烏拉圭頒佈禁令:餐館中放置鹽罐是非法的

A typical Uruguayan asado, or barbecue, is made up of vast racks of prime cuts of beef, pork or chicken roasted on a grill next to — not on top of — a wood burning fire.

一個典型的烏拉圭烤肉，或者燒烤是這樣構成的：烤架上大片上好切割的豬牛頸脊肉以及小雞，熊熊燃燒燃燒的木頭。

At parilla restaurants across the capitol Montevideo, the asados are pretty epic; the fatty cuts sizzle and then get slapped onto your plate, oozing with juice.

在遍佈首都蒙得維的亞的parilla 飯店，燒烤相當火爆；肥肉發出嘶嘶聲，拍打在你的盤子上，滲着汁液。

But if you want to grab a salt shaker and add a bit of extra salt to your meal these days in the Uruguayan capital, you can't.

然而這些天來在烏拉圭首都，如果你想搖搖鹽罐給你的肉上撒點鹽，那是不可能的。

"People are not allowed to put salt anymore on the table," says Lucia Soria, the owner of Jacinto restaurant in Montevideo. The city government made it illegal to have salt shakers out in restaurants, she says. No mayonnaise either. Or ketchup. In fact, pretty much anything with a lot of sodium is banned. If you want it, you have to ask for it.

首都蒙得維的亞的Jacinto 飯店主人Lucia Soria,說"鹽不許擺在餐桌上" ，市政府頒佈命令，餐館中放置鹽罐是非法的，沙拉醬、番茄醬也不行。實際上任何含有大量鈉離子的都是非法的。如果你確實需要，那麼就必須額外要求加點。

Unlike in the U.S. – where New York City's last government was unable to pass a law limiting the size of soft drinks — other countries like Uruguay take a much more active role in what you can and can't eat, in the name of public health.

和美國不同，上個任期的紐約市政府沒有通過一項限制碳酸飲料的法令------而其他象烏拉圭一樣的國家在以健康的名義上規定你可以或者不可以吃什麼東西上更爲積極。

Soria says she doesn't like this interventionist approach.

飯店老闆娘Soria說她不喜歡這種極端做法。

"I think it's the wrong way to do it, I think we have to try to teach people not to eat salt in quantities that are not safe," she says.

"我認爲這是用錯誤的方法去做事，我認爲我們應該教育人們鹽的食用量及其危害"。

Public health officials in Uruguay argue education can only do so much.

烏拉圭公共衛生官員卻認爲教育能做的事是有限的。

"The national consumption of sodium in Uruguay is about 9 grams per person, which is double what the World Health Organization recommends," says Pablo Anzalone, the director of public health for Montevideo.

蒙得維的亞公共衛生主任Pablo Anzalone 說" 烏拉圭人均鈉消費大約是9克，是世衛組織推薦值的兩倍。"

According to the Uruguayan Ministry of Health, over 30 percent of the population suffers from hypertension. Uruguay also has the largest percentage of obese children in the region.

根據烏拉圭衛生部，超過百分之30的人口患有高血壓。烏拉圭還擁有該地區最高的肥胖兒童比例。

And it's not just about removing salt from the table.

這項法令並不是簡單地把鹽從餐桌上撤下。

The salt law also stipulates that there needs to be a warning on the menu about salt consumption, and restaurants need to have low-sodium alternatives available to customers. Nationally, bakers have also agreed to lower the sodium content in their products by 10 percent.

鹽法規定，菜單上必須有鹽消費的警示，飯店必須給客戶提供低鈉替代品。在全國範圍內，麪包師行業同意降低產品中鹽的食用量10%。

Anzalone says the government has a duty to protect its citizens from bad choices.

公共衛生主任Pablo Anzalone說政府有責任保護其公民避開壞的選擇。

"People make decisions based on conditioning and the advertising that large corporations unleash. This is now a serious problem of public health," Anzalone says.

Pablo Anzalone說："公衆的選擇受到大公司的廣告誘導以及現實條件的限制，這是個嚴重的公共衛生問題。"

Uruguay's leftist leadership has a history of getting involved in what in many countries is viewed as a private issue. The new president, Tabaré Vázquez, is a former doctor who championed Uruguay's tough anti-smoking laws in his first term of office. Recently, he has announced a war on alcohol consumption.

烏拉圭左翼領導人習慣於干涉在許多國家視爲個人私事的事務。新任總統，Tabaré Vázquez，曾經是醫生，在他的第一任期支持了強硬的反吸菸法。現在，又發起了一場對酒精消費的戰爭。

Liber Bisciottano works in an exclusive asado restaurant in Montevideo. So far there are no figures that show if the law, which was enacted a few years ago, is actually making a difference. He says though there is circumstantial evidence that shows it's changing people's habits.

Liber Bisciottano工作於蒙得維的亞一家獨家烤肉店。他認爲，到目前爲止沒有數據顯示這條几年前頒佈的法律帶來什麼實際的變化。儘管有證據表明人們的習慣有所改變。

"I've worked in the restaurant business for 11 years and at the beginning it was only 20 percent of people who didn't salt their food and now it's about 20 percent who do," he says.

"我在飯店幹了11年，開始的時候只有20%的人不在食物上撒鹽，現在只有20%的人撒鹽"。

He says he supports the law except for one thing.

他說除了一件事外，他都支持這項法律。

"It makes us have to work harder because we have to walk more — going back and forth to the kitchen to get salt," he says. "I think it's added an extra mile to my day."

"這增加了我們的工作，爲了拿鹽我們必須反覆去廚房，我想這大礙要讓我每天多走一英里"。