In 1999 Chittaranjan Yajnik, an Indian doctor and researcher, was photographed with his friend and collaborator, John Yudkin, a British professor of medicine. Then in early middle age, both men appear trim and healthy. Indeed, the two had the same "body-mass index", a widely used if imperfect measure of obesity: 22.3, around the middle of the ideal range. But further testing revealed a stark difference. Body fat made up just 9.1% of Dr Yudkin's mass. The result for Dr Yajnik was more than twice as high, at 21.2%. This came to be known as the Y-Y paradox and helped popularise the concept of the South Asian "thin-fat" body type.

1999年，印度医生兼研究员ChitTaranjan Yajnik和他的朋友兼合作者、一位英国医学教授John Yudkin一起被拍到。那时是刚迈入中年，两个人都显得苗条而健康。事实上，这两个人的“身体质量指数”是相同的，这是一种被广泛使用但并不完美的肥胖衡量标准：22.3，大约在理想范围的中间。但进一步的测试显示了明显的差异。身体脂肪只占Yudkin博士体重的9.1%。Yajnik博士的结果高出一倍多，为21.2%。这被称为Y—Y悖论，并帮助南亚“瘦—胖”体型的概念流行起来。



"Thin-fat" is a metaphor for India today. The country suffers from a dual burden of poverty-induced undernutrition and a growing overweight population. According to the latest figures, among 15-to-49-year-olds, 19% of women and 16% of men are underweight. At the same time, 24% of women and 23% of men are overweight. India is replacing one problem with another: in the decade and a half to 2021, the proportion of thin women halved even as that of fat ones doubled. Among men, both the fall and the rise were even more pronounced. According to a new study by the Lancet, a medical journal, 9.8% of Indian women and 5.4% of men are obese, up from 1.2% and 0.5% in 1990.

“瘦—胖”是当今印度的一个隐喻。该国面临着贫穷引起的营养不良和人口超重的双重负担。根据最新数据，在15至49岁的年轻人中，19%的女性和16%的男性体重过轻。与此同时，24%的女性和23%的男性超重。印度正在用一个问题取代一个问题：在截至2021年的15年里，瘦女性的比例下降了一半，而胖女性的比例则翻了一番。在男性中，下降和上升更为明显。医学杂志《柳叶刀》的一项新研究显示，现在9.8%的印度女性和5.4%的男性肥胖，而1990年这一比例分别为1.2%和0.5%。

India is not alone in this dilemma. But with a population of 1.4bn, the scale of the problem is greater than anywhere else. Several factors, some of which are unique to India, make it fiendish to solve.

印度并不是唯一一个陷入这种困境的国家。但在拥有14亿人口的情况下，这个问题的规模比其他任何地方都大。这是由多种因素造成，其中一些是印度独有的，使得这个问题难以解决。