From+theweek.com

提起糖，很多人首先想到是五颜六色的糖果，是甜爽好喝的饮料，是美味的饼干糕点，是“美好”“甜蜜”的感觉。但是，随着健康意识的逐渐加强，人们对过量食糖的危害有了更新的认识，糖也由人人喜欢变成了备受指责。这，究竟是为什么呢？

Many experts believe that sweetened foods have caused a global health crisis. Whats so bad about sugar？ Heres everything you need to know：

许多专家认为加糖食品引起了一场全球健康危机。糖到底有什么坏处？你需要知道的都在这里：

How

How

Became Public

Enemy No. 1

Why is sugar in the spotlight？

For years， dieticians have warned us to steer clear of1） fat and cholesterol2）—the two food evils long believed to be fueling the Wests obesity， diabetes， and heart disease epidemics3）. But a growing number of nutritionists are now pointing the finger at sugar， arguing that our overconsumption of sodas， candy， cookies， and other sweets and processed foods is the real cause of our health crisis. Some go even further， arguing that sugar is an addictive “poison” that causes a whole host of degenerative4） ailments—including cancer—even in thin people. Evidence has emerged that shows the sugar industry may have downplayed5） those risks for profit—turning the modern Western diet into the sweetest in human history. “Were in a whole new world of sugar consumption，” says Barry Popkin， professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina. “We dont really know what that means for our health.”

糖為何会成为焦点？

多年来，饮食保健专家一直警告我们要远离脂肪和胆固醇——这两种食品恶魔长期以来一直被视作是西方肥胖症、糖尿病以及心脏病流行的幕后推手。但现在越来越多的营养学家将矛头指向了糖，他们认为健康危机的真正原因是我们食用了过量的碳酸饮料、糖果、饼干以及其他甜品和加工食品。有的把问题说得更严重，认为糖是一种让人上瘾的“毒药”，导致了包括癌症在内的大量退行性疾病，连瘦人也难以幸免。有证据表明制糖业为了获取利润，可能将这些风险轻描淡写，近代西方的饮食也因此达到了人类历史上最甜的程度。北卡罗来纳州大学营养学教授巴里·波普金说：“在糖的消耗方面我们正处于一个全新的世界。我们并不确定这对健康而言意味着什么。”

How much sugar do we consume？

The average American adult downs 22 teaspoons of the stuff a day， the average child 32. The World Health Organization recommends just six teaspoons a day. Added sugars—those not found naturally in fruit and vegetables， like table sugar and high-fructose6） corn syrup7）—began to proliferate in the Western diet in the mid-20th century， just as scientists were starting to discover links between sugar and heart disease. The sugar industry decided to push back against this research， adopting the aggressive tactics of Big Tobacco8）. First， as memos uncovered last September reveal， an industry group paid three Harvard nutritionists $6，500—about $50，000 today—to divert the blame. In a 1967 New England Journal of Medicine article， the nutritionists discounted the evidence against sugar and concluded there was “no doubt” the best way to prevent heart disease was to reduce cholesterol and saturated fat. “This is quite what we had in mind，” one sugar industry executive said when he saw the article.

人們食用的糖量有多少？

每个美国成年人日均食用22茶匙糖，儿童食用32茶匙。而世界卫生组织建议的日食用量仅为6茶匙。添加糖于20世纪中期广泛出现在西方的食品中，它是指那些不是在水果或蔬菜中天然形成的糖，比如砂糖和高果糖玉米糖浆。……