 在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。