好英语网吃出健康，而不是吃掉体重
ALMOST half of Americans are on a diet — not surprising, since two-thirds are overweight or obese, a frightening statistic that inspired Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to push through a ban on large soft drinks in New York City. The country is preoccupied with calories. McDonald’s, for instance, is now posting them. But our widespread hope for weight loss makes us vulnerable to all kinds of promises, even ones that aren’t true, when it comes to food.
几乎一半的美国人都在节食——这并不奇怪，因为三分之二的美国人都体重偏高或肥胖。这个可怕的数字促使市长迈克尔·R·布隆伯格(Michael R. Bloomberg)在纽约市内限制销售大号杯软饮料。美国人总是不放心卡路里。比如说，麦当劳(McDonald’s)就公布了其食品所含的热量。由于大家都想减肥，我们很容易相信饮食方面各种各样的说法，甚至是那些不正确的信息。
Perhaps the biggest misconception is that as long as you lose weight, it doesn’t matter what you eat. But it does. Yet being thin and being healthy are not at all the same thing. Being overweight is not necessarily linked with disease or premature death. What you eat affects which diseases you may develop, regardless of whether you’re thin or fat. Some diets that may help you lose weight may be harmful to your health over time.
最大的误区也许在于，只要能减肥，吃什么都无所谓。但实际上吃什么是有所谓的。苗条和健康完全不是一回事。过重也未必和疾病或过早死亡有关。但不管苗条还是肥胖，你吃的东西能影响你可能患的疾病。有些节食食谱可能有助于减肥，但长期而言则可能会危害你的健康。
A widely publicized study earlier this year showed that a low-carb Atkins-type diet might be a faster way to lose weight. That may have given many people the idea that eating meat and butter is the route to thinness and thus health.
今年早些时候广为报道的一项研究结果称，提倡低碳水化合物的阿特金斯饮食法（指通过多吃含有蛋白质的食物、同时少吃碳水化合物食品来减肥——译注）也许能让人更快地减肥。这可能让很多人觉得吃肉和黄油就可以让人身材苗条，从而保持健康。
In 35 years of medical research, conducted at the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute, which I founded, we have seen that patients who ate mostly plant-based meals, with dishes like black bean vegetarian chili and whole wheat penne pasta with roasted vegetables, achieved reversal of even severe coronary artery disease. They also engaged in moderate exercise and stress-management techniques, and participated in a support group. The program also led to improved blood flow and significantly less inflammation which matters because chronic inflammation is an underlying cause of heart disease and many forms of cancer. We found that this program may also slow, stop or reverse the progression of early stage prostate cancer, as well as reverse the progression of Type 2 diabetes.
在我发起的非盈利性机构预防医学研究所(Preventive Medicine Research Institute)，一项医学研究已经进行了35年。我们在研究中观察到，以吃植物食品为主的患者，比如食用黑豆香辣素什锦、全麦通心粉以及烤蔬菜，其病情都会好转，甚至连严重的冠状动脉疾病也不例外。同时，他们进行适度锻炼，用各种技巧为自己减压并参加互助小组。这项研究的生活方式也改善了他们的血液循环并显著减少了他们的炎症。这一点很重要，因为慢性炎症是引发心脏病和多种癌症的根本原因。我们发现，项目的生活方式可能减缓、抑制或逆转早期前列腺癌的发展，也可能逆转II型糖尿病的发展。
Also, we found that it changed gene expression in over 500 genes in just three months, “turning on” genes that protect against disease and “turning off” genes that promote breast cancer, prostate cancer, inflammation and oxidative stress.
我们同时发现，这种做法在短短三个月内改变了500多个基因表达。它一边“启动”对抗疾病的基因，一边“关闭”促进乳腺癌、前列腺癌、炎症和氧化应激的基因。
The program, too, has been associated with increased telomerase, which increases telomere length, the ends of our chromosomes that are thought to control how long we live (studies done in collaboration with Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, who shared the Nobel Prize in 2009 with Carol Greider and Jack Szostak for discovering telomerase). As our telomeres get longer, our lives may get longer.
这种生活方式还会使端粒酶活性增加。端粒酶能延长端粒，后者处于染色体末端，人们认为端粒控制着我们寿命的长短。（该研究是与伊丽莎白·布莱克本[Elizabeth Blackburn]博士合作完成的。布莱克本博士与卡罗尔·格雷德[Carol Greider]和杰克·绍斯塔克[Jack Szostak]因发现端粒酶而共同获得了2009年诺贝尔奖）。端粒越长，我们的寿命也许会越长。
In a randomized controlled trial, patients on this lifestyle program lost an average of 24 pounds after one year and maintained a 12-pound weight loss after five years. The more closely the patients followed this program, the more improvement we measured in each category — at any age.
在随机对照试验中，我们发现以这种方式生活的患者一年后体重平均下降了24磅（约合10.9公斤），五年后的体重仍比原来少12磅（约合5.44公斤）。在任何年龄，患者越严格遵循这种生活方式，他们在我们检测的各方面的改善就越明显。
It’s not low carb or low fat. An optimal diet is low in unhealthful carbs (both sugar and other refined carbohydrates) and low in fat (especially saturated fats and trans fats) as well as in red meat and processed foods.
健康饮食并非低碳水化合物或低脂。最佳饮食方法是少食用不健康的碳水化合物（糖和其他精制碳水化合物）、脂肪（尤其是饱和脂肪和反式脂肪）、红肉和加工食品。
WHAT you eat is as important as what you exclude — your diet needs to be high in healthful carbs like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, soy products in natural, unrefined forms and some fish, like salmon. There are hundreds of thousands of health-enhancing substances in these foods. And what’s good for you is good for the planet.
吃什么和不吃什么同样重要。饮食要富含有利于健康的碳水化合物，如水果、蔬菜、全谷类食品、豆类、天然豆制品、非精制加工食品和鲑鱼等鱼类。这些食品含有大量能提高健康水平的物质，而且对您有益的食物也有益于地球。
Calories do count — fat is much denser in calories, so when you eat less fat, you consume fewer calories, without consuming less food. Also, it’s easy to eat too many calories from sugar and other refined carbs because they are so low in fiber that you can consume large amounts without getting full. Sugar is absorbed so quickly that you get repeated insulin surges, which promote Type 2 diabetes and accelerate the conversion of calories into body fat.
卡路里确实也很重要。脂肪所含热量远高于其他食品，因此如果你少吃脂肪，你就可以少摄入热量，而无需少吃食物。此外，我们很容易从糖等精制碳水化合物中摄入过多热量，原因是它们的纤维含量很低，即使吃很多也不会有饱腹感。人体对糖的吸收很快，并会因此反复大量分泌胰岛素，这将加重II型糖尿病并加快热量转化为体内脂肪的速度。
But never underestimate the power of telling people what they want to hear — like cheeseburgers and bacon are good for you. People are drawn to Atkins-type diets in part because, as the study showed, they produce a higher metabolic rate. But a low-carb diet increases metabolic rate because it’s stressful to your body. Just because something increases your metabolic rate doesn’t mean it’s good for you. Amphetamines will also increase your metabolism and burn calories faster, which is why they are used to help people lose weight, at least temporarily. But they stress your body and may mortgage your health in the progress.
有些话能说到人们的心坎儿里，千万别小觑了这些话的威力——比如说什么奶酪汉堡和培根对人有好处。人们对阿特金斯饮食法趋之若鹜，部分原因就在于正如上述研究所显示的那样，这种方法能产生较高的代谢率。但低碳水化合物饮食能提高代谢率是因为它给身体带来了负荷。能提高代谢率并不意味着对身体有好处。安非他明也能加快新陈代谢和热量消耗速度，这就是为什么有人用它来减肥，至少是暂时减轻体重。但它会对身体产生压力，从而在长远来看有害健康。
Patients on an Atkins diet in this study showed more than double the level of CRP (C-reactive protein), which is a measure of chronic inflammation and also significantly higher levels of cortisol, a key stress hormone. Both of these increase the risk of heart disease and other chronic diseases. A major research article published recently in the British Medical Journal studied 43,396 Swedish women over 16 years. It concluded that “low carbohydrate-high protein diets ... are associated with increased risk of cardiovascular diseases.” An important article in The New England Journal of Medicine examined data from a study showing that high-protein, low-carb diets promote coronary artery disease even if they don’t increase traditional cardiac risk factors like blood pressure or cholesterol levels. A diet low in fat and high in unrefined carbohydrates caused the least amount of coronary artery blockages, whereas an Atkins-type diet caused the most.
在我们的研究中，采用阿特金斯饮食法的患者的CRP（C-反应蛋白）水平提高了一倍以上。这种蛋白是检测慢性炎症的一个指标；他们的关键压力激素——皮质醇的水平也显著上升。这两种物质都会增大患心脏病或其他慢性疾病的风险。最近，《英国医学杂志》(British Medical Journal)发表了一个大型研究成果，经过对43396名瑞典女性长达16年的研究，报告得出结论认为“低碳水化合物和高蛋白质饮食……与患心血管疾病的风险增大有关联。”《新英格兰医学杂志》(The New England Journal of Medicine)刊登的一篇重要文章对研究数据的分析表明，即使高蛋白低碳水化合物饮食不会增加传统的心脏风险因素，如血压或胆固醇的水平，这种饮食法也会促进冠状动脉疾病的发生。脂肪含量低而非精制碳水化合物含量高的饮食引发的冠状动脉阻塞数量最少，而阿特金斯饮食法造成的冠状动脉阻塞最多。
Outcomes from more than 37,000 men from the Harvard-sponsored Health Professionals Follow-Up Study and more than 83,000 women from the Nurses’ Health Study who were followed for many years showed that consumption of both processed and unprocessed red meat, a mainstay of an Atkins diet, is associated with an increased risk of premature death as well as greater incidence of cardiovascular disease, cancer and Type 2 diabetes.
哈佛(Harvard)发起的“健康专业人员追踪研究”覆盖了超过3.7万名男性，而“护士健康研究”覆盖了逾8.3万名女性。这两项研究的多年追踪结果表明，作为阿特金斯饮食法的主要食品，加工和未加工红肉的摄取和过早死亡风险的增大以及心血管疾病、癌症和II型糖尿病发病率的上升有关。
About 75 percent of the $2.8 trillion in annual health care costs in the United States is from chronic diseases that can often be reversed or prevented altogether by a healthy lifestyle. If we put money and effort into helping people make better food and exercise choices, we could improve our health and reduce the cost of health care. For example, Medicare is now covering this program for reversing heart disease. In an increasingly polarized political landscape, this approach provides an alternative to some Republicans who want to privatize or dismantle Medicare and some Democrats who want to simply raise taxes or increase the deficit without addressing the diet and lifestyle choices that account for so much health spending.
美国每年的医疗保健费用为2.8万亿美元，其中约75%用于治疗慢性疾病，而健康的生活方式往往可以逆转或从源头预防这些慢性疾病。如果投入资金和精力来帮助人们更好地选择食物和锻炼方法，我们就可以提高健康水平、降低医疗保健开销。举例来说，联邦医疗保险现在支付参加研究项目患者的费用，以期逆转他们心脏病的进程。目前两党分歧越发严重，有些共和党人希望将联邦医疗保险私有化或予以取消，有些民主党人则只想简单地增加税收或扩大赤字，而没有考虑到饮食和生活方式的选择会如此深远地影响医疗支出。在这两个极端之间，这种方法能提供另外一种选择。
This way of living helps you lose weight and keep it off while enhancing rather than harming your health.
这种生活方式可以帮助你远离肥胖，同时还可以提高你的健康水平而不是对你的身体造成损害。