健康生活:吃肉越多越易生病大綱

People who eat a lot of processed meat such as ham, bacon, sausages and burgers run a greater risk of premature death and developing conditions such as cancer and heart disease, research shows.

研究顯示，吃大量加工肉類如火腿、燻肉、香腸和漢堡的人將面臨更大的過早死亡風險，並引發癌症和心臟類疾病。

The study, which included data from 448,568 people in 10 European countries, including the UK, found that the biggest consumers of processed meat were 44% more likely to die prematurely from any cause than those who ate little of it. High levels of consumption increased the risk of death from heart disease by 72% and cancer by 11%.

這項囊括包括英國在內的歐洲十國448568人的研究，發現加工肉類的最大消費者比那些很少吃它的人多44%的可能因各種原因而過早死亡。高消耗增加了72%的心臟病死亡風險以及11%的癌症死亡風險。

If everyone ate no more than 20g a day of processed meat – about one rasher of bacon, chipolata sausage or thin slice of ham – then 3% of all premature deaths could be avoided, according to an estimate by the authors, led by Professor Sabine Rohrmann from the University of Zurich. Their results are published in the journal BMC Medicine.

據來自蘇黎世大學的Sabine Rohrmann教授指導的研究者估計，如果一個人一天食用不超過20克的加工肉——大約一薄片燻肉、小香腸盤菜或火腿薄片，其中就有3%的人可以避免過早死亡。他們的研究成果發表在BMC醫學雜誌上。

But a small amount of red meat also seems to benefit health, because it contains important nutrients and minerals, they add. Risks rise in line with the level of consumption, the researchers found. The results are in line with previous studies. Dr Rachel Thompson, deputy head of science at the World Cancer Research Fund, said the research bore out its own findings in 2007 – disputed by the meat industry at the time – about the health risks of processed meat.

但是少量紅肉似乎也有益於健康，因爲它含重要的營養素和礦物質，他們補充道。研究人員發現風險隨着消耗量的增加而增加。結果與之前的研究結果是一致的。世界癌症研究基金會的科學副會長雷切爾•湯普森博士表示，該研究在2007年證實了自己關於加工肉類的健康隱患的發現，那時受到肉類產業的質疑。

It has found that consuming bacon, ham, hot dogs, salami and some sausages heightened the risk of bowel cancer. The charity estimates that 4,100 fewer Britons a year would be diagnosed with the disease if everyone ate no more than 10g of processed meat a day, though advises avoiding it altogether.

研究發現食用鹹肉、火腿、熱狗、臘腸和一些香腸增加了罹患腸癌的風險。如果一個人一天吃了不超過10克的加工肉，該慈善機構估計每年英國將減少4100人被診斷患有疾病，雖然建議完全避免加工肉。

Dr Carrie Ruxton said the study's findings were not robust enough to justify changing public health advice. The fact those who consumed the largest amounts of processed meat also displayed other unhealthy habits meant it was hard to confidently ascribe risk of death to meat eating alone, she said.

Carrie Ruxton博士說這項研究發現還不夠有力地來證明改變公衆健康的建議。事實上那些消耗大量加工肉的人還顯示了其他不健康的習慣，這意味着很難確定地將死亡風險單單歸結爲吃肉，她說。

"The occasional bacon butty isn't going to do you much harm. People shouldn't avoid bacon or salami because they think it's going to kill them, because it won't. We can't say that from this study. But we do know that processed meat has a higher salt and fat content, so having bacon or salami in moderation, and switching to lean red meat products, is a good idea," Ruxton added. Tracy Parker, a heart health dietitian with the British Heart Foundation, said people who ate a lot of processed meat should try to eat a more varied diet, such as chicken, fish, beans or lentils.

“偶爾的燻肉三明治並沒有對你造成多大的傷害。人們不應該因爲覺得這將致命而避免培根或意大利香腸，因爲它不會。我們不能從這個研究中這樣說。但我們知道，加工肉類有更高的鹽和脂肪含量，所以適度食用燻肉或香腸，並轉換到瘦紅肉產品是一個好主意，” Ruxton補充說。英國心臟基金會的心臟健康營養師特蕾西•帕克說，吃大量加工肉的人應該儘量嘗試更加多樣化的飲食，如雞、魚、黃豆和扁豆。