谁才是肥胖的元凶？

谁才是肥胖的元凶？

工业革命以来，肥胖一直是困扰西方社会的超级麻烦之一，造成人们肥胖问题的罪魁祸首究竟是糖还是脂肪？有效减重的关键方法是什么？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

culprit 罪犯；被控犯罪的人['kʌlprɪt]

epidemiology 流行病学；传染病学[,epɪdiːmɪ'ɒlədʒɪ]

micronutrient [生化] 微量营养素[maɪkrə(ʊ)'njuːtrɪənt]

combat 反对；与…战斗['kɒmbæt; 'kʌm-]

see-saw 跷跷板；摇摆不定的['si:sɔ:]

detract 转移，使分心[dɪ'trækt]

vindicate 证明…无辜['vɪndɪkeɪt]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为： 那么，您的阅读速度相当于 每分钟阅读的英文单词数

3分57秒 母语为英语者的朗读速度 140

2分20秒 母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度 250

1分22秒 母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度 350

0分50秒 母语为英语的速读高手 1000

Focusing only on sugar is not answer to obesity say scientists（500 words）

By Scheherazade Daneshkhu, Comsumer Industries Editor

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Sugar is being targeted by governments the world over in the fight against expanding waistlines but, according to research published today, it is not the real culprit.

Scientists from the University of Glasgow said that fat was responsible for a bigger contribution to weight gain in obese people than sugar.

The research, published on Wednesday in the International Journal of Epidemiology, found that: “obesity is associated with higher sugar intake but the association is less strong than with other micronutrients, especially fat”.

Jill Pell, director of Glasgow’s University’s Institute of Health and Wellbeing, and co-lead author of the report, said this finding had public policy implications.

“If focusing attention on sugar results in people compensating by eating more crisps, then we will fail to combat obesity,” she said. “The critical message is that people need to reduce their overall calories.”

She said there was a “sugar-fat see-saw” — when overweight people ate less of one type of food, they tended to overcompensate by eating another type. Unless governments made clear that to lose weight people needed to eat less overall, then targeting sugar would not work as a strategy to combat obesity, according to the paper.

“Focusing public health interventions and messages on sugar may detract from the need to reduce overall energy consumption and could, paradoxically, increase fat consumption,” it concluded.

The research examined data from 132,479 people who had taken part in the UK Biobank, which tracks the health, lifestyle and genes of 500,000 Britons.

People who are overweight eat more fat in their diet compared with those of normal weight, according to the paper, which found that they consumed 15 per cent more fat than people of normal weight but only 5 per cent more sugar.

Dr Jason Gill, co-lead author at Glasgow’s Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, said: “People who are overweight and obese consume more calories than those who are normal weight. But they consume a smaller proportion of these calories from sugar and a larger proportion from fat. Thus it is important not to simply focus on reducing sugar intake; we need to emphasise reductions in fat intake as well.”

The research is likely to be seized on by the sugar industry as vindicating its arguments that with nine calories per gramme against four for sugar, fat is a bigger contributor to the obesity crisis than sugar.

It will also be welcomed by UK soft drinks manufacturers which are due to have a sugar tax slapped on them in 2018.

George Osborne, chancellor, announced the £520m tax in March, which he said was aimed at tackling childhood obesity. The British Soft Drinks Association, the industry body, said it had been the victim of a “misguided campaign on sugar”.

The Food and Drink Association, representing large manufacturers, last week called on the government to postpone the tax, arguing that it would increase the regulatory burden on companies at a time of heightened economic risk following the UK referendum decision to leave the EU.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1. Which one of the following was responsible for a bigger contribution to weight gain in obese people from the research?

A. sugar

B. oil

C. fat

D. salt

2. What is the consequence of focusing attention on sugar as Jill Pell thought?

A. eating more crisps

B. reduce overall calories

C. eating less crisps

D. extra weight gain

3. What can not be tracked if someone in the UK Biobank?

A. hobby

B. health

C. lifestyle

D. genes

4. What is the reason of sugar tax from George Osborne in March as mentioned?

A. to increase government revenues

B. to ease the gap between rich and poor

C. to take strong measures against beverage manufacturers

D. to tackle childhood obesity

[1] 答案 C. fat

解释：根据现在的研究，脂肪更容易使体重增加。

[2] 答案 A. eating more crisps

解释：Jill表示只将注意力放在糖上回让人吃更多的薯片作为补偿，而关键的做法应该是减少整体的热量。

[3] 答案 A. hobby

解释：生物样本库中包括500,000英国人的健康情况、生活方式和基因信息。

[4] 答案 D. to tackle childhood obesity

解释：是为了解决儿童的肥胖问题。