別再擔心飽和脂肪了,糖纔是你應該擔心的食物

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.

就心臟健康而言，我們幾十年來都專注於動物飽和脂肪可能造成的危害。甚至都沒有考慮過糖。但我們錯了。人們最終想到糖是因爲它導致肥胖--從而導致糖尿病--因爲糖的熱量很高，還會導致體重增加。

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.

但這樣做卻忽略了我們所知的糖本身可以帶來的危害。糖可沒有它的顏色那般純真無邪。糖是有毒的，所以你要相信科學作家蓋裏·陶布斯。他認爲我們錯誤的以爲糖尿病的起因是我們長時間工作無法燃燒熱量，以及久坐不動的生活方式所造成的。他說，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.

理論在於糖會對人體產生危害--與卡路里無關，而且會造成疾病。你會問，糖是怎麼做到這一點的？主要與糖的果糖成分（以及高果糖糖漿）相關，它主要在肝臟中代謝。從而可能導致肝臟脂肪堆積，促進胰島素抵抗，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.

糖業的公關活動支持這個大反派--糖，使研究倒退了20年--但卻沒有終止人們的研究，感謝老天爺。漸漸的出現了這樣的信息：大劑量的糖可能導致一系列與心臟病、胰島素抵抗和2型糖尿病、脂肪肝和脂肪堆積等代謝問題。

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.

我們仍在努力確認，血糖升高和胰島素水平高是否導致了目前流行的2型糖尿病。但如果結果表明糖和高果糖糖漿中含有的果糖成分使得這些產品具有獨特的毒性，那麼過去40年來的飲食建議就大錯特錯了。我們被耍了。

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.

所以我們該做些什麼？設定攝入糖分的最高限度是一個好的開始。但攝入多少纔是安全的呢？不論我們選擇攝入多少，對有些人來說總有可能是高的，可能會對他們造成傷害。