第1532期:Who needs sugar？

There's no doubt that I have a sweet tooth – I crave cakes and biscuits and could happily finish off a bar of chocolate in minutes. I'm sure I'm not alone, the sweet sugary taste is addictive but the big question is, is it bad for me? I think I know the answer!

毫无疑问，我爱吃甜食——我想吃蛋糕和饼干，并且可以在几分钟内愉快地吃完一块巧克力。我确信我并不孤单，甜甜的味道让人上瘾，但最大的问题是，它对我有害吗？我想我知道答案了！

Sugar is everywhere. Even if sweet stuff isn't your thing it's hard to avoid. In the UK, we consume over two million tonnes of sugar every year but often we don’t know we’re eating it. There have been many health campaigns, telling us about the dangers of consuming too much sugar and we have probably learnt that it should be eaten in moderation but we may be unaware of the added sugar we consume that's found in the food and drink we think of as healthy or savoury, such as low-fat yoghurt and sauces.

糖无处不在。即使甜食不是你的菜，也很难避免。在英国，我们每年消耗超过 200 万吨糖，但我们常常不知道自己在吃糖。有许多健康运动告诉我们摄入过多糖分的危险，我们可能已经知道应该适量食用，但我们可能没有意识到我们所食用的食物和饮料中添加的糖分健康或美味，例如低脂酸奶和酱汁。

The obvious negative effect of eating sugar is on our dental health – tooth decay is a big problem in children, partly caused by drinking too many sugary drinks. Public Health England claims a child in England has a tooth removed in hospital every 10 minutes due to preventable decay. But even if you can escape the dentist's drill, there are more worrying negative effects - repeatedly eating too much sugar can lead to weight gain and even obesity, leading to an increased risk of diabetes, heart disease and liver disease.

吃糖的明显负面影响是对我们的牙齿健康——蛀牙是儿童的一个大问题，部分原因是喝了太多含糖饮料。英格兰公共卫生部声称，由于可预防的蛀牙，英格兰的一名儿童每 10 分钟在医院拔掉一颗牙齿。但即使你能躲过牙医的钻头，还有更令人担忧的负面影响——反复吃太多糖会导致体重增加甚至肥胖，导致患糖尿病、心脏病和肝病的风险增加。

So what can we do to cut down on our sugar intake? Well, there are low-sugar recipes you can try and apparently there are alternative foods to help us beat the sweet cravings. But potentially the most effective method is to tax the sugar we consume. It's what several countries have been doing for a while and the UK has recently jumped on the bandwagon, by forcing manufacturers to pay a levy on the high-sugar drinks they sell. It's up to the manufacturers if they pass the cost on to consumers.

那么我们可以做些什么来减少糖的摄入量呢？好吧，您可以尝试一些低糖食谱，显然还有替代食物可以帮助我们克服对甜食的渴望。但可能最有效的方法是对我们消耗的糖课税。这是几个国家一段时间以来一直在做的事情，英国最近也加入了这一行列，迫使制造商对他们销售的高糖饮料征税。制造商是否将成本转嫁给消费者取决于制造商。

But will it work? University of Bedfordshire nutrition expert Dr Daniel Bailey told BBC Online that: "The increase in tax placed on soft drinks will make products more expensive, but will this actually discourage people from buying them?" Maybe if you're addicted to the stuff, you'd accept paying more to buy it. But in the UK at least, several soft drinks companies have already reduced the sugar content of their products to avoid the tax.

但它会起作用吗？贝德福德大学的营养专家丹尼尔·贝利博士告诉 BBC 在线：“对软饮料征收的税款增加将使产品更加昂贵，但这真的会阻止人们购买它们吗？”也许如果你沉迷于这些东西，你会接受支付更多的钱来购买它。但至少在英国，几家软饮料公司已经降低了其产品的含糖量以避免征税。

Obviously it's better to do something rather than nothing to help improve the well-being of everyone. But with so many temptations out there, I'm not sure how easy it will be to cure my sweet tooth.

显然，做一些事情总比什么都不做来帮助改善每个人的幸福感更好。但是有这么多诱惑，我不确定治愈我的甜食会有多容易。

词汇表

sweet tooth 对甜食的渴望、喜爱
crave 渴求
consume（正式）消耗，大量地吃
health campaign 健康宣传活动
in moderation 适度
savoury 咸的
dental health 牙齿健康
tooth decay 蛀牙，龋齿
preventable 可预防的
obesity 肥胖
diabetes 糖尿病
heart disease 心脏疾病
liver disease 肝病
low-sugar recipe 低糖食谱
jumped on the bandwagon 紧跟潮流
levy 税款
discourage 打消…的念头
soft drink 汽水，软饮料
well-being 安康
temptation 诱惑