Eating ultraprocessed foods for more than 20% of your daily calorie intake every day could set you on the road to cognitive decline, a new study revealed.

一项新的研究揭示，如果过度加工食品在你每天摄入的卡路里当中占比超过20%，你可能就会逐渐出现认知下降。

We all know eating ultraprocessed foods that make our lives easier -- such as prepackaged soups, sauces, frozen pizza and ready-to-eat meals -- isn't good for our health. Nor is gobbling up all the pleasure foods that we love so much: hot dogs, sausages, burgers, french fries, sodas, cookies, cakes, candies, doughnuts and ice cream, to name just a few.

众所周知，那些让我们的生活变得更加轻松的过度加工食品-比如预制的汤、酱料、冷冻披萨和快餐都对我们的健康有害。而那些为我们带来愉悦并被我们大口吞下的食品，比如热狗、香肠、汉堡包、法式炸薯条、苏打水、饼干、蛋糕、糖果、甜甜圈和冰激凌等等同样对我们的健康没好处。

Studies have found they can raise our risk of obesity, heart and circulation problems, diabetes and cancer. They may even shorten our lives.

研究发现，这些食物会让我们更容易出现肥胖、心脏和循环系统疾病、糖尿病和癌症。这些食物甚至还会减少我们的寿命。

Now, a new study has revealed eating more ultraprocessed foods may contribute to overall cognitive decline, including the areas of the brain involved in executive functioning -- the ability to process information and make decisions.

目前，一项新的研究发现，摄入大量的过度加工食品可能会导致整体认知能力下降，认知能力包括与执行功能有关的大脑区域，执行功能是指加工信息并做出决策的能力。

In fact, men and women who ate the most ultraprocessed foods had a 28% faster rate of global cognitive decline and a 25% faster rate of executive function decline compared with people who ate the least amount of overly processed food, the study found.

事实上，摄入过度加工食品最多的男性和女性其总的认知能力和执行功能的下降速度要比那些摄入最少过度加工食品的人快25%。

"While in need of further study and replication, the new results are quite compelling and emphasize the critical role for proper nutrition in preserving and promoting brain health and reducing risk for brain diseases as we get older," said Rudy Tanzi, professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and director of the genetics and aging research unit at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He was not involved in the study.

哈佛大学医学院神经学教授、波士顿麻省总医院基因学和老年研究部主任Rudy Tanzi表示：“尽管还需要进一步的研究和重复实验，新结果非常具有说服力。新结果强调了适当的营养对于维持和促进大脑健康并减少在年老过程中大脑出现疾病方面的重要作用。”

Tanzi said the key problem with ultraprocessed foods is that "they are usually very high in sugar, salt and fat, all of which promote systemic inflammation, perhaps the most major threat to healthy aging in the body and brain.

Tanzi表示，过度加工食品最大的问题就在于“它们通常高糖、高盐、高脂肪，所有这些都会加速全身性炎症。而全身性炎症也许就是身体和大脑正常老去的最大威胁。”

"Meanwhile, since they are convenient as a quick meal, they also replace eating food that is high in plant fiber that is important for maintaining the health and balance of the trillions of bacteria in your gut microbiome," he added, "which is particularly important for brain health and reducing risk of age-related brain diseases like Alzheimer's disease."

“同时，由于这些过度加工食品非常方便食用，因此它们取代了那些富含植物纤维的食品，这些植物纤维对于维持肠道微生物群体的健康和数万亿肠道细菌的平衡非常重要，”他还进一步补充表示：“这对于大脑健康和减少与衰老有关的大脑疾病，比如阿兹海默症非常重要。”

It's not a lot of calories

并非有大量卡路里

The study, presented Monday at the 2022 Alzheimer's Association International Conference in San Diego, followed over 10,000 Brazilians for up to 10 years. Just over half of the study participants were women, White or college educated, while the average age was 51.

周一在圣地亚哥2022阿兹海默症协会国际会议上呈现的研究在10年时间里跟踪研究了1万名巴西人。超过半数的参与者为女性、白人、受过大学教育，平均年龄为51岁。

Cognitive testing, which included immediate and delayed word recall, word recognition and verbal fluency were performed at the beginning and end of the study, and participants were asked about their diet.

认知能力测试会在研究开始前和结束之后进行，具体包括即时和延迟词汇回忆、词汇认知、语言流利程度。参与者会被询问他们的饮食情况。

"In Brazil, ultraprocessed foods make up 25% to 30% of total calorie intake. We have McDonald's, Burger King and we eat a lot of chocolate and white bread. It's not very different, unfortunately, from many other Western countries," said coauthor Dr. Claudia Suemoto, an assistant professor in the division of geriatrics at the University of São Paulo Medical School.

“在巴西，过度加工食品占摄入卡路里总量的25-30%。我们会吃麦当劳、汉堡王，我们还会吃大量的巧克力和白面包。遗憾的是，我们的饮食习惯和许多西方国家并没有太大区别，”研究的共同作者Claudia Suemoto博士、圣保罗大学医学院老年科助理教授表示。

Ultraprocessed foods are defined as "industrial formulations of food substances (oils, fats, sugars, starch, and protein isolates) that contain little or no whole foods and typically include flavorings, colorings, emulsifiers, and other cosmetic additives," according to the study.

根据研究，过度加工食品被定义为“食物成分的工业配方（油、脂肪、糖、淀粉糊和分离蛋白），这些成分含有很少或几乎不含任何完整的食物并且往往会含有调味料、色素、乳化剂和其他装点表面的添加剂。”

For a person who eats 2,000 calories a day, 20% would equal 400 or more calories -- for comparison, a small order of fries and regular cheeseburger from McDonalds contains a total of 530 calories.

对于一个每天摄入2000卡路里的人而言，20%的过度加工食品相当于400或以上的卡路里-麦当劳的小份炸薯条和标准大小的奶酪汉堡总共含有530卡路里。

Those in the study who ate the most ultraprocessed foods were "more likely to be younger, women, White, had higher education and income, and were more likely to have never smoked, and less likely to be current alcohol consumers," the study found.

研究发现，摄入过度加工食品最多的人“往往是年纪更轻、女性、白人、受过高等教育以及收入更高的人，而且他们几乎从未有吸烟史和饮酒史。”

"People need to know they should cook more and prepare their own food from scratch. I know. We say we don't have time but it really doesn't take that much time," Suemoto said.

“人们需要知道，他们应该少吃外卖并应该用天然食材进行烹饪。我知道，人们往往会说，我们没时间，但其实自己烹饪花不了多少时间，”Suemoto表示。

"And it's worth it because you're going to protect your heart and guard your brain from dementia or Alzheimer's disease," she added. "That's the take-home message: Stop buying things that are superprocessed."

“这样做是值得的，因为你在这一过程中保护了自己的心脏并避免自己的大脑患上痴呆或阿兹海默症。这里所传达的一个重要信息是：不要再买那些过度加工的食品了。”

原文来源：美国有线新闻网

翻译&编辑：上海译锐翻译