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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，不断变大的腰围并不仅仅是常吃快餐的低收入美国人的问题。根据联邦疾病控制中心估计，如今，美国人普遍超重，64%的美国公民身高和体重比例失衡，体重偏重。联邦疾病控制中心预测，迅速增加的肥胖和久坐不动的生活方式所导致的健康问题可能很快会取代烟草成为排名第一的可预防的致死病因。心脏病、中风和很多癌症的发病率在减少，预期寿命在增加——但是，体重秤读数的不断增加可能会将其抵消，否则这会是公众健康上获得的显著成果。
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，要与食物对抗是很难的。然而，肥胖的蔓延成为富足的西方社会发展不稳定这一特点的典型例证。我们生活的特征是好东西太多——太多要吃的、要买的、要看的和要做的，事事都过量。
Sometimes achievement itself engenders the excess: today's agriculture creates so much food at such low cost that who can resist that extra helping?
有时候本身会引起过量：当今的农业以那么低的成本创造了那么多的食物，谁还能忍住不吃那份额外的食物呢？
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，社会的成功似乎与我们的健康或康乐背道而驰
