吃鹽也會使人上癮 竟類似毒品功效
Some will no doubt take the news with a pinch of salt.
也許有人會對接下來的這條新聞產生疑惑。
But researchers claim that salt is addictive in the same way as cigarettes or hard drugs, with the craving triggering the same genes, brain cells and brain connections.
不過研究人員聲稱，我們平時所食用的鹽就如同菸草或硬性杜平一樣會讓人上癮，因爲它們都能刺激相同的基因，激發大腦細胞對此產生渴望和依賴。
The finding could help explain why many find it so hard to cut back on salt, despite warnings about dangers to blood pressure and heart health.
這想法向或許能解釋這樣一種現象，再被告知了匯兌血壓和心臟產生健康的威脅，不過還是有很多人很難將食物中的鹽量降低。
For the study, Australian and American scientists kept some mice on low-salt diets and gave others a salt drip.
澳大利亞和美國的科學家合力完成了這項實驗，他們給一部分的小白鼠低鹽的飼料，而另一部分卻加大鹽分的比重。
Activity in the creatures' brains was then compared with that in mice fed normally. They also studied the brains of mice that had been starved of salt for three days and then given salty water to drink freely.
然後將這兩批進行特殊“飲食”的白鼠的大腦活動與正常“飲食”的白鼠比較。科學家們還研究了已經三天沒有食用任何鹽分的白鼠的大腦，之後在給它們鹽水，讓其自由飲用。
When the rodents were in need of salt, brain cells made proteins more usually linked to addiction to substances such as heroin, cocaine and nicotine.
當白鼠處於對鹽有需求的狀態時，它們的大腦細胞會產生上癮的物質，該物質與通常與對海洛因、可卡因、尼古丁的上癮依賴有關聯。
