别再担心饱和脂肪了,糖才是你应该担心的食物

For decades, in terms of heart health, we've concentrated on the harm that could be inflicted by saturated animal fat. Sugar wasn't even considered. We were wrong. When sugar did eventually get a mention it was because it contributed to obesity - and thereby to diabetes - because it's high in calories and linked to weight gain.

就心脏健康而言，我们几十年来都专注于动物饱和脂肪可能造成的危害。甚至都没有考虑过糖。但我们错了。人们最终想到糖是因为它导致肥胖--从而导致糖尿病--因为糖的热量很高，还会导致体重增加。

But to do that ignores the harm we now know sugar itself can do. It's not innocent white stuff. It's toxic. So believes science writer Gary Taubes. He thinks we're missing the point in believing diabetes results from too many calories working alongside a sedentary lifestyle. Sugar isn't benign, he says.

但这样做却忽略了我们所知的糖本身可以带来的危害。糖可没有它的颜色那般纯真无邪。糖是有毒的，所以你要相信科学作家盖里·陶布斯。他认为我们错误的以为糖尿病的起因是我们长时间工作无法燃烧热量，以及久坐不动的生活方式所造成的。他说，糖可不是良性的。

The theory is that sugar has harmful effects on the human body ?independent of its calories and it will cause disease. How, you ask? It's all to do with the fructose component of sugar (and high fructose syrup), which is metabolised primarily in the liver. This can lead to the accumulation of liver fat which promotes insulin resistance, the fundamental cause of Type 2 diabetes.

理论在于糖会对人体产生危害--与卡路里无关，而且会造成疾病。你会问，糖是怎么做到这一点的？主要与糖的果糖成分（以及高果糖糖浆）相关，它主要在肝脏中代谢。从而可能导致肝脏脂肪堆积，促进胰岛素抵抗，也就是2型糖尿病的根本原因。

The sugar industry's PR campaign to support the villain, sugar, set research back by 20 years - but didn't end it, thank heavens. Gradually information emerged that large doses of sugar could cause a cluster of metabolic errors that link to heart disease, insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver and accumulation of fat.

糖业的公关活动支持这个大反派--糖，使研究倒退了20年--但却没有终止人们的研究，感谢老天爷。渐渐的出现了这样的信息：大剂量的糖可能导致一系列与心脏病、胰岛素抵抗和2型糖尿病、脂肪肝和脂肪堆积等代谢问题。

We're still trying to confirm for sure if raised blood sugar and high insulin levels lie behind the current epidemic of Type 2 diabetes we're living through. But if it turns out that the fructose content of sugar and high fructose syrups makes them uniquely toxic, then the dietary advice of the past 40 years has been very wrong. We've been fooled.

我们仍在努力确认，血糖升高和胰岛素水平高是否导致了目前流行的2型糖尿病。但如果结果表明糖和高果糖糖浆中含有的果糖成分使得这些产品具有独特的毒性，那么过去40年来的饮食建议就大错特错了。我们被耍了。

So what do we do? Setting an upper limit to the amount of sugar we should consume is a good start. But what's the safe level? Whatever level we choose it could be too high for some people and causing damage.

所以我们该做些什么？设定摄入糖分的最高限度是一个好的开始。但摄入多少才是安全的呢？不论我们选择摄入多少，对有些人来说总有可能是高的，可能会对他们造成伤害。