爲什麼法式炸薯條是好食物?

Ever wonder why French fries, potato chips and Cheetos are so appealing when you're feeling stressed? A new study suggests that elevated levels of salt in the body lower stress hormones and raise levels of oxytocin, a hormone involved in love and other social connections. The research, which was conducted in rats, was published in the Journal of Neuroscience. It found that rats' response to a stressful situation — being tied down — depended on how much salt they had in their bodies. When restrained, rats with high salt levels showed less activity in their brain's stress systems, compared with rats with normal salt levels.
你曾經懷疑過嗎？當你感到有壓力的時候，爲什麼法式炸薯條，薯片和奇多會如此吸引你？一項新的研究表明，體內鹽含量的增加可降低壓力荷爾蒙並提高催產素的水平，這是一種包含愛和其他社會關係的荷爾蒙。該項研究是對老鼠進行的試驗，發表在《神經科學雜誌》上。發現老鼠對應激情境的反應—冷靜下來—是根據它們體內鹽的含量多少而定的。當它們受到約束的時候，相對於正常鹽分含量的老鼠，體內鹽分含量較高的大腦壓力系統表現得較不活躍。

Having high salt levels is technically called hypernatremia, and rats in this state also recovered faster from being stressed.
體內鹽分含量高學術上稱爲高鈉血，而這種情況下老鼠可以更快地從壓力中恢復過來。

Moreover, the hypernatremic rats had elevated levels of oxytocin — a compound known as the "love hormone" for its role in helping to create social bonds, between friends, lovers or parents and children. Oxytocin is crucial to the processes that allow love and social contact to reduce stress. Not surprisingly, rats with lots of oxytocin showed less anxiety in social interactions. The effects of oxytocin are complicated, however — it doesn't always produce love and trust — but it is a significant player in those emotions. Bartenders often provide salty snacks to capitalize on what having hypernatremia is most likely to make you feel: thirst. And indeed, drinking behavior may provide a clue as to why salt may be stress-relieving.
另外，血鈉過多的老鼠催產素含量更高——一種稱爲“愛的荷爾蒙”的化合物，它幫助創造朋友，情人，父母和孩子之間的社會聯繫。催產素在允許愛和社會聯繫減少壓力的過程中是很重要的。然而，催產素的影響是複雜的——它並不總是產生愛和信任——但它在這些感情上發揮着重要作用。調酒師們經常給客人提供鹹點心，利用高血鈉症讓你感覺到渴。事實上，飲酒行爲可以對爲什麼鹽能緩解壓力提供線索。

"We're calling this the Watering Hole Effect," said lead author Eric Krause, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Cincinnati, in a press release. "When you're thirsty, you have to overcome some amount of fear and anxiety to approach a communal water source. And you want to facilitate those interactions — that way everyone can get to the water source."
“我們把這種情況叫做酒吧效應，”辛辛那提大學精神病學副教授，主要作者Eric Krause在一個新聞報道中說。“當你覺得渴，你不得不克服一些恐懼和焦慮去到公共水區。而且你想促進那些互動——每個人得到水的途徑。”

(恆星英語學習網原創編譯,轉載請註明出處!)