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心脏病:有了病才去治还是没病先预防? One of the greatest killers in the Western world is heart disease. The death rate from the disease has been increasing at an alarming speed for the past thirty years. Today in Britain, for example, about four hundred people a day die of heart disease. Western health-care systems are spending huge sums of money on the surgical treatment of the disease. 心脏病是西方世界的最大杀手之一。在最近三十年以前,心脏病的死亡率正在以惊人的速度上升。例如,今天在英国每天大约有四百人死于心脏病。西方的各级卫生保健机构在心脏病的外科手术治疗方面正在耗费大笔的金钱。 This emphasis on treatment is clearly associated with the technological advances that have taken place in the past ten to fifteen years. In this time, modern technology has enabled doctors to develop new surgical techniques and procedures. Many operations that were considered impossible a few years ago are now performed every day in U.S.hospitals. The result has been a rapid increase in heart surgery. 这种老是强调治疗的作法显然与最近十到十五年内技术的进步有很大关系。在这一段时期内,现代技术使医生们研制出了一些新的外科手术方法和程序。两三年前还认为是不可能做的很多手术,现在在美国的各大医院里每天都在做。其结果就使对心脏实行外科手术的病例迅猛地在增强。 Although there in no doubt that a large number of people benefit from heart surgery, critics of our health-care systems point out that the emphasis on the surgical treatment of the disease has three clear disadvantages. First, it attracts interest and financial resources away from the question of prevention. Second, it causes the costs of general hospital care to rise. After hospitals buy the expensive equipment that is necessary for modern heart surgery, they must try to recover the money they have spent. To do this, they raise costs for all their patients, not just those patients whose treatment requires the equipment. The third disadvantage is that doctors are encouraged to perform surgery - even on patients for whom an operation is not at all necessary - because the equipment and surgical expertise is available. A federal government office recently said that major heart surgery was often performed even though its chances of success were low. In one type of heart surgery, for example, only 15 percent of patients benefited form the surgery. 尽管有很多人从心脏外科手术中得到了好处,还是不容怀疑的;但是,对我们的医疗保健机构提出批评的人士都指出,强调用外科手术治疗心脏病的作法很明显有三大害处。第一,这种作法使得人们在兴趣和财力资源的分配上忽略了预防心脏病的问题。第二,这种做法导致了一般的医疗费用的上涨。各医院都购置了从事现代心脏外科手术所必须购置的昂贵设备之后,这些医院必须千方百计收回花费在这些设备上的购置费用,而不仅仅是提高了需要使用这些昂贵设备来加以诊治的患者们的费用。第三个害处就是鼓励医生去开刀--甚至对那些根本不需要动手术的病人也给开了刀--因为,要弄到一张专家同意手术的鉴定书、要使用这些设备都是唾手可得的。美国联邦政府办公厅最近宣布说即使成功的机率很低也还要经常对心脏动用外科大手术。例如,有一种外科手术,只须15%的患者在手术后病情有所好转。 In the recent past, medical researchers have begun to emphasize the fact that heart disease is associated with stress, smoking and a lack of exercise, and we can often reduce the risk of heart disease by paying more attention to these factors. 最近这几年医学研究人员们开始强调这样一个事实,即心脏病与人的精神紧张、吸烟成癖,缺乏锻炼有密切关系,如果多加注意这些因素我们通常都能降低患心脏病的机率。 
越来越多的人意识到人们的生活方式与心脏病之间有密切的关系。由于认识到了这一点,人们对待健康的态度正在转变。过去多数人都有这样一种看法:变为当人们生病以后,只要能有一位可以信赖的好医生,这位医生能确切地知道该怎么治,这对保障一个人的健康来说已经足够了。现在人们认识到伤病以后仅仅能得到最好的治疗是很不够的。人们已经知道了自己应当对自己的身体更加负起责任来。今天许多人正在改变饮食习惯,人们都吃低脂肪低胆固醇的食物。许多人更加注意减少生活中精神紧张的压力。美国现在吸烟的人数要比20年前少得多,因为有许多人成功地戒掉了这种恶习,还因为开始尝试吸烟滋味的人也越来越少。还有越来越多的人尝到了像走路、跑步、游泳之类的按时锻炼的甜头。有些人开始步行或骑自行车上班而不坐汽车。数百万人已经成了健身俱乐部的会员,这就使健身俱乐部成为今日美国发展最迅速的行业之一。现在人们对待健康的态度的转变,人们行动的转变所带来的好处已经开始显露出来了:因心脏病致死的病例下降了,这使人们得到很大的鼓舞。 Dieting Your Way to Health 节食是通往健康之路 Almost everyone considers going on a diet sometime in his or her life. All, regardless of sex and age, have something in common - losing weight and losing it fast. 几乎每一个人在他或她的一生中都有个时候考虑要节食。所有的人,不分性别和年龄,都有个共同之处--要减轻体重,而且要快速减肥。 Though their common aim may seem basically good, they probably do not realize that misguided dieting can do more harm than good to their health. Going on too strict a diet can destroy the balance of chemicals in the human body. This happens because when the body is suddenly given much less food than usual, it feels as though it is being attacked and tries hard to protect itself by saving energy. It does this by slowing down metabolism, the process by which the food we eat is converted into energy. As energy is supplied to the body at a slower and slower rate, dieters gradually become so weak that they can do nothing. They soon lose interest in everything going on about them, and their resistance to illness becomes so low that they are easily attacked by one illness after another. 尽管他们共同的愿望令人觉得好像基本上是好的,但是他们也许并没意识到,用这些误导的节食方法,对他们的身体健康来说害大于利。过于严苛地节食会破坏人身体内生物化学结构的平衡。之所以会产生这种结果,是因为当人身体突然得到的食物比平时少了许多的时候,身体就会觉得好像受到了袭击,于是身体就用节约能源支出的办法尽量设法来保护自己。我们的身体通过减慢新陈代谢速度的办法来保护自己,亦即减慢把我们所吃的食物转化成能量的过程。由于以越来越慢的速度给身体供应能源,这些节食的人的身体就逐渐变得非常虚弱,以致弱到什么事都不能做的程度。于是这些节食者很快就会对他们周围所发生的一切事情都失去了兴趣,结果他们的身体对疾病的抵抗能力就变得非常低,以致于他们很容易地就会受到一种又一种疾病的连续袭击。 Most of those who diet know that foods like rice, bread, potatoes, cakes, sweets, fruits and some vegetables contain carbohydrates, and so can make one fat. What they do not realize, however, is that carbohydrates are our bodies' main source of energy, and that these foods also contain components essential for the composition of substances that are needed to keep the body healthy. As a result, they try to avoid eating these foods, and consequently, they become weaker and less healthy. They begin to have difficulty sleeping properly and start to suffer from radical mood changes. In more serious cases, they even begin to show signs of mental illness. 绝大多数节食者都知道,像大米、面包、土豆、蛋糕、糖果、各种水果和一些蔬菜等各类食品都含有碳水化合物(即淀粉),因而,都会使人发胖。可是,他们都没意识到碳水化合物是我们身体的主要的能源,他们都没意识到这些食品里都含有使我们的身体健康所需要的一些物质的基本成分。结果,他们尽量避免吃类食品,因而他们的身体就变得越来越虚弱、越来越不健康。他们开始有了不能适当睡眠的难题、开始产生了思想情绪上的一些根本变化。在一些较严重的病例中,病者甚至开始显露出有精神病的一些征兆。 
说来也真奇怪,那些最严格的节食的食谱推荐用人造的甜味剂来代替蔗糖和其他天然的甜食品。事实上,这类人造的甜味剂实质上增大了一个人的食欲,结果反而使人比平时吃得更多。 Of course, the fact that misguided forms of dieting result in so many problems does not mean that no dieting is safe or all dieting is harmful to the health. Proper dieting can not only help a person lose ugly excess fat, but can also help him or her to keep it off and to lead a more active, happier and healthier life. 当然,种种错误的节食方法导致了很多问题,但这些事实并不意味着没有任何一种节食的方法是安全的,也不意味着一切节食方法都对健康有害。恰如其分地节食不但能帮助一个人去掉难看的多余脂肪,而且能帮助一个人把节食的成果保持下去,能帮助一个人过上一种更加充满了青春活力的、更为愉快的、更为健康的生活。 You might ask just what a proper diet is. Well, simply expressed, a proper healthy diet is one that is well-balanced, or, in other words, one that includes enough but not too many of the kinds of foods that provide the body with the nutrients that it needs to function properly. The most important of these nutrients are the macronutrients: proteins, carbohydrates and fats. The body needs fairly large amounts of proteins and carbohydrates for building material and energy. Meat, fish, eggs, milk, cream, and nuts all contain proteins and foods like rice, bread, potatoes, etc. Contain carbohydrates. The body needs fat to keep it from the cold and to provide a protective layer for the organs, but only in small quantities. 你很可能会问,到底什么样的节食食谱才是恰如其分的。噢,简单地讲,有益于健康的节食食谱,就是各种食物都能很好地均衡的食谱。换句话说,就是这种节食食谱中包括了足够的各种食品,但都不要吃得过多。这足够的食物足可以提供给我们的身体在适当地发挥其功能时所需要的各类营养物质。这些营养物质中最重要的就是人体所需的 大量的营养物质:各类蛋白质、碳水化合物、各类脂肪。人的身体需要有相当量的蛋白质和碳水化合物作为各器官的建筑材料和人活动的能源。肉、鱼、蛋、奶、奶油和各种坚果里面都含有蛋白质,像大米、面包、土豆之类的食品里都含有碳水化合物。人体为了御寒需要脂肪,脂肪能为各种器官提供保护层,但仅有少量的脂肪也就足够了。 Vitamins and minerals such as iron, calcium, are another group of essential nutrients, though the body does not need as great a quantity of these as it does the macronutrients - proteins, carbohydrates and fats. 各种维他命(维生素)和铁、钙之类的矿物质是另一类的基本营养物质,尽管人体对这一类营养物质的需要量并不像对大量营养物质--各类蛋白质、碳水化合物、脂肪--的需要量的那么大。 There are two types of vitamins, water-soluble vitamins and fat-soluble vitamins. Water-soluble vitamins like vitamin C and the B-group vitamins do not stay in the body long and so foods containing these vitamins need to be taken rather often. On the other hand, the fat-soluble vitamins, vitamins A, D, E and K stay in the body for long periods of time and so there is no need to take foods containing them so often. 有两种维他命:水溶维他命和脂溶维他命,像维生素C和B族维生素这类水溶维他命不会在身体内停留很久,所以人体要经常吸收含有这些维他命的食物。另一方面,维他命A、D、E和K这类脂溶维他命却能在人体里停留很长一段时间,因而就没必要经常地去服用含有脂溶性的食品。 
既要得到足够的营养又要减轻体重,办法之一就是服用代和食品,去代替那些脂肪含量过高的食品。例如,不服用全脂奶,而服用脱脂奶,这种脱脂奶里含有和全脂奶同样多的蛋白质和矿物质,只不过是全脂奶中的脂肪已经被除掉了。同样,可以用植物油来代替动物油进行烹调。
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