Not just calories 不只是卡路里

A special report on feeding the world
关于解决世界饥饿的特别报道

 

Not just calories 不只是卡路里

 

People also need the right nutrients 
人们同样需要正确的营养摄入
"PROVIDING the quantity of calories is manageable," says Joachim von Braun of the University of Bonn. "The big issue is nutrition." In the past 30 or 40 years diets have improved. There are now proportionately fewer malnourished people in the world than there used to be (though the absolute number is high and rising). Fewer people fail to grow to their proper height and weight because of poor childhood diets. India is a peculiar exception to this rule: for reasons no one understands, Indians of all income levels now eat less food, and of a lower quality, than they used to, and than you would expect.
伯恩大学的Joachim von Braun 认为："通过提供足够热量（来解决饥饿问题）的目标是容易实现的，而解决问题是核心是确保营养全面"。在过去的3、40年间，日常饮食的质量得以提高。现如今，因为营养不良导致体弱多病的人口比例较之过去已经降低（尽管这类人群的绝对数目依然很高，并且持续增长）。同时因为儿时饮食质量低下导致无法发育到正常身高和体重的人数也在下降。印度的现状却是这个规律的一个特殊例外：与他们的过去和你的想象相比，印度的各个收入阶层吃的更少了，饮食质量也更低了。

 

But although most people get enough calories, they still suffer huge deficiencies, especially in four nutrients: iron, zinc, iodine and vitamin A. Iron deficiency makes over 1.5 billion people anaemic, including half of all women of child-bearing age in poor countries. Lack of vitamin A causes up to half a million children to go blind each year, of whom half die within a year. Zinc deficiency is thought to be responsible for about 400,000 deaths a year.
然而尽管大多数人都摄入了足够的热量，但是他们仍然面临营养不良，尤其是四种营养元素：铁、锌、碘和维生素A。缺铁导致15亿人患上贫血，这些人中还包括半数生活在欠发达国家育龄期女性。缺维生素A导致每年高达100万儿童失明，其中半数在一年内离开了我们。而每年有40万人的去世被认为和缺锌有关。

 

Such deficiencies have long-term consequences for the whole society. In Tanzania, children whose mothers were given iodine capsules when pregnant stayed at school for four months longer than their siblings born when the mother did not get those capsules. Children suffering from nutrient deficiencies cannot concentrate and have lower scores in tests for cognitive ability. And there seems to be a link between nutrition in childhood and earnings in later life. In Kenya children who were given nutrition-improving deworming pills for two years earned about $3,000 more over their lifetime than those who got them for only one year. Malnourished boys also do worse in the marriage market.
这些营养元素的缺乏对于整个社会都有着长期的影响。在坦桑尼亚，如果母亲在怀孕期间服用了碘胶囊，那么她们生育的孩子就能比那些没有服用碘胶囊的母亲生育的孩子在学校多学4个月。罹患营养缺乏的孩子无法集中注意力，并且在认知能力测评上得分较低。同时儿童时期的营养摄入和成人之后的薪水之间似乎有一种联系。在肯尼亚，如果一个孩子服用除蛔虫的营养促进药两年，那么他们余生的薪水比只服用该药一年的孩子要高3000美元。在婚介市场，营养不良的男孩儿也并不受到欢迎。

 

Drowning in a sea of food  淹没在食品海洋
On the face of it, the obesity epidemic in rich countries presents exactly the opposite problem. For the first time in history, more calories do not mean better health. The epidemic is spreading to less well-off places: Mexico has the second-largest share of obese people after America; Guatemala's obesity rate has quadrupled in 30 years. The overweight are obviously not troubled by a shortage of food. But a large group of people in rich countries does suffer from nutritional deficiencies: the elderly. They need more calcium and vitamins with advancing age, and many do not get them. Half of those over 75 in hospital are reckoned to be nutrient-deficient, as are many obese people.
现实中人们对于健康存在一个误区，而现在发达国家的流行性肥胖病恰恰提出了一个相反的观点：历史上第一证实了，多摄入热量并不能换来健康身体的观点。并且这种流行趋势正在向经济欠发达地区蔓延：墨西哥拥有第二大的肥胖人口数，这一数字仅次于美国；危地马拉的肥胖人口比例在30年间翻了四倍。很显然，体重超重已经不仅仅受到食物短缺的困扰，但是发达国家中的大批老年人却面临营养缺乏。伴随着年龄的增长，老年人对钙和维生素的需求逐渐增加，但许多人却无法获得足量的营养物质。在75岁以上的住院老人中，半数人被认为是营养缺乏，这一数量和肥胖的人数相当。

 

Nutrient deficiency is not easy to cure. In poor countries, vitamin supplements ―a common expedient―reach less than half of those who most need them, the rural poor. And programmes to hand out vitamin A supplements in massive doses to reduce child mortality have brought little discernible improvement. Michael Latham of Cornell University, reviewing the history of such handouts, speaks of "the great vitamin-A fiasco".
营养的缺乏并不容易治愈。在欠发达国家，一个常用的权宜之计是服用维生素补剂，服用维生素补剂的人数已经占到急需补充人群数量的一半。同时为降低儿童死亡率而进行的广泛散发维生素A项目，进展却是举步维艰，没有什么成果，康奈尔大学的Michael Latham对于这一段历史的评价是"一场维生素A的惨败"。

 

Cultural norms are a constant obstacle. Abhijit Banerjee of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology quotes George Orwell's "Road to Wigan Pier" on the British working class:
文化准则是永恒的障碍，曼彻斯特科技大学的Abhijit Banerjee援引自George Orwell的《通往维根码头之路》关于英国工薪阶层的描述：

 

The basis of their diet is white bread and margarine, corned beef, sugared tea, and potatoes―an appalling diet. Would it not be better if they spent more money on wholesome things like oranges and wholemeal bread, or if they … ate their carrots raw? Yes it would, but the point is, no ordinary human being is ever going to do such a thing. The ordinary human being would sooner starve than live on brown bread and raw carrots. And the peculiar evil is this, that the less money you have, the less inclined you feel to spend it on wholesome food. A millionaire may enjoy breakfasting off orange juice and Ryvita biscuits; an unemployed man doesn't.
他们基本的食物是很糟糕的：白面包夹黄油，咸牛肉，加糖的茶，还有土豆。那么假如他们多花点钱买有益健康的食物，例如桔子，全麦面包，或者假如他们吃生胡萝卜，情况不会不好转呢？当然会的！但问题是，没有一个普通人准备这样生活。普通人宁愿挨饿也不愿意吃黑面包和生胡萝卜。尤其糟糕的是，你的钱越少，你购买健康食品的意愿越弱。一个百万富翁或许会很享受没有橙汁和Ryvita的黑麦饼干的早餐，但是一个下岗的人却截然不同。

 

Better nutrition, in short, is not a matter of handing out diet sheets and expecting everyone to eat happily ever after. Rather, you have to try a range of things: education; supplements; fortifying processed foods with extra vitamins; breeding crops with extra nutrients in them. But the nutrients have to be in things people want to eat. Kraft, an American food manufacturer, made Biskuat, an "energy biscuit" with lots of extra vitamins and minerals, into a bestseller in Indonesia by charging the equivalent of just 5 cents a packet. It also did well in Latin America with Tang, a sweet powdered drink with added nutrients, marketing it to children for the taste and mothers for its nutritional value.
简而言之，更好的营养供应并不是推出节食菜单，然后希望每个人都从此快乐饮食那么简单。相反地，你必须尝试下列事情：接收教育，提供补剂，在食品加工过程中添加维生素，培育带有更多营养的农作物，但是营养物质必须存在于那些人们想吃的东西里面。一家美国的食品制造商卡夫制造了一种内涵丰富维生素和矿物质的"能量饼干"Biskuat，在印度尼西亚，制造商按照5美分饼干一包进行包装，使得Biskuat成为了畅销产品。

 

It is also possible to breed plants that contain more nutrients. An organisation called HarvestPlus recently introduced an orange sweet potato, containing more vitamin A than the native sort, in Uganda and Mozambique. It caught on and now commands a 10% price premium over the ordinary white variety. The local population's vitamin intake has soared.
种植含有更多营养的植物也是一种可行的方法。一家名为HarvestPlus的机构最近在乌干达和莫桑比克推介了一种橙色甘薯，这种甘薯含有的维生素A比当地的甘薯多。这种甘薯变得流行，并且比普通的白种甘薯的售价高10%。当地人的维生素摄入量得以大幅提高。

 

HarvestPlus has a pipeline of "biofortified" crops: cassava with vitamin A due to be released in Nigeria this year; pearl millet with extra iron and zinc, to be launched in India in 2012; beans with extra iron, also in 2012; rice with zinc, due for release in 2013. But again there are limits: it is hard to breed the full recommended daily dose of nutrients into plants this way.
HarvestPlus正在酝酿"双向加强"型的作物：今年在尼日利亚推行含有维生素A的木薯；2012年在印度推出额外含有的铁和锌的御谷；同样在2012年推出额外含有铁的豆类；2013年推出含有锌的大米。但同时这些计划都有所局限：通过把营养元素"种进"作物的方法，完全达到推荐的日营养摄入剂量是很困难的。

 

John Hoddinott of IFPRI says the lesson of previous failures is that you have to select your targets: focus on the main deficiencies and on those for whom you can do most good, especially infants. Feeding the world is not just about calories but nutrients, too; and it is not about scattering them far and wide but pinpointing the groups who can and will eat them.
粮食政策研究所的John Hoddinott说此前的教训说明在解决营养问题时，必须选择解决的目标：必须集中解决最主要的缺乏元素，同时必须集中那些你最能解决好的人群，尤其是孕妇。养活世界不仅仅事关热量，同时也事关营养。同时解决问题时，不应广撒网而应针对那些能够摄入食物的人群。