3月25日午间英语新闻：研究称间歇性禁食或增加心脏病风险

> Intermittent fasting tied to higher risk of cardiovascular death
研究：间歇性禁食或增加心脏病风险

Intermittent fasting — when people only eat at certain times of day — has exploded in popularity in recent years. But now a surprising new study suggests that there might be reason to be cautious: It found that some intermittent fasters were more likely to die of heart disease.
近年来，间歇性禁食——人们只在一天中的特定时间进食——越来越受欢迎。但一项出人意料的新研究显示，或许有理由对这种新风潮持谨慎态度：一些间歇性禁食者更有可能死于心脏病。

The findings were presented Monday at an American Heart Association meeting in Chicago and focused on a popular version of intermittent fasting that involves eating all your meals in just eight hours or less — resulting in at least a 16-hour daily fast, commonly known as “time-restricted” eating.
周一，上述研究发现在芝加哥举行的美国心脏协会会议上公布。它重点关注的是一种流行的间歇性禁食法，即在8小时或更短时间段内吃完所有餐食，从而每天至少禁食16小时，这通常被称为“限时”饮食。

The study analyzed data on the dietary habits of 20,000 adults across the US who were followed from 2003 to 2018. They found that people who adhered to the eight-hour eating plan had a 91 percent higher risk of dying from heart disease compared to people who followed a more traditional dietary pattern of eating their food across 12 to 16 hours each day.
该研究分析了2003年至2018年间美国各地2万名成年人的饮食习惯数据。研究人员发现，相比那些遵循每天在12到16小时内进食这种较传统饮食模式的人，坚持8小时饮食计划的人死于心脏病的风险高91%。

The scientists found that this increased risk also applied to people who were already living with a chronic disease or cancer. People with existing cardiovascular disease who followed a time-restricted eating pattern had a 66 percent higher risk of dying from heart disease or a stroke. Those who had cancer, meanwhile, were more likely to die of the disease if they followed a time-restricted diet compared to people with cancer who followed an eating duration of at least 16 hours a day.
科学家们发现，这种增加的风险也涉及已经患有慢性病或癌症的人。如果遵循限时饮食模式，患有心血管疾病者死于心脏病或中风的风险要高出66%。与此同时，相比那些每天饮食持续时间至少为16小时的癌症患者，患有癌症并采取限时饮食的人死于癌症的可能性更高。

The data didn’t explain why time-restricted eating increased a person’s health risks. But the researchers did find that people who followed a 16:8 time-restricted eating pattern, where they eat during an eight-hour window and fast for 16, had less lean muscle mass compared to people who ate throughout longer periods of the day. That lines up with a previous clinical trial published in JAMA Internal Medicine, which found that people assigned to follow a time-restricted diet for three months lost more muscle than a control group that was not assigned to do intermittent fasting. Holding onto muscle as you age is important. It protects you against falls and disability and can boost your metabolic health. 
这些数据没有解释为什么限时饮食会增加健康风险。但研究人员确实发现，与在一天的较长时段内进食的人相比，遵循16：8限时饮食模式的人——他们在8小时的时间段内进食并禁食16小时——瘦肌肉量较少。这与先前发表在《美国医学会杂志·内科学卷》双周刊上的一项临床试验相吻合。该试验发现，相比没有被指定进行间歇性禁食的对照组，被指定遵循限时饮食3个月的人流失的肌肉较多。随着人们年龄的增长，保持肌肉很重要。肌肉可以防止跌倒和残疾，还可以促进代谢健康。

The study uncovered a correlation between time-restricted eating and increased mortality, but it could not show cause and effect. It’s possible for example that people who restricted their food intake to an eight-hour daily window had other habits or risk factors that might explain their increased likelihood of dying from heart disease. The scientists also noted that the study relied on self-reported dietary information. It’s also possible that the participants did not always accurately report their eating durations.
这项研究揭示了限时饮食和死亡率增加之间的联系，但它未能显示因果关系。例如，将进食限制在每天8小时时间段的人可能存在其他习惯或风险因素，从而导致他们死于心脏病的可能性增加。科学家们还指出，这项研究依赖于自我报告的饮食信息。参与者没有总是准确地报告他们的进食持续时间，这也是有可能的。

Christopher Gardner, the director of nutrition studies at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, said he encouraged people to approach the new study with “healthy skepticism.” Studying intermittent fasting can be challenging because there are so many variations of it, and determining its impact on longevity requires closely following people for long periods of time.
斯坦福大学预防研究中心营养研究主任克里斯托弗·加德纳说，他鼓励人们以“健康的怀疑态度”对待这项新研究。研究间歇性禁食是一项具有挑战性的工作，因为它有很多“变体”，要确定间歇性禁食对长寿的影响，需要对人们进行长时间的密切跟踪。

重点词汇
1、intermittent
英/ ˌɪntəˈmɪtənt / 美/ ˌɪntərˈmɪtənt /
adj. 间歇的，断断续续的

2、fasting
英/ ˈfɑːstɪŋ / 美/ ˈfæstɪŋ /
n. 禁食；斋戒
adj. 禁食的；空腹的
v. 斋戒；节制饮食（fast 的 ing 形式）

3、cardiovascular
英/ ˌkɑːdiəʊˈvæskjələ(r) /
美/ ˌkɑːrdioʊˈvæskjələr /
adj. 心血管的；心脏强化运动的

4、mortality
英/ mɔːˈtæləti / 美/ mɔːrˈtæləti /
n. 死亡人数，死亡率；必死性，终有一死；死亡

5、skepticism
英/ ˈskeptɪsɪzəm / 美/ ˈskeptɪsɪzəm /
n. 怀疑态度；怀疑论

6、longevity
英/ lɒnˈdʒevəti / 美/ lɔːnˈdʒevəti /
n. 寿命；长寿，持久；持续时间，耐用期限；长期存在，长期供职