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Sugar Is the New Public Health Enemy

糖類成為新健康公敵

On Thursday, the U.S. government issued a new version of its dietary guidelines, which include the new, concrete recommendation that people receive less than 10 percent of their daily calorie intake from added sugar.

本周四，美國政府發布了新版膳食指南，其中新增了對人們日常添加糖攝入量不超過每日卡路里10%的建議。

This is far more specific than the 2010 edition of the guidelines, which simply said to “reduce the intake of calories … from added sugars,” with no particular numbers attached. Based on Americans’ increasing sugar intake over the past few decades, a more concrete goal might be helpful—between 1977 and 2010, Americans’ consumption of added sugars went up by 30 percent, according to the Obesity Society.

這項建議比2010年的版本更加明確，2010版只是簡單地說：“減少從添加糖中攝入卡路里”，并沒有任何明確的數字標準�；�于美國人在過去幾十年攝入了更多的糖，一個更清晰的目標會更有幫助。據肥胖協會統計，從1977年到2010年，美國人添加糖的攝入量增長了30%。

These days, though, many people seem to be at least trying to cut back—as my colleague Olga Khazan noted the other day, Google searches for “low-sugar” diets are starting to overtake “low-fat” diets. And so it seems that sugar is moving into the slot of Bad Thing of the Moment, once held by fat, once by carbs more broadly, and held by who knows what in the future—nutrition science is always evolving.

盡管如今人們好像已經開始做出一點點努力，(正如我同事幾天前發現的Olga Khazan)，Google上關于“低糖”飲食的搜索已經超過了“低脂”飲食。那么糖類好像已經進入了脂肪之前所在的壞東西之列，之前碳水化合物更臭名遠揚。而未來誰會取代這個位置仍是個未知數，畢竟營養學一直都在發展。

But for the time being, the U.S. isn’t the only country trying to get people off the sweet stuff. David Cameron, the prime minster of the U.K., said on Thursday that he wouldn’t rule out the possibility of a sugar tax as a measure against the obesity crisis, the BBC reports. A paper by Public Health England, published in October 2015, recommended a tax of between 10 and 20 percent on “high-sugar products … such as on full-sugar soft drinks.” Though Cameron said he would “rather avoid” a tax, he also said, “What matters is we do make progress” on obesity.

但是美國并非眼下唯一努力讓人們離開甜食的國家。據BBC報道，周四，英國首相卡梅隆說他不會排除將征收食糖稅作為對抗肥胖危機的方法。英國公共衛生署于2015年十月出版的一篇文章建議對“全糖軟飲料之類的高糖產品”征收10%到20%的稅。盡管卡梅隆說他會“盡力避免”收稅，他也說到“重要的是我們的確在努力”解決肥胖問題。

The evidence suggests a tax would likely lead to progress—according to a recent study published in The BMJ, when Mexico implemented a tax on sugary beverages on January 1, 2014, purchases of the taxed beverages went down by 12 percent by December of that year.

證據表明征稅會促使飲食習慣的進步。近期在BMJ上出版的一份研究表明，在墨西哥從2014年元旦對含糖飲料征稅之后，2014年的含糖飲料消費量下降了12%。

Legislating sugar is a strategy that’s popped up in the U.S. as well—Berkeley, California, was the first U.S. city to implement a soda tax in March 2015. But no word yet on whether Berkeley residents are any closer than the rest of the country to meeting the new dietary guidelines.

立法征稅也是在美國突然出現的一種策略。加州的伯克利在2015年3月開始對蘇打飲料征稅，在美國境內算首例。但是沒有消息表明伯克利市民是否比其他城市的居民擁有更符合新版膳食指南的飲食習慣。