Foods that make some of us put on weight can have little effect on others, according to research being carried out in Israel. It might be time to rethink the way we diet, writes Dr Saleyha Ashan.

　　據以色列進行的一項研究，讓一些人長胖的食物，可能對另一些人沒有絲毫影響。Saleyha Ashan博士說，也許是時候重新思考我們的飲食方式了。

　　like most of the population, I must admit that I am on an eternal quest to lose weight. For me it’s more to do with concerns about health than aesthetics. I have polycystic ovary syndrome and a family history of type 2 diabetes and that puts me into a high risk category for developing diabetes myself.

　　和大多數人一樣，我必須得承認，減肥是我的永恒不變的追求。當然對我來說，我更關心的是健康，而不是曲線美。我患有多囊卵巢綜合癥和2型糖尿病家族史，使得我成為易患糖尿病的高危人群。

　　I have always watched what I eat - and yet I never seem to shift the weight, while friends seem to eat what they want without putting on a single bulge. It seemed like they could just "break all the rules". But perhaps that’s just because we have been wrong about what "the rules" of diets are.

　　我一直很注意我的飲食，但我從來沒有減肥成功過；而我的朋友們似乎總是隨心所欲的吃，卻不怎么長胖。看起來他們貌似能“打破所有的規則”，但這也許恰恰證明了：我們一直以來所信奉的飲食“規則”本身就是錯的。

　　Last month, I travelled to Israel for trust Me, I’m a Doctor to take part in a vast new research study being carried out there by a team at the Weizmann Institute of Science. They are in the process of monitoring 1,000 people in absolutely minute detail to see exactly how their bodies react to food - and their first results are rewriting the textbooks on our relationship with food.

　　上個月，我去以色列參加“相信我，我是一個醫生”的研究，該研究由魏茨曼科學研究所的一個團隊進行。為了分析人們的身體對食物有怎樣的反應，他們對1000人進行監控，精確到每一分鐘——而他們的第一個研究結果就重寫了教科書中我們與食物的關系。

　　When we eat, our blood sugar level rises - and both the speed at which it peaks, and then how quickly our bodies deal with that and get it back to normal, is very important to our health.

　　當我們吃東西時，血糖上升——當速度達到峰值時，身體的反應速度、以及多久能恢復到正常，對我們的健康來說是非常重要的。

　　Foods have, therefore, been traditionally classified by how much of a blood sugar spike they cause - with "high GI" (Glycaemic Index) foods being thought of as bad for us, and "low GI" as good. Every nutritionist would tell you this. But the Israeli research, led by Dr Eran Segal and Dr Eran Elinav, suggests that it is simply not so.

　　因此，依據會引起血糖升高的多少，食物在傳統上被劃分為對身體有害的“高GI（血糖指數）”食物和有益的“低GI”食物。每一個營養師都會這樣告訴你。但是由 Eran Segal 和 Eran Elinav博士帶領的以色列研究團隊表示，并不是這么簡單。

　　Once I arrived in Tel Aviv, the team not only took all my vital statistics and medical history, but they gave me a little implanted glucose monitor under my skin, which would monitor my blood sugar levels constantly for the next week. The team’s nutritional experts had prepared me six days of menus specifically designed to test my body’s response to a few standardised meals, mixed in with some of my personal staple foods.

　　當我到達特拉維夫后，這個團隊不僅將我所有的重要數據和既往病史備案，他們還在我的皮膚下植入了一個小小的葡萄糖監測器，它將在接下來的一周里持續監測我的血糖水平。這個團隊的營養專家已經為我準備好了六天的菜單，他們將一些標準化的食物和我個人的主食混合，專門用來測試我的身體的反應。

　　I’m an accident & emergency doctor, which is something that undoubtedly has an effect on my diet.

　　我是一個急救醫生，這毫無疑問會對我的飲食產生影響。

　　I never buy bread - it’s an aisle I just don’t even go down in the supermarkets and I live in fear of sandwiches - but I see other people living on them.

　　我從來不買面包吃——我在超市里從來都不會去那一排貨架，我也不喜歡吃三明治，但我看到很多人簡直以吃面包和三明治為生。

　　I do, however, reach for the grapes - I love them. I can eat bunches of them and feel guilt-free doing so. They are my go to "healthy" snack. Another guilt-free grab is sushi. I snatch a box of salmon nigiri and am off. Now, though, had come my chance to find out what each of these foods was really doing to my body.

　　然而，我很喜歡吃葡萄。我可以吃一口氣吃很多串葡萄，并且沒有負罪感。它是我的“健康”小吃。另一個無負罪感的小吃是壽司。我可以很快消滅一盒子三文魚壽司。不過，現在我終于有機會了解這些食物會對我的身體產生什么影響。

　　Other things, such as stress levels, exercise and sleep can all affect our blood glucose responses, so the research team made me log everything I did throughout the day on a little phone app.

　　其他因素，比如壓力水平、鍛煉程度和睡眠質量都會影響我們的血糖反應，所以研究小組讓我每天都在一個手機APP上記錄下所有的事情。

　　Most importantly, though, because their initial data had suggested that different individuals responded differently to foods, I teamed up with another volunteer of the same gender and age - Leila.

　　然而，最重要的是，另一位和我年齡、性別相同的志愿者萊拉跟我分在同一組——因為他們最初的數據表明，不同的人對食物有不同的反應。

　　For the next week, Leila and I did and ate exactly the same things together - eating in the same restaurants and carefully weighing our food to ensure that it was as identical as possible. Textbooks said that our bodies should respond to them in a similar way. The Israeli researchers suspected that we wouldn’t.

　　在接下來的一周里，萊拉和我一起做相同的事，吃相同的東西——在同一個餐廳就餐，仔細稱重我們的食物，確保兩人的量完全相同。據教科書上的分析，我們的身體應該有類似的反應。但以色列的研究人員卻懷疑這個結論。

　　A fortnight later when our results came through I could not have been more flabbergasted. Virtually all my "healthy snacks" such as grapes and sushi caused me big blood sugar spikes, as did a chicken sandwich, and cereal. On the "good" menu, though, was chocolate, ice cream and regular cola.

　　兩周后當我們的結果公布時，我真是大吃一驚。幾乎所有我的“健康食品”，比如葡萄和壽司，都像雞肉三明治和谷物一樣引起了我的血糖上升到峰值。然而，巧克力、冰淇淋和可樂卻是對我“有益”的食物。

　　For Leila, the results were very different. Whereas pasta was "bad" for me, it was fine for her. Yoghurt was good for me, but bad for her, and our responses to bread and butter were also complete opposites.

　　對于萊拉來說，結果恰恰相反。意大利面對我沒有好處，但對她來說卻很健康。酸奶非常適合我，但對她卻無益。我們對面包和黃油的反應也完全相反。

　　No-one seems to have suspected this degree of individual variation existed, simply because such a controlled study on so many people has never been done before. There is, it seems, no such thing as a "high GI" or "low GI" food - it depends entirely on your own body. But why do our bodies vary so much? Well, the team also have a handle on that now too - and it’s an answer that has exciting implications.

　　沒有人懷疑個體差異的存在。只是像這樣的對很多人進行的控制性研究，以前從來沒有做過。這就是說，看起來，并沒有“高GI”和“低GI”食物的說法，它完全取決于你自己的身體。但為什么我們的身體會有這么大的差異呢？那么，這個團隊也對此作了研究，答案也非常令人興奮。

　　Along with our roster of health tests, Leila and I both also gave the researchers a stool sample. From this, their laboratory was able to discover the composition of our gut microbes. We all carry thousands of different bacteria, viruses and fungi in our guts, which not only help break down the food that we eat, but also produce a huge range of compounds that our bodies absorb and which can influence almost every aspect of our lives, from our immune system, to our metabolism, to our neurotransmitters.

　　隨著我們的健康測試逐項進行，萊拉和我都給研究人員提供了糞便樣本。這樣，實驗室就能分析我們腸道微生物的成分。我們體內都攜帶著成千上萬個不同的細菌，病毒和真菌，它們不僅有助于分解我們吃下去的食物，也能產生大量的化合物，被我們的身體所吸收，從而影響生活的方方面面，從免疫系統、新陳代謝，到神經遞質等。

　　By comparing the gut microbes of the hundreds of study volunteers with their blood sugar responses, Segal and Elinav have been able discover that our microbes might be the key to why our blood sugar spikes with different foods are so individual. The chemicals they produce, it seems, control our bodies to this extent. What is particularly exciting about that fact is that - unlike our gene - we can actually change our microbes. And that is very good news indeed for any of us who find that our favourite foods turn out to be "bad" for our blood sugar levels.

　　通過將幾百名志愿者的腸道微生物和他們的血糖反應作比較，Segal and Elinav 已經能夠發現，微生物可能起著至關重要的作用，它導致不同的食物引起血糖峰值的個體差異。看起來應該是微生物產生的化學物質，將我們的血糖控制在某種程度上。這一事實尤其令人興奮的是，我們改變不了基因，但微生物卻是我們可以改變的。這是一個非常好的消息，對每一個人來說都有了解決辦法——當發現我們最喜歡吃的食物會影響自己血糖時。

　　When it comes to my own microbes, at the moment I have a mix of good news and bad. The variety of different types of gut bacteria I have is limited and that’s not ideal.

　　而談到我身體里的微生物，此刻我喜憂參半。我擁有不同類型的腸道細菌，但它們數量有限，且不理想。

　　Healthier people, it seems, have a wide diversity. It was a huge surprise to me that there could be such a link between microbes living in my lower gut and a condition like that.

　　似乎，身體越健康的人，體內的微生物種類越廣泛。腸道里的微生物和我的身體狀態之間居然有這樣的一種聯系，這真讓我大吃一驚。

　　Elinav and Segal assured me, though, that by adhering to the diet of foods that my gut bacteria like, I should actually be able to change the composition of them. This in turn would have wider impacts on the rest of my health and wellbeing.

　　不過，Elinav and Segal博士向我保證，只要根據腸道細菌的喜好來調整飲食方式，微生物的組成其實是可以改變的，這反過來也能對我的幸福健康產生廣泛的影響。

　　So, armed with my list of "good" foods, I am now embarking on a second phase of the study. I am going to see if I can change my own gut microbes. My results showed that although I do have a good balance between two major groups of bacteria, I am missing a third group almost completely, which could be a key to a healthier weight, and I am also lacking in microbe diversity.

　　因此，分析得出我的“健康”食物名單后，現在進入研究的第二階段。我要看看是否可以改變我的腸道微生物組成。我的分析結果顯示，雖然兩大菌群有很好的平衡，第三種菌群卻幾乎完全沒有——而它可能恰恰是健康體重的關鍵，我的微生物組成也缺乏多樣性。

　　Over the next month, I shall be sending regular little parcels to Israel for analysis, and hoping to see that change as I adapt my diet.

　　在接下來的一個月里，我定期將的我糞便樣本發送給以色列研究中心，期待能看到我調整飲食后的變化。

　　The team at the Weismann Institute are continuing their work with a huge year-long study now into how people can improve their gut microbes. Their dream is that anyone, from anywhere in the world, will soon be able to send in a small stool sample, have their microbes analysed, and - without the need for a week’s blood sugar monitoring - be sent a personalised diet plan that will stabilise their blood sugar levels and improve their gut microbes.

　　魏茨曼科學研究所的團隊仍在持續他們長達一年的研究，分析如何改善人體腸道微生物的組成。他們有一個夢想，那就是，將來世界上任何地方的任何一個人，僅需寄一份小的糞便樣本給到研究中心，經工作人員分析微生物的組成——且無需時長一周的血糖監控——便能夠為其量身訂做一份飲食方案，穩定血糖水平，改善腸道微生物成份。

　　As they say, the widespread obesity and diabetes epidemics show that whatever we’re trying now to improve our relationship with food simply isn’t working. It could well be that they have hit upon the key to this - that until now we have completely misunderstood our own bodies and how food affects us.

　　正如研究所工作人員所說，肥胖、糖尿病的流行表明，無論我們怎么努力去改善我們與食物的關系，都不起作用，正是由于這個問題的關鍵其實是——直到現在人們都沒有完全弄明白的——我們的身體以及食物對身體產生的影響。

　　So, as I chomp on a chocolate bar and ice cream (although the researchers hasten to add that a nutritionally balanced diet is still as important as ever), I am looking forward to seeing whether I can start to lose weight and become healthier as a result.

　　所以，當我格格的咬牙吃著巧克力和冰淇淋時（雖然研究人員趕緊補充：營養均衡的飲食仍然很重要），我很期待我真的能夠減肥成功并變得更健康。