英语听力文摘 English Digest 476、美食家的烦恼

Supertasters Beware! 

You may have heard of supertasters. These are people who, it was discovered, are carrying around extra taste buds on their tongues, making the world of eating much more intense.

It’s not at all an unusual thing: the latest data suggest that one out of every four people is a supertaster. For them, eating is a much richer, more  flavorful experience than for the rest of us.

Still, before you get too jealous if you’re not a supertaster, it turns out there are drawbacks to having a technicolor tongue. A study that looks specifically at supertasters over the age of sixty-five found that they have more colon¹ polyps than folks who aren’t so taste bud gifted.

Colon polyps are the things you want to have removed before they become cancerous, which is why all folks fifty and older should get a yearly colon exam.

Why do supertasters have more colon polyps? It isn’t known. But supertasters also weigh more on average than non-supertasters, and weight increases cancer risk. The reason for this may be as simple as it sounds: eating is more fun when you taste in 3-D.

Some researchers think, however, that the problem may not just be an increase in pleasure. Those extra taste buds may also drive people away from food that’s good for them, such as vegetables, because the taste of, say, a brussels sprout² is just too intense.

品尝师们要注意啦！

你可能也听过有这样一个群体——品尝师。他们是被挖掘出的特殊人群，他们的舌周围广泛分布着味蕾，让吃东西变得异常有“感觉”。

这并不稀奇：最新数据显示每四个人中就有一个人是品尝师。相比于我们这些普通人，他们吃东西时会有更丰富、更美味的体验。

然而，你也不用因为自己无法成为超级品尝师而对他们羡慕不已。事实证明，拥有那样“华丽丽”的舌头也会带来某些不好的影响。专门对65岁以上的品尝师展开的一项调查研究发现，他们比那些未被赋予“超常”味蕾的人们患结肠息肉的概率更高。

结肠息肉容易发生癌变，因而它是“人人得而诛之”，这也是为什么人们上了50岁每年都得进行一次肠息肉检查。

为什么品尝师们容易患上结肠息肉？具体原因还待考证。但有一点，品尝师们的体重一般都比普通人重，而体重会增加患癌症的风险。而他们体重偏重的原因就跟大家听起来一样：多方位的品尝食品时，饮食让人倍感无穷乐趣。

然而，很多研究人员又认为原因很可能不仅仅是在饮食当中增加了乐趣。这些多出来的味蕾会让品尝师们对一些有益身体健康的食物（如蔬菜）敬而远之。这是因为这些食物（蔬菜）的滋味，比如说抱子甘蓝，就太重了。

 

1 colon   

n.冒号，结肠，直肠

参考例句：

• Here,too,the colon must be followed by a dash.这里也是一样，应当在冒号后加破折号。
• The colon is the locus of a large concentration of bacteria.结肠是大浓度的细菌所在地。

2 sprout   

n.芽，萌芽；vt.使发芽，摘去芽；vi.长芽，抽条

参考例句：

• When do deer first sprout horns?鹿在多大的时候开始长出角？
• It takes about a week for the seeds to sprout.这些种子大约要一周后才会发芽。