In many middle and low income countries, obesity levels rise along with income.  But a new study says the better educated women are -- the better their chances of avoiding obesity.

在许多中低收入的国家中的调查表明，人们的肥胖水平与其收入高低密切相关。但一份新研究则表示：受教育水平越高的女性，越能够避免肥胖。

Dr. Amina Aitsi-Selmi is the lead author of the University College London study. She wanted to know if trends in high-income countries could be found elsewhere.

Amina Aitsi-Selmi博士为该伦敦大学研究的首席作者，她想了解这一趋势在高收入国家是否也存在。

“We know that in high income countries education and income tend to go together -- and that those who are most educated and have the highest income tend to be thinnest and the opposite being true,” she said.

“我们知道，在高收入国家里，受教育水平的高低与个人收入趋向正相关，那些拥有高学历和高收入的女性身材似乎趋向更加苗条，反之亦然。”Aitsi-Selmi说道。

The study looked at the middle-income countries of Egypt, Jordan and Colombia – and the low-income countries of Nigeria, India and Benin. These are countries where income levels are on the rise. As a result, women are buying higher calorie foods. Researchers call them energy-dense foods. Simply put, they can pack on the pounds because they’re often laden with sugar, salt and fat. These can be processed foods or so-called fast foods.

这次研究包含了一些中等收入国家（如埃及、约旦和哥伦比亚）和低等收入国家（如尼日利亚、印度和贝宁）的调查。这些国家的收入水平正普遍提高，但这也导致一些女性倾向选择含更高卡路里的食物。研究人员称其为“高热量食品”。简言之，她们是因为经常食用含高糖分、高盐分和高脂肪的食品而增重。例如一些加工类食品或快餐食品。

Aitsi-Selmi said, “The study shows that although higher income or higher wealth seems to be correlated with a greater risk of obesity in women in middle income countries – and low income countries as well – in middle income countries something strange happened in that education seemed to start protecting against this effect. So that women with higher education weren’t affected by this wealth effect that made other women more obese.”

Aitsi-Selmi表示：“研究显示，尽管在某些中低收入国家中，高收入或高资产的女性似乎更趋向肥胖，但事无绝对。在中等收入国家发现了“教育”能避免这一趋势。那些高学历的女性正打破“高资产让女性更肥胖”之说。”

There may be a few explanations for this.

其原因可能如下：

“It could be that more educated women just have that different body shape preferences. They’re more in contact with Western images of beauty, which promote thinness. It could also be that they have better health understanding – different time preferences – so they kind of invest in future health,” she said.

“一方面，高学历的女性可能有不同的体态偏好，她们更欣赏西方女性偏瘦的体态美。另一方面可能源于她们对健康更深的认识，目光更为长远，她们懂得为自己的健康做长远投资。”她说。

But the link between education, wealth and health appears a bit different in low income countries. It may have to do with past economic conditions when many types of high-calorie foods were scarce. The desire for those foods now may outweigh the protective education-effect seen in middle and high income countries.

而在低收入国家，教育、收入和健康的关系又有些不同。这可能与他们过去的经济条件有关，那时候各类高热能食品十分稀少。因此与中高收入水平国家不同，他们对高热能食品的渴望远超于高等教育对她们的影响。

“The greater scarcity means that obesity is just not an issue in that kind of environment. Any advantage you might have, socio-economically, where there is higher education or higher wealth, might be used to be able to access a greater quantity of food. And the market isn’t as complex as a middle income county where you have lots of products – and there are lots of decisions to be made. And that’s where education may start to kick in as something that helps consumers to make decisions,” she said.

“在能量食品匮乏的环境下，是否肥胖对她们来说已经不那么重要了。她们只认为高学历和高收入是她们拥有更高品质食物的优势。而且在低收入国家的市场上提供的商品选择略显单一。当她们也像在中等收入国家，需要在种类繁多的食品中做出自己的选择时，高等教育就开始发挥作用了。”她说。

Also, low income countries may not have public health systems in place to deal with growing obesity levels. Obesity has been linked to such non-communicable diseases as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

而且，低收入国家还没有完善的公共健康体系来帮助解决日渐增长的肥胖问题。研究发现，一些非传染性疾病如癌症、糖尿病、和心血管疾病的发生与肥胖症密切相关。

Dr. Aitsi-Selmi said more study is needed on the “interplay between education and the wider environment.”

Aitsi-Selmi 博士表示“教育”与“社会环境”对肥胖水平的影响需要进一步的研究。

She said, “Interventions could target either the education side of things to encourage women’s education or health knowledge. I mean we need to look in more detail in the pathways that link education to obesity. Or it could be to do with the general environment and the kind of information that is in the environment. And that, in some ways, puts those who don’t have education at a disadvantage because the signals coming from the environment might promote unhealthy behaviors like over consumption.”

“在教育方面，我们需要更细致的研究。例如采取一些干预措施，鼓励女性提高教育或健康知识水平。我们也要进一步了解社会的总体环境及其传达出来的大众信息。因为，社会上一些“不健康食品”的宣传信息，可能会误导某些受教育程度不高的女性，导致她们过度购买垃圾食品。”

That environmental information may include multi-media advertisements, which tell consumers fast food is delicious, cheap and easy to get. They often lack details on the food’s nutritional value.

这类宣传信息包括一些多媒体广告，它们告诉消费者那些零食是多么的美味实惠又便利，却对其营养价值缺乏说明。

Education, she said, can be a good defense against unhealthy food choices.

“而教育，就能让消费者减少错误的选择。” Aitsi-Selmi 如是说。

“Yeah, I think that’s fair to say. If you understand the risks that are around you and how your decisions affect your health, then you’ll probably make different decisions.”

“我认为恰当地说，如果你了解到你身边存在的饮食风险，并且意识到食物的选择对你的健康如此重要，你会做出不一样的选择。 ”

Aitsi-Selmi is a Wellcome Trust Fellow at University College London. The study appears in PLOS ONE.

Aitsi-Selmi 为伦敦大学威康信托基金会的研究人员，该研究刊登于《PLOS ONE》杂志。