Eat to Live(為生而食)
　　A meager diet may give you health and long life, but it's not much fun—and it might not even be necessary. We may be able to hang on to most of that youthful vigor even if we don't start to diet until old age.
　　節(jié)制飲食可以給你帶來(lái)健康和長(zhǎng)壽，但是不會(huì)給人帶來(lái)快樂——甚至不是必要的。那怕我們直到老年才節(jié)制飲食，我們也能夠保持年輕的活力。
　　Stephen Spindler and his colleagues from the University of California at Riverside have found that some of an elderly mouse's liver genes can be made to behave as they did when the mouse was young simply by limiting its food for four weeks. The genetic rejuvenation won't reverse other damage caused by time for the mouse, but could help its liver metabolize drugs or get rid of toxins.
　　來(lái)自美國(guó)加州大學(xué)河濱分校的史蒂芬和他的同事發(fā)現(xiàn)一些年老老鼠僅僅在節(jié)制飲食四周后它的肝臟基因就會(huì)變得和衰老前一樣充滿活力。對(duì)于那些年老的老鼠來(lái)說(shuō)，肝臟基因恢復(fù)活力不會(huì)逆轉(zhuǎn)老鼠在其他方面的老化，但是能幫助它的肝臟代謝藥物或除掉毒素。
　　Spindler's team fed three mice a normal diet for their whole lives, and fed another three on half-rations. Three more mice were switched from the normal diet to half-feed for a month when they were 34 months old—equivalent to about 70 human years.
　　史蒂芬的團(tuán)隊(duì)一直以正常飲食來(lái)喂養(yǎng)三只老鼠，另外的三只老鼠只喂正常飲食的一半。另外的三只老鼠在它們34個(gè)月大(折合等于70歲左右的人)的時(shí)候進(jìn)行了為期一個(gè)月的從正常飲食減為一半。
　　The researchers checked the activity of 11,000 genes from the mouse livers, and found that 46 changed with age in the normally fed mice. The changes were associated with things like inflammation and free radical production—probably bad news for mouse health. In the mice that had dieted all their lives, 27 of those 46 genes continued to behave like young genes. But the most surprising finding was that the mice that only started dieting in old age also benefited from 70 per cent of these gene changes.
　　研究員從老鼠的肝臟里檢查了11000個(gè)基因的活動(dòng)，發(fā)現(xiàn)正常飼養(yǎng)的老鼠隨著年齡的增長(zhǎng)有46條肝臟基因會(huì)發(fā)生變化，這種變化與炎癥和身體組織無(wú)限激增相關(guān)(對(duì)老鼠的健康來(lái)說(shuō)不是好的消息)。一直在節(jié)制飲食的老鼠，那46個(gè)基因中的27個(gè)一直保持著像年輕老鼠一樣的基因。但是最驚人的發(fā)現(xiàn)是那些在老年才開始節(jié)制飲食的老鼠從那些變化基因的70%中獲益。
　　“This is the first indication that three effects kick in pretty quickly,” says Huber Warner from the National Institute on Aging near Washington, D. C.
　　來(lái)自華盛頓國(guó)家衰老研究所的胡貝爾華納說(shuō)：“這是第一次表明三種影響很快起作用”。
　　No one yet knows if calorie works in people as it does in mice, bus Spindler is hopeful. “There's attracting and tempting evidence out there that it will work,” he says.
　　還沒有人知道卡路里進(jìn)入人體后是否和在老鼠身上的效果一樣，但是史蒂芬是抱有希望的。他說(shuō)：“有證據(jù)表明卡路里進(jìn)入人體后和在老鼠身上的效果一樣�！�
　　If it does work in people, there might be good reasons for rejuvenating the liver. As we get older, out bodies are less efficient at metabolizing drugs, for example. A brief period of time of dieting, says Spindler, could be enough to make sure a drug is effective.
　　如果把實(shí)驗(yàn)結(jié)果應(yīng)用于人體上，可能有助于是肝臟恢復(fù)活力。例如，當(dāng)我們變老后，身體的代謝藥物能力下降。史蒂芬說(shuō)，一個(gè)短時(shí)間的節(jié)制飲食，能確保藥物其作用。
　　But Spindler isn't sure the trade-off is worth it. “The mice get less disease, they liv
　　e longer but they're hungry,” he says. “Even seeing what a diet does, it's still hard to go to a restaurant and say: 'I can only eat half of that'.”
　　但是史蒂芬不能確定這種方式是否值得。他說(shuō)：“老鼠不容易生病了，他們能活得更長(zhǎng)，但是他們是饑餓的�！薄凹词怪�道了節(jié)制飲食的好處，但是當(dāng)去到一家飯店還是很難說(shuō)出“我只能吃一半”的話�！� Spindler hopes we soon won't need to diet at all. His company, Life Span Genetics in California, is looking for drugs that have the effects of calorie restriction.
　　史蒂芬希望不久的將來(lái)我們根本就不用節(jié)制飲食了。他位于加州的生命遺傳學(xué)公司正在尋找一種能限制熱量的藥物。