一个美国养生专家的美食建议 My Dinner With Longevity Expert Dan Buettner
Dan Buettner and I were off to a good start. He approved of coffee.
我和丹·比特纳(Dan Buettner)的会面有一个不错的开端。他同意跟我喝杯咖啡。
“It’s one of the biggest sources of antioxidants in the American diet,” he said with chipper confidence, folding up his black Brompton bike.
“在美式饮食中，咖啡是摄取抗氧化剂的主要来源之一，”他带着一股爽朗的自信说道，顺手将他那辆黑色的伯龙腾(Brompton)自行车折叠了起来。
As we walked through Greenwich Village, looking for a decent shot of joe to fuel an afternoon of shopping and cooking and talking about the enigma of longevity, he pointed out that the men and women of Icaria, a Greek island in the middle of the Aegean Sea, regularly slurp down two or three muddy cups a day.
我们一同漫步在格林威治村中，寻找好喝的咖啡，好在一下午的购物、烹饪以及探讨养生秘诀之后给自己补充些精力，他指出，在伊卡里亚岛——那座位于爱琴海中央的希腊小岛上，无论男女，通常每天都会灌下两到三大杯的咖啡。
This came as delightful news to me. Icaria has a key role in Mr. Buettner’s latest book, “The Blue Zones Solution,” which takes a deep dive into five places around the world where people have a beguiling habit of forgetting to die. In Icaria they stand a decent chance of living to see 100. Without coffee, I don’t see much point in making it to 50.
这对我来说，倒是条很让人开心的消息。伊卡里亚岛在比特纳先生的最新著作《解密蓝色区域》(The Blue Zones Solution)中占据着十分重要的地位，该书深入探索了世界上的五个地区，当地人有种会忘记死亡的有趣习惯。伊卡里亚岛上的人民，有很大的机会可以一直活到100岁。要是没有咖啡，我可不觉得活到50岁以后有什么乐趣可言。
The purpose of our rendezvous was to see whether the insights of a longevity specialist like Mr. Buettner could be applied to the life of a food-obsessed writer in New York, a man whose occupational hazards happen to include chicken wings, cheeseburgers, martinis and marathon tasting menus.
我们这次约见的目的，是为了看看比特纳先生这种养生专家的观点，是否也适用于纽约一名吃货作家的生活——此人的职业风险碰巧也包括鸡翅、芝士汉堡、马丁尼和老饕菜单.
Covering the world of gastronomy and mixology during the era of David Chang (career-defining dish: those Momofuku pork-belly buns) and April Bloomfield (career-defining dish: the lamb burger at the Breslin Bar and Dining Room) does not exactly feel like an enterprise that’s adding extra years to my life — or to my liver.
在张大卫(David Chang，成名菜：桃福[Momofuku]餐厅的五花肉包）和阿普丽尔·布鲁姆菲尔德(April Bloomfield，成名菜：Breslin Bar and Dining Room的羊肉汉堡）名噪一时的时代，充满了烹饪与调酒。我不太会有帮助我——或者说帮助我的肝——延年益寿的进取心。
And the recent deaths (even if accidental) of men in my exact demographic — the food writer Joshua Ozersky, the tech entrepreneur Dave Goldberg — had put me in a mortality-anxious frame of mind.
而且近来，我所关注的公众人物中，一名又一名的男性相继去世（包括意外事故在内）——美食作家约书亚·奥泽斯基(Joshua Ozersky)、科技企业家戴夫·古德伯格(Dave Goldberg)，这让我陷入了死亡焦虑的精神状态。
With my own half-century mark eerily visible on the horizon, could Mr. Buettner, who has spent the last 10 years unlocking the mysteries of longevity, offer me a midcourse correction?
眼看着我就要迎来自己的知天命之年，不知道过去十年里都在尝试解开长寿之谜的比特纳先生，能不能让我在中途修正一下我的人生呢？
To that end, he had decided to cook me something of a longevity feast. Visiting from his home in Minnesota and camped out at the townhouse of his friends Andrew Solomon and John Habich in the Village, this trim, tanned, 55-year-old guru of the golden years was geaRed up to show me that living a long time was not about subsisting on a thin gruel of, well, gruel.
最后，他决定为我烹饪一次养生宴。他离开了在明尼苏达州的住所，前往并暂时借住在他的朋友安德鲁·所罗门(Andrew Solomon)和约翰·哈贝克(John Habich)位于格林威治村的联排别墅中，这位身材颀长，皮肤黝黑，正值黄金年华的55岁大师，已经准备好向我展示，长寿并不是只靠喝稀粥做成的……稀粥。
After that blast of coffee, which I dutifully diluted with soy milk (as instructed) at O Cafe on Avenue of the Americas, Mr. Buettner and I set forth on our quest at the aptly named LifeThyme market, where signs in the window trumpeted the wonders of wheatgrass. He reassured me, again, by letting me know that penitent hedge clippings had no place in our Blue Zones repast.
于是我和比特纳先生在美国大道(Avenue of the Americas)上的O Cafe咖啡店喝了一轮咖啡，我还很守规矩地（依照指示）用豆奶替代了牛奶，其后，我们便启程前往名称应景的生命百里香超市(LifeThyme Market)，超市橱窗内的标志牌宣扬着小麦草的神奇作用，我和比特纳先生开始了我们的任务。比特纳先生让我知道了，在蓝色区域（Blue Zone，即世界上长寿老人比例最高的地区——译注）并不存在为赎罪要修剪篱笆这回事，这再一次地安抚了我。
“People think, ‘If I eat more of this, then it’s O.K. to eat more burgers or candy,’ ” he said. Instead, as he ambled through the market dropping herbs and vegetables into his basket, he insisted that our life-extending banquet would hinge on normal affordable items that almost anyone can pick up at the grocery store. He grabbed fennel and broccoli, celery and carrots, tofu and coconut milk, a bag of frozen berries and a can of chickpeas and a jar of local honey.
“人们总以为，‘只要我多吃点这个，那么再多吃些汉堡或糖果也不怕’，”他说道。事实上，他一边慢慢地逛着超市，不断将药草和蔬菜丢进篮子里，一边强调说，我们的养生宴用的全都是些价格实惠的常见食材，几乎人人都能在食品杂货店里买到。他拿了茴香和西兰花，西芹和胡萝卜，豆腐和椰浆，一袋冷冻浆果和一听鹰嘴豆，还有一罐当地产的蜂蜜。
The five communities spotlighted in “The Blue Zones Solution” (published by National Geographic) depend on simple methods of cooking that have evolved over centuries, and Mr. Buettner has developed a matter-of-fact disregard for gastro-trends of all stripes. At LifeThyme, he passed by refrigerated shelves full of vogue-ish juices in hues of green, orange and purple. He shook his head and said, “Bad!”
《解密蓝色区域》（由《美国国家地理》[National Geographic]出版）一书中所关注的五处社区，靠的都是一些简单的烹饪方法，在当地已经传承演化了数百年的时间，而比特纳先生对于那些五花八门、引人胃口的食材，已经培养出了一种不带感情的漠视态度。他在生命百里香超市里，走过一排排的冷藏货架，里面摆满了五颜六色的时新果汁——绿的、黄的和紫的。他摇了摇头，念了一句：“差劲！”
“The glycemic index on that is as bad as Coke,” he went on, snatching a bottle of carrot juice to scan the label. “For eight ounces, there’s 14 grams of sugar. People get suckered into thinking, ‘Oh, I’m drinking this juice.’ Skip the juicing. Eat the fruit. Or eat the vegetable.” (How about a protein shake? “No,” he said.)
“那堆东西的血糖指标跟可乐一样可怕，”他走了过去，抓起一瓶胡萝卜汁，浏览瓶身上的标签。“这一瓶才8盎司，却含有14克的糖分。大家还真的以为‘我是在喝胡萝卜榨的汁’呢。喝什么榨汁。直接吃水果才是正经。或者直接吃蔬菜。”（那蛋白粉饮料呢？“别喝，”他说。）
So far, I was feeling pretty good about my chances of making it to 100. I love coffee, I’m not much of a juicer and I’ve never had a protein shake in my life. Bingo. I figured that pretty soon Mr. Buettner would throw me a dietary curveball (I noticed with vague concern that he was not putting any meat or cheese into his basket), but by this point I was already thinking about how fun it would be to meet my great-grandchildren.
到现在为止，我觉得自己还是有很大机会能活到100岁的。我爱喝咖啡，我不怎么喝榨汁，我这一生中也从来没有喝过一杯蛋白粉饮料。赞。我料想比特纳先生很快就会向我丢来一只饮食“曲线球”（我暗地里注意到，他没有往购物篮里放入任何肉类或奶酪），但是此时此刻，我已经开始幻想能够见到自己的曾孙们会是件多么开心的事了。
I felt even better when he and I started talking about strenuous exercise, which for me falls somewhere between “root canal” and “Justin Bieber concert” on the personal aversion scale.
当我们两人开始聊起剧烈运动时，我甚至感觉更好了。要知道剧烈运动在我的个人厌恶排行榜上，大概可以排在“牙根管手术”与“贾斯汀·比伯演唱会”之间。
I like to go for long walks, and … well, that’s about it.
我喜欢多走路，还有……嗯，也就这样了。
“That’s when I knew you’d be O.K.,” Mr. Buettner told me.
“我就知道你没问题的，”比特纳先生对我说道。
It turns out that walking is a popular mode of transport in the Blue Zones, too — particularly on the sun-splattered slopes of Sardinia, Italy, where many of those who make it to 100 are shepherds who devote the bulk of each day to wandering the hills and treating themselves to sips of red wine.
原来步行也是蓝色区域盛行的一种交通方式——尤其是在阳光洒满山坡的意大利撒丁岛(Sardinia)，那里有许多活到了100岁的居民都是牧羊人，将每天的大把时光都用在了在山间闲逛，和啜饮几口红酒来犒劳自己。
“A glass of wine is better than a glass of water with a Mediterranean meal,” Mr. Buettner told me.
“吃地中海料理的时候，配上一杯红酒要比一杯清水好，”比特纳先生对我说。
Red wine and long walks? If that’s all it takes, people, you’re looking at Methuselah.
红酒和多走路？如果这就是长寿的全部秘诀，各位，你们面前现在就站着一位玛土撒拉(Methuselah)哪。
O.K., yes, Mr. Buettner moves his muscles a lot more than I do. He likes to go everywhere on that fold-up bike, which he hauls along with him on trips, and sometimes he does yoga and goes in-line skating. But he generally believes that the high-impact exercise mania as practiced in the major cities of the United States winds up doing as much harm as good.
好吧，没错，比特纳先生的运动量要比我大多了。他去任何地方都喜欢骑着他那辆折叠自行车，在旅途中也会全程携带，他有时还去练瑜伽和滑直排轮。不过他基本认为，像美国大城市里常见的那种高强度运动狂，往往最后落下的伤病和得到的锻炼一样多。
“You can’t be pounding your joints with marathons and pumping iron,” he said. “You’ll never see me doing CrossFit.”
“你不能任由马拉松和重量训练为你的关节增加负担，”他说道，“你永远不会看到我去做体能训练。”
For that evening’s meal, Mr. Buettner planned to cook dishes that would make reference to the quintet of places that he focuses on in “The Blue Zones Solution”: along with Icaria and Sardinia, they are Okinawa, Japan; the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica; and Loma Linda, Calif., where Seventh-day Adventists have a tendency to outlive their fellow Americans, thanks to a mostly vegetarian diet that is heavy on nuts, beans, oatmeal, 100 percent whole-grain bread and avocados.
关于当天的晚餐，比特纳先生计划烹制几道菜肴，它们全部借鉴自《解密蓝色区域》一书中所关注的五个地区：除了伊卡里亚岛和撒丁岛外，还有日本的冲绳、哥斯达黎加(Costa Rica)的尼科亚半岛(Nicoya Peninsula)，以及美国加州的罗马琳达(Loma Linda)，当地的基督复临安息日会(Seventh-day Adventists)教友普遍要比一般的美国人更长寿，这要多谢他们以素食为主的饮食，其中含有大量的坚果、豆类、燕麦、全麦面包和牛油果。
We walked from the market to the townhouse. And it was here, as Mr. Buettner laid out his cooking ingredients on a table in Mr. Solomon’s and Mr. Habich’s commodious, state-of-the-art kitchen, that I noticed the first real disconnect between the lives of the Blue Zones sages and the life of a food writer who has enjoyed many a lunch hour scarfing down charcuterie, tapas and pork-belly-topped ramen at the Gotham West Market food court.
我们出了超市，回到联排别墅。比特纳先生将他买到的食材，全部摆到所罗门先生和哈贝克先生那宽敞又先进的厨房里的桌子上，就在此时，我注意到，一名经常在午餐时间，狼吞虎咽纽约西市场美食广场的各种猪肉熟食、西班牙小吃和五花肉拉面的美食作家，与蓝色区域的哲人们，在生活上真实存在的第一道鸿沟。
Where was the butter? Hadn’t some nice scientists determined that butter’s not so lethal for us, after all? (“My view is that butter, lard and other animal fats are a bit like radiation: a dollop a couple of times a week probably isn’t going to hurt you, but we don’t know the safe level,” Mr. Buettner later wrote in an email. “At any rate, I can send along a paper that largely refutes the whole ‘Butter is Back’ craze.” No, thanks, I’m good.)
黄油在哪儿？不是有一些善良的科学家判定，黄油对我们并没有那么糟吗？（“在我看来，黄油，还有猪油和其他动物类脂肪，都有点像辐射：一周吃上两次，每次一小块，是不会给你带来什么坏处的，但是我们并不了解具体的安全水平，”比特纳先生后来在一封电子邮件里写道，“不管怎样，我可以发给你一篇论文，它在很大程度上驳斥了整套‘黄油回归’热。”不了，谢谢，我不需要）
Where was the meat? Where was the cheese? (No cheese? And here I thought we’d be friends for another 50 years, Mr. Buettner.)
肉在哪儿？奶酪在哪儿？（没有奶酪？我以为我们可以再做上50年的朋友的，比特纳先生）
“If you’re eating this meal, you’re getting all the protein you need,” he promised me, although it wasn’t my protein intake I was worried about.
他向我承诺道：“吃完这顿饭后，你会获得你所需要的所有蛋白质，”虽然我所担心的并不是我的蛋白质摄入情况。
Although it is by no means a stealth vegan manifesto, “The Blue Zones Solution” frequently mentions that men and women in these longevity-friendly regions tend to eat meat and fish only sparingly, and they almost never tangle with cow’s milk. Mr. Buettner had leapt to the conclusion that I had probably had enough meat and cheese for the week already. He was correct.
虽然《解密蓝色区域》一书在任何意义上，都不算是一篇隐晦的素食者宣言，但它频繁提到，这些长寿地区的居民，无论男女，通常只会吃少量的肉类和鱼类，他们对牛奶也几乎没有任何执念。比特纳先生已经直接得出了结论：我大概已经摄入了这周所需的肉类和奶酪。他说得对。
“We’re making up for all your sins tonight,” he told me. “What you learn tonight is going to set you on a new path.”
“今晚我们要弥补你所有的罪过，”他对我说，“你今晚所学到的东西，将会带你走上新的道路。”
The centerpiece of Mr. Buettner’s dinner was a dish he had named “Icarian stew,” which involved a big pot of black-eyed peas, fennel, onions, garlic, carrots, canned tomatoes and other plant-based delights simmered for hours and then topped with a few glugs of extra-virgin olive oil.
比特纳先生准备的晚餐主菜，是一道他口中的“伊卡里亚岛炖汤”，用一大罐豇豆、茴香、洋葱、蒜、胡萝卜、罐头装西红柿及其他植物类食品放在一起炖上几个小时，然后淋上几滴初榨橄榄油。
“I eat this all the time,” he said. “This is how I seduced Kathy Freston, by the way. You ask her. Ask her if Icarian stew has any role in her love for me.” (Mr. Buettner is dating Ms. Freston, the author and advocate of veganism who used to be married to Tom Freston, the former MTV executive.)
“我一直吃的都是这个，”他说道，“顺便说一句，我就是靠这道菜让凯茜·弗雷斯顿(Kathy Freston)迷上我的。你可以去问问她。问她伊卡里亚岛炖汤在她对我的爱中有没有起到什么作用。”（比特纳先生正在与弗雷斯顿女士约会，后者是作家兼素食主义倡导者，曾与原MTV高管汤姆·弗雷斯顿[Tom Freston]有过一段婚史）
Raised in Minnesota, Mr. Buettner (pronounced BYOOT-ner) grew up eating “hotdish and Hamburger Helper — the usual Midwest crap,” he said.
在明尼苏达州长大的比特纳先生说，“热菜和汉堡帮手(Hamburger Helper)的料理包——最常见的中西部垃圾食物”，他从小吃到大。
But in 2005 he wrote an article about the secrets of longevity for National Geographic, and the lightning-striking success of it bestowed upon him both a career mission (starting with his first book, “The Blue Zones: 9 Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who’ve Lived the Longest,” in 2008) and a new mode of looking at food.
但是在2005年，他为《美国国家地理》写了一篇文章，探讨长寿的秘诀，突如其来的成功为他带来了一项职业使命（以他在2008年出版的处女作《蓝色区域：世界最长寿者的九大长寿秘诀》[The Blue Zones: 9 Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who’ve Lived the Longest]为开端），也让他看待食物有了一种新的角度。
He’s now a fierce believer in Japanese yams, wild greens and milk thistle. (Throughout “The Blue Zones Solution,” he stresses that people in these parts of the world don’t just happen to live a long time, they do so with lower rates of the diabetes, heart disease and dementia that seem to afflict much of the junk-food-gobbling globe.)
他现在是日本山药、野菜和奶蓟草的虔诚信徒。（《解密蓝色区域》一书从头到尾都在强调，这些地区的居民并非只是凑巧活得比较久而已，他们在糖尿病、心脏病和老年痴呆方面的患病率也很低，而这些疾病似乎是许多垃圾食物重灾区的地方病）
Not long ago he dropped by the Mayo Clinic to meet a doctor for an executive physical. “I wanted to see if it really paid off,” Mr. Buettner said. “And apparently it has. I had the clearest arteries he’d ever seen in a 54-year-old man.”
不久前，他前往梅约诊所(Mayo Clinic)，找医生做了次体检。“我想看看这么做是不是真的有效，”比特纳先生说，“结果似乎是有效的。我体内的动脉是他在54岁的男性身上见过的最干净的。”
Nevertheless, his findings over the last decade do put him at odds with a controversial range of culinary belief systems.
尽管如此，他在过去十年里的发现，确实将他摆到了传统美食理念的对立面。
During our afternoon and evening together, he joked that the paleo diet is fine if all you want is the life expectancy of a cave man. The raw food movement? Mr. Buettner brushed it aside and pointed out that in all of the Blue Zones, people cook their meals, sometimes for hours.
在我们共处的那一整个下午和傍晚，他都在开玩笑地说，古代饮食没什么问题，只要你想要的只是和山顶洞人活得一样长。生食运动？比特纳先生对此无动于衷，他解释说，在所有那些蓝色区域里，人们都会烹制自己的饮食，有时候甚至会用上几个小时的时间。
Fear of a wheat planet? “Bogus,” he said. After a couple of hours in the kitchen, Mr. Buettner defied the carb-avoiders and gluten-dodgers of America by dashing over to Union Square on foot to score several loaves of long-fermented, freshly baked sourdough at Breads Bakery.
害怕地球被小麦完全占领吗？“想太多了，”他说。在厨房里辛苦劳作了几个小时后，比特纳先生徒步奔向了联合广场(Union Square)，在面包房Breads Bakery购买了几块长时间发酵、新鲜烘培出来的酸面包，以此表达了对美国低碳水摄入者和低麸质摄入者的蔑视。
“A true sourdough bread will actually lower the glycemic load of a meal,” he said. “But it has to be a real sourdough bread.” (Whew. We were back to the good news.)
“一块正宗的酸面包，其实有助于降低一餐为人体带来的血糖负担，”他说，“但必须得是正宗的酸面包才行。”（唷！我们终于又开始听到好消息了）
After a bunch of his friends had gathered in the kitchen (Mr. Buettner referred to them as his New York “moai,” which is an Okinawan term for a circle of people who purposefully meet up and look out for one another), he opened a bottle of hard-to-find Sardinian wine and asked them to take their seats. Among them were Mr. Solomon, the author of books like “Far From the Tree” and “The Noonday Demon,” and Samantha Boardman, a psychiatrist and the wife of the real-estate tycoon Aby J. Rosen.
在他的一帮朋友聚到了厨房内后（比特纳先生称他们为他的纽约“摩埃”[moai]，这个词语在冲绳语中指的是会主动聚会和相互关心的朋友圈子），他开了一瓶难得一见的撒丁岛红酒，吩咐大家就座。在座的有所罗门先生，他是《那些与众不同的孩子》(Far From the Tree)、《抑郁》(The Noonday Demon)等书的作者，还有萨曼莎·鲍德曼(Samantha Boardman)，精神病学家，也是房地产大鳄阿比·罗森(Aby J. Rosen)的夫人。
There came a broccoli soup thickened with cashew cream; a simple Japanese paste made from mixing sweet potato and coconut milk; a honey-touched tofu parfait crowned with a berry compote, which Mr. Buettner called “a little naughty” because it was sweeter than what you would normally find in a sugar-averse Blue Zone. (Naughty? I guess Mr. Buettner has never had the gochujang Buffalo wings at Seoul Chicken.)
于是陆续上了一道用腰果乳增稠的西兰花汤，用甘薯和椰浆调制的简单日式调料，点了少许蜂蜜的豆腐冻糕，上面还盖了一层浆果蜜饯，比特纳先生为它取了个名字叫“小淘气”，因为它要比你平时在不爱吃糖的蓝色区域所吃到的更甜一些。（淘气？我猜比特纳先生从来没有尝过首尔炸鸡[Seoul Chicken]的韩式苦椒酱布法罗辣鸡翅）
Mr. Solomon, although enthusiastic about the longevity feast, appeared to be reading my mind. “No cheese in Sardinia?” he asked, a trace of longing in his voice.
所罗门先生虽然对养生宴充满热情，但却似乎看出了我的想法。“撒丁岛没有奶酪吗？”他问道，语调中流露出了一丝渴望的味道。
The meal itself was delicious and nourishing, even if there were moments when my restaurant-conditioned palate was crying out for salt. In a sense, though, the meal was almost beside the point, blurring as it went on into waves of wine and conviviality.
所有餐品都很美味，也很滋补，即便有那么几次，我被餐馆调教出来的味觉在迫切呼唤着食盐的存在。虽然在某种意义上，这顿饭几乎偏离了主题，当大家开始进入畅饮红酒和交际状态时，更是完全模糊掉了重点。
Along the way, Mr. Buettner stage-whispered into Mr. Solomon’s ear, asking whether our host might be willing to dip into the wine cellar for a special bottle or two. Icaria is known for the longevity of its residents; it’s also known for Dionysian all-night parties. I can’t say for sure whether I felt longevity coursing through my veins, but there was a fair amount of alcohol.
一路上，比特纳先生用其他人也能听见的声音，靠在所罗门先生耳边私语，询问我们的这位东家有没有可能愿意从酒窖里拿出一两瓶特制红酒出来。伊卡里亚岛出名的不仅是长寿的居民，还有通宵达旦的酒神节派对。我不敢说我是否感受到长寿因子正在我的血管中流淌，不过相当数量的酒精倒肯定是有的。
“The secret sauce is the right mix of friends,” Mr. Buettner said.
“我的秘制酱料就是脾胃投契的朋友聚会，”比特纳先生说。
And as each course arrived (the Icarian stew claiming its rich, flavor-deep place as an obvious showstopper), Mr. Buettner called attention to a last point about the Blue Zones: that in longevity idylls like Icaria, it’s not just about what you eat, but how you eat, and how much you and your friends enjoy a meal together.
每当有一道菜上桌（伊卡里亚岛炖汤因口感丰富口味浓郁而大受欢迎），比特纳先生便会呼吁大家关注蓝色区域的最后一项要点：在伊卡里亚岛这样的养生田园环境中，重要的不仅是你吃了什么，还有你是怎么吃的，以及你和朋友在一起吃得有多开心。
“Dan, do any of the Blue Zones people eat kale salad?” Mr. Solomon asked.
“丹，蓝色区域里有没有人吃羽衣甘蓝沙拉呀？”所罗门先生问道。
“No,” Mr. Buettner replied. “They eat food that they enjoy.”
“没有，”比特纳先生答道，“他们只吃能让他们吃得开心的食物。”
