Day 16 Protein mania: the rich world’s new diet obsession

卫报文章

蛋白质狂潮：富人世界新近的饮食执念

Protein 蛋白质

Mania. n.狂热/'meɪnɪə/

obsession /əb'seʃ(ə)n/ n. 困扰

Are you getting enough protein? The question provides its own answer: if you are worrying about the amount of protein in your diet, then you are almost certainly eating more than enough.

你摄入足够的蛋白质了吗？这个问题本身就提供了它的答案：如果你正在担忧你的饮食中蛋白质的含量，那么你基本上肯定是吃得太多了。

You merely need to visit a western supermarket today to see that many people regard protein as some kind of universal elixir – one food companies are profitably adding to anything they can. “When the Box Says ‘Protein’, Shoppers Say ‘I’ll take it’” was the headline of a 2013 article in the Wall Street Journal.

Universal a.广泛的，普遍的

elixir /ɪ'lɪksə/ n.不老长寿药

今天，你只要去任何一家西方国家的超市，就会看到许多人视蛋白质为某种包治百病的灵丹妙药——食品公司出于利润的考虑，会将这种灵丹妙药加入所有他们能加入的产品中。《只要包装盒上出现“蛋白质”，顾客就会说“我买”》是 2013 年《华尔街日报》上的一个文章标题。

The intensity of our protein obsession can only be understood as part of a wider series of diet battles that go back half a century. If we now thirst for protein as if it were water, it may be because the other two macronutrients – fats and carbohydrates – have each in turn been made to seem toxic in the public mind.

intensity n.强烈，剧烈

macro-巨大的

carbon 碳

hydrate 水合物

Toxic 有毒的

人们对于蛋白质的痴迷之强烈，只能被理解为是半个世纪以来，一系列更为广泛的饮食习惯战争的一部分。如果现在我们渴望蛋白质的程度，就仿佛它是水一样，那可能是因为其他两大主要营养素——脂肪和碳水化合物——已经在公众的脑海中，先后被渲染成了似乎有毒的形象。

In the current nutrition wars, protein has emerged as the last macronutrient left standing. David L Katz, an American doctor and public health scholar who is the director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center said: “First they told us to cut fat. But instead of wholegrains and lentils, we ate low-fat junk food.” Then food marketers heard the message about cutting carbs and sold us protein-enriched junk foods instead.

carbs碳水化合物

在当前的营养战争中，蛋白质已然成为了最后一个“屹立不倒”的主要营养素。美国医生、公共健康学者、耶鲁-格里芬疾病预防研究中心主任大卫·L·凯兹说：“最开始他们告诉我们要减少脂肪摄入，然而我们不吃全谷物食品和小扁豆，却吃上了低脂肪含量的垃圾食品。”之后，食品公司们听说了要减少碳水摄入量的消息，于是取而代之，又开始向我们出售富含蛋白质的垃圾食品。

For decades now, there has been a tendency to think about what we eat and drink in terms of nutrients, rather than real whole ingredients in all their complexity. A combination of diet fads and clever marketing has got us here. It doesn’t matter whether we fixate on “low fat” or “low carbs” or “high protein” – we are making the same old mistakes about nutrition in a new form.

近几十年来，人们倾向于从营养素的角度，而不是从食物实际整体所含成分之复杂的角度来考虑我们的饮食。正是各类饮食习惯的风潮以及精明的市场营销策略的结合使我们走到今天这般田地。无论我们是沉迷于“低脂”或者“低碳水”又或者“高蛋白”的概念——我们其实只是在以新的形式重复相同而老套的营养学错误。