美国国家公共电台 NPR The FDA Will Decide Whether 26 Ingredients Count As Fiber

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The Food and Drug Administration is set to decide soon on a matter that could help you rethink fiber¹. Yeah, we're talking about fiber. We're told to eat a whole lot more of it. It's good for us, right? But what exactly counts as fiber is up for debate. Allison Aubrey from NPR's health team joins us in the studio to explain this. Hey, Allison.

ALLISON AUBREY, BYLINE²: Hey, there.

MARTIN: What is the debate about fiber?

AUBREY: Well, I think the debate is probably best illustrated³ with these two foods that I've brought in.

MARTIN: Look at you with food props⁴.

AUBREY: I've got here an apple, right? An apple - this naturally contains a lot of fiber. And this is a chocolate Fiber One bar. You see them all the time in the grocery store. Kids love them. It has a lot of highly processed fiber, something that the food industry refers to as isolated⁵ fiber.

MARTIN: What does that mean to be isolated fiber?

AUBREY: Yeah, so isolated fiber is fiber that's extracted. Think of pulling it out of things like - here's some sources - chicory root, sugar cane⁶, corn, lots of plants. So what food manufacturers do is they take all this fiber, they process it and they add it back into foods like this.

MARTIN: There's a big, old grocery bag of foods. OK, so this is...

AUBREY: (Laughter) So I'm going to dump out my bag here.

MARTIN: ...Food that has isolated fiber.

AUBREY: That's right. So I've got some white bread. I've got lots of snack bars - snack bar one, snack bar two. I've got pasta here. You'll see manufacturers splash in big, bold letters fiber...

MARTIN: Fiber, fiber.

AUBREY: ...Across the label. They want you to know there's fiber in here. I've got sugary cereal with fiber added back into it.

MARTIN: (Laughter) So, I mean, do these products - isolated or highly processed fibers⁷, do they have any nutritional⁸ benefit?

AUBREY: Well, here's the take of one critic I spoke⁹ to. This is Bonnie Liebman. She's of the consumer group the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Listen to what she had to say.

BONNIE LIEBMAN: The problem is that the food industry has hijacked¹⁰ the advice to eat more fiber by putting isolated, highly processed fibers into what are essentially¹¹ junk foods.

MARTIN: So they're not good for us.

AUBREY: Well, here's the thing. Food manufacturers have weighed in with the FDA. And they're saying, you know what? There is some benefit here. They're saying, you know, these foods can aid regularity¹² or digestive health. But the experts I spoke to are not convinced. They say you don't get anywhere near the benefit that you get when you eat whole foods that are naturally rich in fiber, things like this apple or, you know, grains or beans. Here's David Ludwig. He's a professor of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.

DAVID LUDWIG: Fiber's so much more than just that substance that we might read on the nutritional label. It carries along with it, in intact whole foods, a host of beneficial products like vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, anti-inflammatory chemicals. Much of that is lost in the process of refining and producing isolated fibers.

AUBREY: So, you know, the whole reason that we're told to eat high-fiber diets is because studies show that when you eat things like vegetables and beans and fruits and whole grains that you have a lower risk of certain diseases. Studies show high-fiber diets are linked to lower rates of colorectal cancer. One pointed¹³ to a lower risk of breast cancer. So it's not at all clear that just adding this isolated fiber back to processed foods would lead to the same benefits.

MARTIN: OK, so obviously, we've established that eating an apple is better for you on the fiber front. But let's just say you're never going to do that. Like, your kid's never going to eat an apple, for example. Isn't one of these bars with this so-called enriched fiber better than no fiber at all?

AUBREY: Well, that is exactly what the industry argues. Here's what Robbie Burns of the Grocery Manufacturers Association told me.

ROBBIE BURNS: Fiber is an under-consumed nutrient¹⁴ in the U.S. We consume less than half of what's recommended. So I look at it in a positive way that if you can supplement a snack bar that consumers are going to be consuming in any case and can add some fiber to it, it goes a long way towards helping¹⁵ them meet their dietary recommendation.

MARTIN: All right, what happens now? What does the FDA have to decide?

AUBREY: Well, up until now, the food manufacturers have basically been able to declare any fiber, regardless of the source, as dietary fiber on the nutrition facts panel here. And now the FDA is saying, look, there's got to be some evidence of benefit. And they're set to make a decision on this in the coming months.

MARTIN: NPR's Allison Aubrey. Thanks, Allison.

AUBREY: Thanks, Rachel.

1 fiber   

n.纤维，纤维质

参考例句：

• The basic structural unit of yarn is the fiber.纤维是纱的基本结构单元。
• The material must be free of fiber clumps.这种材料必须无纤维块。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 illustrated   

adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• His lecture was illustrated with slides taken during the expedition. 他在讲演中使用了探险时拍摄到的幻灯片。
• The manufacturing Methods: Will be illustrated in the next chapter. 制作方法将在下一章说明。

4 props   

小道具； 支柱( prop的名词复数 )； 支持者； 道具； （橄榄球中的）支柱前锋

参考例句：

• Rescuers used props to stop the roof of the tunnel collapsing. 救援人员用支柱防止隧道顶塌陷。
• The government props up the prices of farm products to support farmers' incomes. 政府保持农产品价格不变以保障农民们的收入。

5 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

6 cane   

n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的

参考例句：

• This sugar cane is quite a sweet and juicy.这甘蔗既甜又多汁。
• English schoolmasters used to cane the boys as a punishment.英国小学老师过去常用教鞭打男学生作为惩罚。

7 fibers   

光纤( fiber的名词复数 )； （织物的）质地； 纤维，纤维物质

参考例句：

• Thesolution of collagen-PVA was wet spined with the sodium sulfate as coagulant and collagen-PVA composite fibers were prepared. 在此基础上，以硫酸钠为凝固剂，对胶原-PVA共混溶液进行湿法纺丝，制备了胶原-PVA复合纤维。
• Sympathetic fibers are distributed to all regions of the heart. 交感神经纤维分布于心脏的所有部分。

8 nutritional   

adj.营养的，滋养的

参考例句：

• A diet lacking in nutritional value will not keep a person healthy.缺乏营养价值的饮食不能维持人的健康。
• The labels on food products give a lot of information about their nutritional content.食品上的标签提供很多关于营养成分的信息。

9 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

10 hijacked   

劫持( hijack的过去式和过去分词 )； 绑架； 拦路抢劫； 操纵（会议等，以推销自己的意图）

参考例句：

• The plane was hijacked by two armed men on a flight from London to Rome. 飞机在从伦敦飞往罗马途中遭到两名持械男子劫持。
• The plane was hijacked soon after it took off. 那架飞机起飞后不久被劫持了。

11 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

12 regularity   

n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐

参考例句：

• The idea is to maintain the regularity of the heartbeat.问题就是要维持心跳的规律性。
• He exercised with a regularity that amazed us.他锻炼的规律程度令我们非常惊讶。

13 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

14 nutrient   

adj.营养的，滋养的；n.营养物，营养品

参考例句：

• Magnesium is the nutrient element in plant growth.镁是植物生长的营养要素。
• The roots transmit moisture and nutrient to the trunk and branches.根将水分和养料输送到干和枝。

15 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。