Why Do We Love Junk Food? 為什么我們喜歡垃圾食品？

侯冬意

There is a question. Why do we love junk food？

A lot of money goes into making junk food.

And even though it has little to no nutritional1 value， it keeps you wanting more.

It is often high in things like salt and sugar. It also has a lot of fat. They start pleasure centers in our brains. Those make us feel oh-so-yummy-good. And they make us want to keep eating.

See， our brains are pretty big. They need a lot of energy to do their thing. So we love high-energy food.

Beyond the super high calorie2 count， junk food makers have a million tricks up their sleeves. That is when it comes to making us really want their products.

Like the melt-in-your-mouth quality that tricks us， we think the calories have magically floated away.

Or boosting3 flavor just short of what is called， “sensory specific satiety4”. It influences strongly your brain. And you end up not wanting anymore.

We know that it is not good for us. Eating junk food it is linked with many health problems. Some of those are obesity5 and diabetes6. Heart disease and even cancer are also linked to junk food. But even with those problems junk food can be really hard to refuse.

Food for thought， for sure.

有一個問題：我們為什么喜歡垃圾食品？

人們在制造垃圾食品上花了很多錢。

即使它沒有什么營養價值，仍然會讓你想吃更多。

它通常含有大量的鹽和糖，也含有很多脂肪。它們啟動了我們大腦中的快樂中心，會讓我們覺得很好吃，讓我們想一直吃東西。

看，我們的大腦很大，它們需要很多能量來工作，所以我們喜歡高能量食物。

除了超高熱量之外，垃圾食品制造商們有無數個花招，讓我們真的想要買他們的產品。

就像溶化在口中的特性欺騙了我們，讓我們認為卡路里已經神奇地飄走了。

或者改進味道，減少所謂的“特定感覺飽腹感”。這種“特定感覺飽腹感”會強烈影響你的大腦，結果你就不再想吃了。

我們知道它對我們無益。吃垃圾食品與許多健康問題有關，包括肥胖和糖尿病，心臟病甚至癌癥也與垃圾食品有關。但即使有這些問題，垃圾食品也很難讓人拒絕。

當然，這值得深思。

（英語原文選自：www.tweentribune.com）

【Notes】

1. nutritional [■] adj. 營養的;滋養的

2. calorie [■] n. 卡路里（熱量單位） 3. boost [■] v. 促進;增加

4. sensory specific satiety 特定感覺飽腹感 5. obesity [■] n. 肥大，肥胖

6. diabetes [■] n. 糖尿病