BBC - The bitter taste of sugar

6 minute English - The bitter taste of sugar

Note: This is not a word for word transcript.

Rob

Hello I’m Rob. Welcome to 6 Minute English. I’m joined today by Neil.

大家好，我是Rob。歡迎來到六分鐘英語。今天跟我一起的是Neil。

Neil

Hello. Neil here. Excuse me I’m enjoying a bar of chocolate…
大家好，我是Neil。不好意思，我正在享用巧克力…

Rob

Where did you get that from?
你從哪拿來的？

Neil

In the vending machine upstairs – that’s the automatic machine with drinks and sweets – you put coins in it to release whatever you paid for.
樓上的販賣機 – 自動販售飲料和甜食的機器，投入硬幣就可以吃到你想要的東西。

Rob

Now, if it was up to some health professionals, you wouldn’t see many of those machines around anymore.
現在，如果是由一些健康專家決定的話，你可能會看不到幾台販賣機了。

Neil

What? No more machines which offer you as many sweets as you like, no questions asked?
什麼？再也沒有販賣機販賣一堆你喜歡的甜食？這合理嗎？

Rob

Exactly. The World Health Organisation has recently proposed a cut in its recommendation for how much sugar we should have. They now say that it should be less than 5% of our calorie intake.
當然啊。世界衛生組織最近發表了一個對於我們應該攝取多少糖分的建議。他們認為應該比我們卡路里的總攝取量再少5%。

Neil

A calorie is a unit that measures how much energy you get from food, and calorie intake is how many calories we eat in a period of time – say a day, for example.
卡路里是用來測量我們從食物獲得的能量，而卡路里攝取量則是指，我們在一段時間內吃下去的熱量，比如說，一天的攝取量。

Rob

Yes. So this might be it for sugar for you today, Neil.
是啊。所以你應該已經吃完今天該攝取的糖分了，Neil。

Neil

Well, let me see… this bar of chocolate contains 215 calories! That’s quite a lot, isn’t it?
嗯，我看看喔…這條巧克力有215的卡路里！相當多耶！

Rob

But life can be sweet even with less sugar, Neil. So today, we’re going to talk about what should be done to help us eat less sugar and you’ll learn words about food.
不過人生即使不吃糖還是一樣很美好啦，Neil。所以今天，我們要討論怎麼做才能幫助我們少吃點甜食，你也會學到一些跟食物相關的單字。

Neil

But I like my sugar!

但我熱愛甜食！

Rob

Many people do. So let me ask you about how much they like it. Which country has the highest sugar consumption? Is it:

很多人都是，我要考考你有多少人喜歡甜食。哪一個國家糖分的攝取量是最高的？

a) China
中國

b) India
印度

c) The United States
美國

Neil

I think it’s the United States.
我想是美國吧。

Rob

Okay. Well, we’ll have the answer at the end of the programme! Right, so let's talk about sugar. Health experts are looking for ways to make us eat less of it.

好，節目尾聲的時候我們會揭曉答案！今天要聊聊跟糖相關的主題，健康專家正在尋找讓我們能少吃點糖的方法。

Neil

We all know that too much sugar can cause not only obesity and diabetes but also tooth decay – this destroys the hard surface of your teeth and exposes more sensitive parts. Ouch!

我們都知道吃太多糖不只會導致肥胖及糖尿病，也會造成蛀牙 – 這會侵蝕牙齒的表面並暴露出更敏感的部分！

Rob

Yes, it can be very painful. You might enjoy eating sweets but nobody likes toothache – that’s what we call the pain in your teeth.
是啊，這會非常疼痛。你也許喜愛甜食，但沒人喜歡牙痛 – 所謂牙齒的疼痛。

Neil

Experts say we should always brush our teeth after eating sugary food.
專家說我們應該在每次吃完甜時候都刷牙。

Rob

Yes. Aubrey Sheiham, Professor of Dental Public Health at University College London, goes even further. He is part of a team which is suggesting the authorities in England reduce the number of vending machines in public places. Listen to what he says. Which word does he use to describe Neil’s chocolate bar and other kinds of wrapped sweets?
是啊。倫敦大學口腔公共衛生的權威Aubrey Sheiham，有更進一步的說法。他也是贊成英國應在公共場所減少販賣機數量的其中一員。聽聽看他怎麼說。他用哪一個字來描述Neil的巧克力和其他的甜食？

Aubrey Sheiham, Professor of Dental Public Health at University College London

We shouldn’t have vending machines with confectionary and soft drinks in any publicly-funded institutions – no schools, nurseries, hospitals etc. – and also limit the amount of sugar in school meals, nurseries’ meals. That again would be a first step that one would take.
任何公家機關的販賣機，都不應該再販售糖果及軟性飲料了 – 像是學校、托兒所、醫院…等等 – 也要限制學校及托兒所餐點所含的糖分。這會是第一步需要做的事。

Neil

He mentions ‘confectionary’, meaning chocolate and sweet snacks, which can be bought from vending machines, along with soft drinks – which are cold sweet drinks that are not alcoholic.
他提到 ”糖果” ，也就是可以在販賣機買到的巧克力和甜的零食，通常也販售軟性飲料 – 意指不包含酒精的冷飲。

Rob

The professor doesn’t want these machines in state schools or hospitals. And he also wants meals served to children in schools to have less sugar.
專家不希望這些機器出現在州立學校或醫院。同時他也希望學校提供給兒童的餐點是少糖的。

Neil

He’s got a point there. We get used to sugar in childhood. And it seems that the more sugar we eat, the more we want. But if we get used to eating things which are less sweet, after a while when we eat something very sweet, it doesn’t taste so good. Do you understand what I mean?
他說到了重點。我們從兒童時期就習慣了糖分，而我們吃了越多的甜食就會越想要它。假如我們習慣低糖的飲食，一段時間之後，吃到特別甜的東西也就沒那麼好吃了。你理解這個說法嗎？

Rob

Yes, I do. It’s a matter of habit. We don’t need so much sugar to enjoy the sweet taste. But the professor says there’s another way of encouraging us to eat less sugar. Aubrey Sheiham talks about tax on sugar. France has already adopted a sugar tax. Where’s the money being spent? Let’s listen.
當然。這就是一種習慣，不需要吃很多糖也可以享受甜味。不過專家說還有另一種方法可以鼓勵我們少吃糖。Aubrey Sheiham談到要徵收甜食稅。法國已經開始徵收，稅收用到哪裡呢？聽聽看：

Aubrey Sheiham, Professor of Dental Public Health at University College

London

You’ve got a lot of public support in France where the consumption of sugar has gone down considerably. And, what is good about what the French have done is that tax that has gone on sugar is being spent in the health service. This is a way that you could actually use that money from the sugar tax and spend it on improving health care and dental care.

你會發現法國得到大眾有力的支持，糖分的攝取量正大量的銳減。並且，法國人做了一件很棒的事，他們把從銷售糖果獲得的稅收，用在醫療服務上。這是一個很好的方法，你可以真正的把稅收用在改善醫療保健及口腔護理。

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