全球社会热点新闻 大豆健康吗?（在线收听）

Is Soy healthy?

大豆健康吗？

Since those carnivorous days in the 1970s, soy foods have gone from a niche product for the vegetarian-environmentalist crowd to a four-billion-dollar-a-year food industry. Soy is now on nearly every sushi bar menu and is used as a vegetable oil, as a meat and dairy substitute，and as an inexpensive additive to increase the volume and improve the texture of many processed foods. The legume is so ubiquitous that it has found its way into everything from peanut butter to canned tuna. Many studies have shown the possible health benefits of eating soy, so most people consider it a “health food”. After all, it，s high in protein and has zero cholesterol—wbat could be wrong with that?

从20世纪70年代的食肉年代开始,大豆食品已经从素食环保主义者的专属品成长为了一个年产值有40亿美元的产业。现在几乎每家寿司店的菜单上都有大豆,而且大豆可以做植物油,可以代替肉类和奶制品,可以作为价格便宜的食品添加剂，还可以改善很多加工食品的口感。豆类可以说是无处不在,从花生酱到金枪鱼罐头,里面都有它们的踪迹。很多研究表明食用大豆可能对健康有益,因此大多数人认为大豆是一种“健康食品”。毕竟,大豆的蛋白质含量很高并且胆固醇的含量几乎为零一这还能有错吗？

Plenty, some say. Recent research has shown that soy may contain dangerous levels of isoflavones, natural chemicals that are similar to human estrogen. Isoflavones can affect fertility in men and may increase the incidence of breast cancer in at-risk women. Because of these concerns, the Israeli Ministry of Health has had a warning in effect since 2005. According to reports, the ministry suggests that adults moderate their soy consumption, that infants be given soy formula only when breast milk or cow's milk is not an option, and that parents limit the amount of soy their children eat. Health officials in France and Great Britain are concerned, too. French food manufacturers have been asked to reduce the isoflavones in soy formula, and are required to put warning labels on soy foods. The British Dietetic Association has warned parents against using soy formula during the first six months of a baby's life.

有些人说要多吃大豆。最近有研究表明，大豆含有的大豆异黄酮量可能会对人体造成伤害,这是一种和人类雌激素类似的天然化学物质。异黄麵可能会影响男性生育能力，并可能增加高危女性乳腺癌的发病率。由于存在这些问题，以色列卫生部实际上从2005年就发出有关瞀告。据报道，该部建议成年人应适度食用大豆,而对于婴儿,只有在没有母乳和牛奶的情况下才能吃豆制品,此外父母要控制孩子食用大豆的量。法国和英国的卫生部对该问题也很关注。法国食品生产商已被要求降低大豆食品中的异黄酮含量，并被要求在大豆食品的包装上打出蓍告标签。英国营养协会已经警告父母不要给6个月以下的婴儿喂食大豆制品。

Not surprisingly, the Soyfoods Association of North America doesn’t necessarily agree with these concerns. Nancy Chapman, the group’s executive director, says that the Israeli Ministry of Health’s warning was largely based on research that used rats, whose hormonal makeup and reproductive system don’t accurately predict what may happen in the human body.

北美的Soyfoods协会并不同意这一观点,这毫不奇怪。该协会主管南希査普曼说，以色列卫生部的蓍告主要是建立在用老鼠做实验的基础上,老鼠的激素组成和生殖系统并不能准确地预测出异黄酮对人体的影响。

“Every time a study comes out that the soy industry doesn’t like, they respond in one of two ways: It’s poorly designed, or it’s old” says Kaayla T. Daniel, Ph.D., a nutritionist and author of The Whole Soy Story. “Israel had a committee of more than a dozen distinguished nutritionists, researchers, pediatricians, and toxicologists who looked at the body of evidence, and concluded there was a risk.”

营养学家、《大豆全传》的作者Kaayla T. Daniel博士说广每次有大豆制品行业不喜欢的研究公布时,他们回应的方式都是那两种:要么是设计不当,要么就是用的大豆是陈的。以色列的卫生委员会有十几位杰出的营养师、研究人员、儿科医生以及毒物学家,他们对人体进行研究，然后得出了大豆可能存在危险的结论。”

Daaiel is one of an increasingly vocal group of nutritionists and scientists who are concerned about the possible risks of consuming too much soy. “The soy industry can never prove safety,” she tells me. “They’ll trot out studies showing a benefit, and act as if all the others indicating a risk are not a problem.”

丹尼尔是一位名声鹡起的营养学家和科学家团队中的一员,他们担心过量食用大豆可能会对人体造成危害?她告诉我说大豆行业永远不能证明其安全性。他们会对外宣扬那些能够给他们带来利益的研究,好像别人提出的所有风险都不是问题。”

Muddying the waters further are scientific studies that have reached very different conclusions. Soy can reduce the risk of breast cancer {Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2006); it has no effect (Cancer，2007); it can actually increase the risk (Cancer Research, 2001); soy can help memory in postmenopausal women {Menopause, 2003); no, it can’t (Journal of the American Medical Asso-ciation, 2004).

更让人迷惑的是科学研究的结果都各不相同。大豆可降低患乳腺癌的风险(《美国国立癌症研 究院杂志》，2006年),它对乳腺癌没有任何影响(《癌症》,2007年),它实际上会提高乳腺癌的患病率(《癌症研究》，2001年）,大豆可帮助提高绝经后女性的记忆力(《更年期》,2003年大豆不可能提高绝经后女性的记忆力(《美国医学协会杂志》,2004年）。

What is clear today, according to the Harvard School of Public Health, is that when it comes to soy and health, “some of the claims...go far beyond the available evidence.” The AHA still says that it’s perfectly fine to eat soy as part of a varied diet, and Van Horn continues to recommend soy to some of her patients, and to eat it herself.

哈佛大学公共卫生学院称，现在唯一可以确定的就是每当涉及到大豆和保健时，“一些声 明……远远超出了能够得到的实际结果的范围”。美国心脏学会表示,将黄豆作为众多饮食中的一种是很好的,范霍恩也继续建议她的一些患者们吃黄豆，她本人也吃黄豆。

So what’s the bottom line? If you’re a woman who has been diagnosed with or has a family history of breast cancer, it’s probably safest to avoid soy. Men hoping to father children should probably limit the amount of soy they eat, and parents would be advised to follow the Israeli guidelines in serving soy foods to their kids, especially infants and toddlers.

那么底线是什么呢？如果你是一个女性,并被诊断患有乳腺癌或有乳腺癌家族史,那么最好避免吃黄豆。而如果是男性,又想做父亲,那么最好控制饮食中黄豆的量。而父母,或许应该考虑按照以色列的指导方针，限制孩子饮食中大豆的量,特别是婴幼儿。