科学美国人60秒 SSS 厌恶西兰花可能与基因有关（在线收听）

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Christopher Intagliata.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是克里斯托弗·因塔格里塔。

If you have heart disease, your doctor might tell you, eat more vegetables. A tactic that has limited success.

如果你患有心脏病，医生可能会告诉你多吃蔬菜。但这种策略的效果有限。

"Getting people to change their diets is actually pretty hard. These are lessons I would give over and over again. And I would think, 'Why is this so hard to do?'"

“让人们改变饮食相当困难。这是我一遍又一遍传授地经验。我会思考，为什么这如此艰难？”

Jennifer L. Smith is a nurse researcher at the University of Kentucky who now has a preliminary answer about why change is so hard: it might depend on your genes. Specifically, whether or not you're genetically predisposed to perceive bitterness—and therefore bitter veggies.

肯塔基大学的护理研究员詹妮弗·L·史密斯说到，她现在对改变如此艰难的原因有了初步答案：这可能取决于你的基因。具体来说，即你的基因是否易于感知苦味，能否接受苦味蔬菜。

"So broccoli is definitely one of them. They tend to be cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussels sprouts, asparagus."

“西兰花绝对是苦味蔬菜。十字花科蔬菜基本都是苦味蔬菜，比如西兰花、花椰菜、卷心菜、球芽甘蓝、芦笋等。”

If you ever took that test in science class where you put a piece of paper on your tongue to see if it tastes bitter, you might already know your bitter status.

如果你曾在科学课上做过测试，将一张纸放在舌头上尝尝是否有苦味，那你可能已经知道自已的苦味状态了。

Smith took saliva samples from 175 adults known to be at risk of cardiovascular disease. She then did a genetic test to determine whether they had a copy of a bitter-taste gene variant. She also had them fill in a questionnaire about their eating habits.

史密斯采集了175名已知有心血管疾病风险的成年人的唾液样本。然后她进行了基因测试，以确定他们是否有苦味基因变种。她还让他们填写了关于饮食习惯的问卷。

After controlling for factors like age, gender, income, and so on, Smith found that people with a copy of the bitter-sensitive gene variant were just 40 percent as likely to report eating a lot of veggies as were the folks without the gene variant.

在控制了年龄、性别、收入等因素之后，史密斯发现，相比于没有苦味感知基因变种的人，携带这种基因变种的人只有40%可能报告会吃大量蔬菜。

She's presenting the results this week at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions in Philadelphia.

她将于本周在费城举行的美国心脏协会科学会议上公布研究结果。

If these findings hold up to more testing, Smith says, perhaps doctors could advise patients with this gene variant to avoid the most offensively bitter veggies but to try the others. Or perhaps certain herbs and spices might counteract the bitterness, she says.

史密斯说，如果这些结果经得起更多测试，也许医生可以建议携带这种基因变种的患者避开最令人不快的苦味蔬菜，转而尝试别的种类。她说，或者尝试可以抵消苦味的某些药草和香料。

Of course, chefs already figured this out with cheesy broccoli. But for heart patients, the better flavor might not be a favor. 

当然，厨师们已经用西兰花搭配奶酪解决了这个问题。但对心脏病患者来说，更好的味道可能并没有帮助。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。