(单词翻译:单击)
Severe Diet Doesn't Prolong Life, at Least in Monkeys
严格的饮食不会延长寿命，至少对猴子来说是如此
For 25 years, the rhesus monkeys from China and India were kept semi-starved, lean and hungry. The males' weights were so low they were the equivalent of a 6-foot-tall man who tipped the scales at just 120 to 133 pounds.
过去25年当中，来自中国和印度的一些猕猴始终被保持在半饥饿状态，身体精瘦、饥肠辘辘。公猴的体重很轻，瘦的程度相当于一个身高1.8米左右，体重却只有120到133磅的男人。
The hope was that if the monkeys lived longer, healthier lives by eating a lot less, then maybe people, their evolutionary cousins, would, too. Some scientists, anticipating such benefits, began severely restricting their own diets.
科学家们的希望是，如果猴子可以通过少吃达到健康长寿的目的的话， 它们在进化意义上的近亲人类，或许也可以如此。从这些益处着眼，一些科学家已经开始严格限制自己的饮食。
The results of this major, long-awaited study, which began in 1987, are finally in. But it did not bring the vindication calorie restriction enthusiasts had anticipated. It turns out the skinny monkeys did not live any longer than those kept at more normal weights.
这项令人期待已久的重大研究始于1987年，如今终于公布了结果。但研究却并没有证实那些热衷节减卡路里的人们预期的益处。结果显示，瘦得皮包骨头的猴子并不比那些正常体重的同类活得长。
Some lab test results improved, but only in monkeys put on the diet when they were old. The causes of death -- cancer, heart disease -- were the same in both the underfed and the normally fed monkeys.
一些实验室测试结果有所改善，但仅限于那些步入老年之后才开始节食的猴子。不管节食与否，猴子的死亡原因----癌症、心脏病----都是一样的。
Lab test results showed lower levels of cholesterol and blood sugar in the male monkeys that started eating 30 percent fewer calories in old age, but not in the females. Males and females that were put on the diet when they were old had lower levels of triglycerides, which are linked to heart disease risk.
实验结果显示，老年公猴的饮食所含卡路里减少30%之后，它们的胆固醇和血糖水平有所降低，但是母猴的情况没有变化。节食的老年公猴和母猴都拥有较低的三酸甘油酯水平，三酸甘油酯是一种诱发心脏病的物质。
Monkeys put on the diet when they were young or middle-aged did not get the same benefits, though they had less cancer. But the bottom line was that the monkeys that ate less did not live any longer than those that ate normally.
节食的幼年或者中年猴子并没有获得这些益处，得癌症的几率却有所减少。不过，再怎么说 ，吃得少的猴子并不比饮食正常的猴子寿命更长。
Rafael de Cabo, lead author of the diet study, published online on Wednesday in the journal Nature, said he was surprised and disappointed that the underfed monkeys did not live longer. Like many other researchers on aging, he had expected an outcome similar to that of a 2009 study from the University of Wisconsin that concluded that caloric restriction did extend monkeys' life spans.
这篇节食论文于周三在《自然》(Nature)杂志发表，论文的首要作者拉斐尔·德·卡博(Rafael de Cabo)称，他觉得既惊讶又失望，因为节食的猴子寿命没有增加。和许多研究老龄化的学者一样，他本来估计能得到一个与2009年威斯康星大学的研究类似的结果，那项研究的结论是，减少卡路里的确可以延长猴子的生命。
But even that study had a question mark hanging over it. Its authors had disregarded about half of the deaths among the monkeys they studied, saying they were not related to aging. If they had included all of the deaths, there was no extension of life span in the Wisconsin study, either.
不过，即使是那项研究也有一个可疑之处。研究报告的各位作者忽略了半数在研究过程中死亡的猴子，称这与老龄化无关。如果威斯康星的研究者把死亡的所有猴子都包括进来的话，那么，他们的研究也不能证明猴子寿命会延长。
