打破健康补品的医学童话

Energy beverages, vitamin pills, beauty drinks. We have swallowed bucketloads of “antioxidant-rich products” in a belief that the antioxidants they contain could improve our health and turn back the aging clock.
能量饮料，维生素药片，美容饮品。我们吞下许多的“富含抗氧化物的产品”，相信它们所含的抗氧化物可以改善健康，延缓衰老。

But sadly, researchers now say the antioxidant myth could be just another medical fairy tale.
但遗憾的是，研究者表明抗氧化剂神话可能只是又一个医学童话。

“There is little to no data supporting the use of antioxidants to protect against disease,” said Toren Finkel, a health professional at the US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
“几乎没有什么数据可以支撑使用抗氧化物来预防疾病这一说法，”美国国家心肺和血液研究院的健康专家托伦•芬克尔说道。

What’s even sadder, large doses of antioxidant supplements could promote the very problems they are supposed to stamp out.
而更令人感到悲哀的是，大剂量的抗氧化物补充剂会反而会恶化它本应该解决的问题。

A recent review of the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial showed long-term, regular use of Vitamin E supplements increase the risk of prostate cancer in healthy men.
最近，一项针对硒和维生素E抗癌试验的报告显示，长期规律服用维生素E补充剂会增加健康男性患前列腺癌的风险。

However, antioxidants have long since acquired a reputation as miracle health supplements.
然而，抗氧化剂作为一种神奇健康补品的名声在外已久。

As long ago as the 1950s, scientists discovered that many diseases – including heart diseases, strokes and cancer – are linked to free radicals, destructive chemicals that can destroy cell membranes and disrupt crucial processes in the body.
早在20世纪50年代，科学家就发现包括心脏病，中风和癌症在内的诸多疾病与自由基有关，这类具有破坏性的化学物质会破坏细胞膜，并扰乱对人体至关重要的生理过程。

Then in the early 1990s, they noticed that people who eat foods rich in antioxidants, often found in fruits and vegetables, have lower rates of cancer and heart disease.
后来，在20世纪90年代初，科学家发现那些食用富含抗氧化物（常常会在水果和蔬菜找到）食物的人患癌症和心脏病的几率较低。