(孟苏翻译)

Since I’m going to be 75 years old soon, I often get the question “what’s the secret of your excellent health?”
我已经75岁了，常常会有人问我：“你身体这么健康的秘诀是什么？”

Of course, who knows? Probably something about DNA (everything in human biology nowadays seems to be related to DNA). But I commonly answer something like “eat like a dinosaur.” So what do you think dinosaurs eat? You might imagine them tearing through branches, shrubs and trees.
其实，谁知道呢？也许我的DNA不错（当下所有人类生物学似乎都与DNA相关）。不过，我通常的回答是类似“像恐龙那样地吃。”那么，你认为恐龙吃什么呢？你的想象中，它们可能撕扯树枝、灌木和树木为食物。

I could just as likely also say “eat like an elephant.” Eat like an elephant? Images of bananas, flowers and trees as food come up.
我也可以这样说“吃起来像一头大象。”像大象那样地吃？你的头脑里可能会出现香蕉、花卉和树木等食材。

Sometimes, impishly I might also say, “Eat like Adam and Eve.” And you could see the famous couple walking through the garden picking pears, pomegranates, mangoes, blueberries, mulberries, almonds, hazelnuts and macadamias.
有时候，我会开玩笑地说，“像亚当和夏娃那样地吃。”你的眼前可能会出现那对著名的夫妇走在花园中，采摘梨、石榴、芒果、蓝莓、桑葚、杏仁、榛子和澳洲坚果。

What do all these three scenarios imply? Likely a very “veggie” approach to life. And for the dinosaur and the elephant, a huge body that grew and grew, and just survives on only natural vegetation. For Adam and Eve, an idyllic healthy existence, mainly nourished through fruits, berries, and nuts.
那么这三个答案意味着什么呢？可以说是一个“素食”的生活态度。对于恐龙和大象，它们日渐庞大的身躯，只是靠着天然的植物为食。而亚当和夏娃，有着最理想的健康身体，却是以水果、浆果和坚果为主要的营养成分。

Since I am a calcium person (I have been called “Mr. Calcium” in the academic baby world; you can do a Google check), I like to emphasize especially that the huge bones of dinosaurs and elephants, did not need calcium supplements, vitamin D tablets and milk. Isn’t that rather amazing, since we do not normally think of eating huge amounts of vegetables to grow our bones!
And what about milk? It turns out that, with one “exception,” no mammal on earth needs to drink milk after the breast-feeding period. Certainly no self respecting elephant would drink milk after their baby life. The exception is domesticated cats, since humans have taught them to drink milk.
由于我相信钙对人体非常重要（在婴儿医学界，我一直被大家叫做“钙先生”，如果不相信的话，你可以做一个谷歌搜索），我非常想强调一点，那就是恐龙和大象都有着巨大的骨骼，却根本不需要补充钙片，吃维生素D片或是喝牛奶。这是不是让你很惊讶，因为我们通常不认为吃大量的蔬菜对我们的骨头有益处！
那么喝牛奶呢？事实证明，除了人类和动物界唯一的一个例外，世界上没有任何其它哺乳动物需要在哺乳期结束后喝奶的。当然，也绝没有一头有自尊的大象会在成年后再喝奶。而动物界那唯一的例外是家猫，因为人类教会了他们喝牛奶。

However, humans have gotten into the habit of drinking cow milk, especially in the West after the Second World War because of the specter of malnutrition during the war. And after decades of advertising by the dairy industry, we are now totally sold on the idea that milk is an essential nutrient, and good bones only come from drinking cow milk. However, as my pediatric professor used to say “cow’s milk is for cows (calves I guess).” Not really for humans?
然而，人类已经养成了喝牛奶的习惯，尤其是西方，这是第二次世界大战后，因为战争期间营养不良留下的阴影造成的。同时，经过了乳制品产业几十年的坚持不懈的广告洗脑后，我们现在已经完全接受了牛奶是人体必需的营养品这个观念，认为良好的骨骼只能来自于喝牛奶。然而，正如我过去的儿科教授常说的“牛奶是给牛喝的（我猜他的意思是指小牛犊）。”这不是为人类预备的？

In fact milk drinking connects tightly with the enzyme called lactase. The interesting physiologic fact is that lactose is the only carbohydrate in milk, and milk is the only location that lactose is normally found. Lactase is the enzyme that digests the lactose, and it is critical during the baby period when the mother’s milk provides the main nutrition for the infant. Thereafter, not really surprisingly, in a perfectly designed way, lactase drops off sharply after the breast-feeding period in all mammals, coinciding with the general lack of need for milk. The lactose and lactase findings remind us that milk is not the “natural” food we have been told, after the breast feeding period.
事实上，喝牛奶与一种称为乳糖酶的酶紧密相关。一个有趣的生理学事实是，乳糖是牛奶中的唯一的碳水化合物，而乳糖通常只存在于牛奶中。乳糖酶是消化乳糖的酶，对于以母乳为主要营养的哺乳期婴儿而言，是非常关键的。而此后，令人毫不意外的是，在完美的设计下，所有哺乳动物在哺乳期后，乳糖酶指标都迅速下降，这与对牛奶的需求下降完全相吻合。乳糖和乳糖酶的发现提醒我们，在母乳喂养期后，牛奶并不是“天然”的食品，像我们被告知的那样。

However Westerners, especially northern Europeans have a peculiarity of their lactases not actually falling during this period after breastfeeding, or weaning. Because they were first studied, this peculiarity in Westerners was called “normal,” and all the rest of the world, who were later studied, and found to have the “natural” drop off, were then called “abnormal.” Thus, so called “normal” westerners could more readily enjoy their cow milk drinks and the rest of the (“abnormal”) world not so much.
不过西方人，尤其是北欧人，有个特点，就是他们的乳糖酶在哺乳期后或断奶后并不下降。但是由于他们是首先被研究的人种，因此，他们的这种特性在西方被称为是“正常”的。而世界上别的人种，虽然都被发现乳糖酶有“自然”下降的现象，但因为是后来才被研究的，故而反被称为“异常”的。这样，所谓的“正常”的西方人可以更容易地享受其牛奶饮料，而世界其他的人种（“异常”者们）却没有那么幸运了。

Are you getting the point? In nature, the natural physiology is actually geared towards not really needing to drink milk after weaning from the mother. No real surprise there, once you start thinking about it. Therefore, in most populations of the world there is just a “coincidentally designed” system where lactase levels fall at the same time as the need falls. This understanding now better fits the gradually developing data showing that cow milk feeding after breast feeding is not critically essential, and in unusual circumstances could even be detrimental to health. Milk has its contribution to nutrition, but we no longer feel it is “sacred” for everyone to drink milk, contrary to advertisements you might still see. And definitely it isn’t critically important for dinosaurs or elephants either.
你明白了吗？在自然界中，自然的生理实际上是在断奶后，人类并不真正地需要喝牛奶。一旦你开始考虑这个问题，那么这个答案并没有多奇怪。对于世界上大多数人种来说，似乎有一个“巧合的设计”系统，在乳糖酶水平下降的同时，人类对母乳的需求也降低了。这个答案与现在逐渐增多的观察数据相符，那就是在哺乳期后，喂牛奶并非是必不可少的，而在特殊情况下，甚至可能会损害儿童的身体健康。牛奶对人类的营养是有贡献的，但是与你看到的一些广告宣传相反，我们不再觉得让大家都来喝牛奶是“必须的”。对于恐龙或大象而言，这肯定不是必须的。

So to come back from that distraction (sorry, I’m a calcium person, remember), what is happening nowadays in the nutrition world regarding a great diet for health? Every research study on some kind of fruit or vegetable or nut or berry, screams out that it is helpful to cure your hypertension, cholesterol, diabetes…….. Likely more than 95% of all the studies on fruits and vegetables, berries and nuts, nearly ways show that it is beneficial either singly or in combinations. And the flipside of this is that, likely more than 95% of all studies on land animal meats show something unhealthy about eating that, either singly or in combination, for the short- or long-term.
因此，回到我前面说的话题（对不起，还记得吗，我提到我相信钙对人体非常重要），今天营养界认为什么才能算为健康的饮食？每个对某些水果、蔬菜、坚果或是浆果的研究都清楚地表明，这些食物有助于治疗你的高血压、胆固醇、糖尿病……。同样，超过95％对水果、蔬菜、浆果和坚果的研究表明，无论是单独或的是搭配着食用，都对人体有益。相反的，超过95％对陆地肉类动物的研究表明，食肉是不健康的饮食，无论是单独的或搭配着食用，也无论短期或长期。

“If I was a betting man (which I am not however!),” the logical conclusion is to go with the former in spades, and reduce the latter (land meats) markedly. There should be no argument at all! And gradually over the last three or four decades, the evidence is mounting about the great healthfulness of a fruit and veggie diet (will that keep you healthy till 75?), which goes back to the comments we started with:
Eat like a dinosaur. Eat like an elephant. Eat like Adam and Eve. I don’t think you would go wrong. Plus it’s delicious, believe me.
“如果我是一个赌徒（其实我不是！）”合乎逻辑的结论应该是大量地增加前者的摄入量，同时减少后者（陆地动物的肉类）的摄入。对此，我们不应该有任何的疑虑！在过去的三、四十年中，逐渐有越来越多的证据显示，以水果和蔬菜为主的饮食是多么健康（也行会让你一直健康地活到到75岁？），这又回到我在文章开始时所提及的观点：
像恐龙那样地吃。像大象那样地吃。像亚当和夏娃那样地吃。我不认为这对你会有任何害处。其实，这些食物吃起来味道还很不错呢，相信我。