VOA慢速英語：美國城市禁止在兒童菜單中加入含糖飲料

US City Bans Sugary Drinks on Children’s Menus

美國城市禁止在兒童菜單中加入含糖飲料

Recently, Baltimore, Maryland, became the largest city in the United States to ban restaurants from including sodas and other sugary drinks on their menus for children.

最近，馬里蘭州巴爾的摩市成為美國禁止餐廳在兒童菜單中加入蘇打水和其它含糖飲料的最大城市。

Now, Baltimore's restaurants can only offer milk, water or 100 percent fruit juice as drinks with meals meant for children.

現在，巴爾的摩的餐廳只能給兒童提供牛奶、水或是100%純果汁作為兒童用餐的配套飲料。

At places to eat in the city, boys and girls can still drink soda. But an adult will have to order it for them.

在該市的用餐點，兒童仍然可以喝蘇打水，但是必須由成年人為他們購買。

Restaurants failing to obey the new law face a $100 fine.

不遵守新法律的餐廳將面臨100美元的罰款。

Doctor Leana Wen is Baltimore's Health Commissioner. She said that the "law will help families make the healthy choice the easy choice."

Leana Wen博士是巴爾的摩的衛(wèi)生專員。她說，法律將幫助家庭輕松做出健康選擇。

"The science is clear," Wen said. "One of the biggest contributors to childhood obesity is sugary drinks." She added that "childhood obesity is a major risk factor for diabetes, heart disease and early death."

Wen表示：“科學很明確，兒童肥胖的最大成因就是含糖飲料。”她補充說，“兒童肥胖是糖尿病、心臟病和早逝最重要的風險因素。”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that, in Baltimore, one in three school-aged children is obese. CDC officials define obesity as weight that is higher than what is considered as a healthy weight for a given height.

美國疾病控制和預防中心報告稱，巴爾的摩有1/3的學童肥胖。美國疾病控制和預防中心官員將肥胖定義為重量超過給定身高的健康體重。

A federal study of Baltimore showed that about one in four schoolchildren drink soda every day.

一項針對巴爾的摩的聯邦研究顯示，有1/4的學童每天飲用蘇打水。

The America Heart Association suggests that children two years of age and older drink no more than one 227-gram soda per week.

美國心臟協會建議2歲及以上年齡的兒童每周飲用蘇打水不超過227克。

The CDC website states that nationwide "the percentage of children and adolescents affected by obesity has more than tripled since the 1970s. Records from 2015 and 2016 show that nearly 1 in 5 school-age children and young people (6 to 19 years) suffer from obesity.

美國疾病控制與預防中心網站指出，自上世紀70年代以來，全國范圍內受肥胖癥影響的兒童和青少年比例增加了兩倍以上。2015年和2016年的記錄表明，近1/5的學齡兒童和6-19歲的青少年患有肥胖癥。

The Restaurant Association of Maryland opposes the new law. It says Baltimore's restaurants are already facing enough business challenges. It warns the law will make those challenges even worse.

馬里蘭州餐廳協會反對這項新的法律。該協會表示，巴爾的摩的餐廳已經面臨了足夠多的商業(yè)挑戰(zhàn)。它警告說，這項法律將會使得這些挑戰(zhàn)更為嚴峻。

Other smaller U.S. cities – seven in California and one in Colorado -- have already banned sodas from children's restaurant menus. However, Baltimore is the first large city to take this step.

美國其它一些較小的城市，其中加州7個城市和科羅拉多州的1個城市已經禁止在兒童的餐廳菜單中使用蘇打水。然而，巴爾的摩是邁出這一步的第一個大城市。

Whether or not such bans are approved in other cities, both large and small, remains to be seen.

這類禁令是否會在其它大小城市獲批尚有待觀察。

I'm Anna Matteo.

安娜·馬特奧報道。