特别广播英语第 64 课：Dieting Your Way to Health 节食是通往健康之路-1

Almost everyone considers going on a diet sometime in his or her life. 几乎每一个人在他或她的一生中都有个时候考虑要节食。

All, regardless of sex and age, have something in common - losing weight and losing it fast. 所有的人，不分性别和年龄，都有个共同之处--要减轻体重，而且要快速减肥。

Though their common aim may seem basically good, they probably do not realize that misguided dieting can do more harm than good to their health. 尽管他们共同的愿望令人觉得好像基本上是好的，但是他们也许并没意识到，用这些误导的节食方法，对他们的身体健康来说害大于利。

Going on too strict a diet can destroy the balance of chemicals in the human body. 过于严苛地节食会破坏人身体内生物化学结构的平衡。

This happens because when the body is suddenly given much less food than usual, it feels as though it is being attacked and tries hard to protect itself by saving energy. 之所以会产生这种结果，是因为当人身体突然得到的食物比平时少了许多的时候，身体就会觉得好像受到了袭击，于是身体就用节约能源支出的办法尽量设法来保护自己。

It does this by slowing down metabolism, the process by which the food we eat is converted into energy. 我们的身体通过减慢新陈代谢速度的办法来保护自己，亦即减慢把我们所吃的食物转化成能量的过程。

As energy is supplied to the body at a slower and slower rate, dieters gradually become so weak that they can do nothing. 由于以越来越慢的速度给身体供应能源，这些节食的人的身体就逐渐变得非常虚弱，以致弱到什么事都不能做的程度。

They soon lose interest in everything going on about them, and their resistance to illness becomes so low that they are easily attacked by one illness after another. 于是这些节食者很快就会对他们周围所发生的一切事情都失去了兴趣，结果他们的身体对疾病的抵抗能力就变得非常低，以致于他们很容易地就会受到一种又一种疾病的连续袭击。

Most of those who diet know that foods like rice, bread, potatoes, cakes, sweets, fruits and some vegetables contain carbohydrates, and so can make one fat. 绝大多数节食者都知道，像大米、面包、土豆、蛋糕、糖果、各种水果和一些蔬菜等各类食品都含有碳水化合物（即淀粉），因而，都会使人发胖。

What they do not realize, however, is that carbohydrates are our bodies' main source of energy, and that these foods also contain components essential for the composition of substances that are needed to keep the body healthy. 可是，他们都没意识到碳水化合物是我们身体的主要的能源，他们都没意识到这些食品里都含有使我们的身体健康所需要的一些物质的基本成分。