Craving an Ice-Cream Fix
想吃冰淇淋？你可能对食物上瘾了

The notion that food can be addictive has been debated for some time and largely rejected by both nutrition and addiction researchers. But this spring, the secretary of health, Kathleen Sebelius, said that for some, obesity is “an addiction like smoking.” One month earlier, Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, gave a lecture at Rockefeller University, making the case that food and drug addictions have much in common, particularly in the way that both disrupt the parts of the brain involved in pleasure and self-control.

食物成瘾这种说法人们已经争论有些日子了，大多数营养学家和从事成瘾性研究的科学家们皆对此表示反对。然而今年春天，美国卫生部长凯瑟琳·西贝利厄斯(Kathleen Sebelius)说，对于一些人而言，肥胖“好比烟瘾”。在此一个月前，美国国家药物滥用研究所(National Institute on Drug Abuse)所长诺拉·沃尔考(Nora Volkow)博士在洛克菲勒大学(Rockefeller University)发表了演讲，陈述食物成瘾与药物成瘾非常相似，特别在于二者都破坏了大脑中参与愉悦体验和自我控制的部分。

Princeton University and University of Florida researchers have found that sugar-binging rats show signs of opiatelike withdrawal when their sugar is taken away — including chattering teeth, tremoring forepaws and the shakes. When the rats were allowed to resume eating sugar two weeks later, they pressed the food lever so frantically that they consumed 23 percent more than before. Scientists in California and Italy last year reported that the digestive systems of rats on a fatty liquid diet began producing endocannabinoids, chemicals similar to those produced by marijuana use.

普林斯顿大学(Princeton University)和佛罗里达大学(University of Florida)的研究者曾发现，耽溺于甜食的大鼠在被剥夺了糖类食物时出现了戒鸦片一般的戒断症状：牙齿打战、前爪震颤、浑身发抖。两周后，当允许大鼠重新进食糖类时，它们疯狂地按压食物杆，以至于摄入了比从前还要多23%的糖。去年，加州和意大利的科学家报道，长期用高脂肪流食喂养的大鼠的消化系统产生出了内源性大麻素(endocannabinoids)，和使用过大麻的大鼠一样。

Earlier this year, scientists at the Oregon Research Institute conducted brain-scan studies on children who looked at pictures of chocolate milkshakes and later consumed shakes. Their findings suggest that just as drug abusers and alcoholics need increasingly larger doses over time, children who are regular ice-cream eaters may require more and more ice cream for the reward centers of their brains to indicate that they are satisfied.

今年早些时候，俄勒冈研究所(Oregon Research Institute)的科学家们进行了一项实验：让儿童观看巧克力奶昔的照片，然后让他们喝奶昔，并扫描他们的大脑。结果显示，正如瘾君子和嗜酒者对毒品和酒精的需求日渐增强一样，平时经常吃冰激凌的儿童需要吃越来越多的冰激凌才能让大脑的奖励中枢(reward centers)作出“满意了”的反应。

Dr. Pamela Peeke, assistant professor at the University of Maryland and author of “The Hunger Fix,” says that meditation and exercise can help engage the brain to overcome food addiction. As a heroin user might rely on methadone to alleviate withdrawal, food addicts, she says, should seek alternatives that still give pleasure — a fruit smoothie, for example, instead of ice cream.

《战胜饥饿》(The Hunger Fix)的作者、马里兰大学(University of Maryland)助理教授帕米拉·皮克(Pamela Peeke)博士说，冥想和锻炼能帮助大脑克服食物成瘾。就像海洛因成瘾的人依赖美沙酮(methadone)来减轻戒断症状一样，戒食物的瘾也需要同样能产生快感的替代品——比如用水果冰沙取代冰激凌。

Food addiction seems to be linked to the types of foods we’re consuming. Dr. Kelly D. Brownell, director of Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, notes that the human body is biologically adapted to deal with foods found in nature, not processed foods.

食物成瘾似乎与我们吃的食物种类相关。耶鲁大学路德食品政策与肥胖中心(Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity)主管、新书《食物与成瘾》(Food And Addiction)的合编者凯利·D·布朗奈尔(Kelly D. Brownell)博士提到，人体从生物学上是适于处理天然食物，而非加工食品的。

“We don’t abuse lettuce, turnips and oranges,” says Brownell, co-editor of the new book “Food and Addiction.” “But when a highly processed food is eaten, the body may go haywire. Nobody abuses corn as far as I know, but when you process it into Cheetos, what happens?”

“我们从不对生菜、白萝卜和橙子上瘾，”布朗奈尔博士道：“但当我们吃了某种精加工的食物后，机体就乱套了。据我所知，没人吃玉米上瘾，但你把它加工成了奇多(Cheetos)膨化玉米条——然后会怎样呢？”

Dr. David A. Kessler, the former F.D.A. commissioner, described these products as “hyperpalatable” foods created to tantalize our taste buds by focusing on the right combination of salty, sweet and fatty ingredients along with “mouth-feel.”

前美国食品药品管理局(FDA)专员戴维·A·凯斯勒(David A. Kessler)博士称这类“超级美味”的食物，正是为了刺激我们的味蕾而生。它们强调合适的咸、甜、油组合，还搭配了好口感。

Brownell says that the brain science should lead us to question how food companies are manipulating their products to get us hooked. “With these foods, personal will and good judgment get overridden. People want these foods, dream about these foods, crave them.”