VOA慢速英语2012 Health Report - Want to Lose Weight? Try Counting Calories

Health Report - Want to Lose Weight? Try Counting Calories

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
How many calories we eat appears more important than what we eat when we eat too much. That was the finding of a new study that should be satisfying to anyone who counts calories for weight control.
More than one billion adults are overweight. The World Health Organization calls obesity¹ a global epidemic². On Tuesday, government researchers reported the latest estimates for the United States. The good news: obesity rates have not increased much in recent years. The bad news: they have not decreased either. More than one-third of adults were obese³ in two thousand nine and two thousand ten.
Anyone who has ever tried to lose weight knows there are all kinds of conflicting diet plans. Some tell people not to eat carbohydrates⁴. Others say not to eat fats. Still others say to eat more protein. Or to eat less protein.
Dr. George Bray⁵ at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana led the new study. He wanted to know if protein in food affects weight gain.
Twenty-five healthy adults were in the study. They were overfed by almost a thousand calories a day over an eight-week period. Calories in food are a measure of energy.
One of those in the study was Daniel Kuhn.
DANIEL KUHN: "I was eating a lot of real butter, for instance, real whipped cream and things of that nature that I don't normally indulge in."
The people followed diets with low, normal or high levels of protein. Normal was defined as fifteen percent of energy from protein.
Dr. Bray says all of them gained weight.
GEORGE BRAY: "Fat storage was exactly the same with all three levels of protein. It was the calories that they ate that affected⁶ the body fat that they stored."
The study found that those who ate a higher percentage of protein gained more lean body mass. The opposite happened on a low protein diet.
GEORGE BRAY: "If your protein intake's low, you'll actually lose body mass even though you're eating an excess amount of calories."
Dr. Bray tells his patients to weigh themselves regularly so they can know quickly if they gain weight.
His study on protein, calories and weight gain appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian at the Harvard School of Public Health studies the relationship between diet and conditions like heart disease and diabetes⁷. He says keeping a healthy weight is not just about eating less, but also about what you eat.
DARIUSH MOZAFFARIAN: "We don't need to go down a list of 'avoid this, avoid that' -- become, you know, food police. It's really actually mostly foods that should be increased. It's fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish, vegetable oils and nuts."
He says increasing these six foods by about one serving each day would reduce obesity and help slow the epidemic of obesity-related diseases.
And that's the VOA Special English Health Report. You can find a video about the study at voanews.cn. I'm Faith Lapidus.
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Contributing: Carol Pearson

1 obesity   

n.肥胖，肥大

参考例句：

• One effect of overeating may be obesity.吃得过多能导致肥胖。
• Sugar and fat can more easily lead to obesity than some other foods.糖和脂肪比其他食物更容易导致肥胖。

2 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

3 obese   

adj.过度肥胖的，肥大的

参考例句：

• The old man is really obese,it can't be healthy.那位老人确实过于肥胖了，不能算是健康。
• Being obese and lazy is dangerous to health.又胖又懒危害健康。

4 carbohydrates   

n.碳水化合物，糖类( carbohydrate的名词复数 )；淀粉质或糖类食物

参考例句：

• The plant uses the carbohydrates to make cellulose. 植物用碳水化合物制造纤维素。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• All carbohydrates originate from plants. 所有的碳水化合物均来自植物。 来自辞典例句

5 bray   

n.驴叫声, 喇叭声；v.驴叫

参考例句：

• She cut him off with a wild bray of laughter.她用刺耳的狂笑打断了他的讲话。
• The donkey brayed and tried to bolt.这头驴嘶叫着试图脱缰而逃。

6 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

7 diabetes   

n.糖尿病

参考例句：

• In case of diabetes, physicians advise against the use of sugar.对于糖尿病患者，医生告诫他们不要吃糖。
• Diabetes is caused by a fault in the insulin production of the body.糖尿病是由体內胰岛素分泌失调引起的。