肉对你有害吗？肉不健康吗？

Is Meat Bad for You? Is Meat Unhealthy? 肉对你有害吗？肉不健康吗？

When our ancestors started eating meat around two million years ago 当我们的祖先在大约两百万年前开始吃肉时 it wasn't just because animals taste great, it was a pure necessity 这不仅仅是因为动物的味道很棒，这纯粹是一种必需品， since climate change made many of the plants less available 由于气候变化使许多植物变得不那么可用， but over the last few years eating meat has increasingly been associated 但在过去的几年里，吃肉越来越多地与 with health risks like: heart disease, cancers, and early death 有健康风险，例如：心脏病、癌症和过早死亡。

为什么我们需要肉？Permalink

Biologically, we need to eat for three reasons: 从生物学上讲，我们需要吃有三个原因： for energy, to acquire materials to fabricate our cells 获取能量，获取制造细胞的材料， and to get special molecules that our bodies can't make themselves 并获得我们的身体无法自行制造的特殊分子。 Meat contains all essential amino acids our body needs 肉类含有我们身体所需的所有必需氨基酸 and a lot of minerals, like: iron, zinc and essential vitamins 还有很多矿物质，比如：铁、锌和必需的维生素， some of which are barely found in plants like Vitamin B12 其中一些在维生素 B12 等植物中几乎找不到

Only one essential nutrient is missing in most of the meat we consume: 我们食用的大多数肉类中只缺少一种必需营养素： vitamin C, which appears in almost all plants, it supports our immune system 维生素 C，几乎存在于所有植物中，它支持我们的免疫系统 and the development of connective tissues 和结缔组织的发育。

Another advantage of meat is that some of the nutrients in them 肉类的另一个优点是其中的一些营养成分 are broken down faster and available quicker than those from plants 比植物中的分解更快，可用更快。 A purely meat-based diet also lets the Unuit survive in extreme climate conditions 纯粹以肉类为基础的饮食也让 Unuit 能够在极端气候条件下生存。 Since they consume the whole animal including the organs 因为它们会吃掉包括器官在内的整个动物， they get every single nutrient they need including vitamin C 他们获得所需的每一种营养素，包括维生素 C。 So meat itself is definitely not dangerous for us 所以肉本身对我们来说绝对没有危险。

不同种类的肉Permalink

However, the health effects of meats vary 然而，肉类对健康的影响各不相同， depending on how its prepared and what animal it comes from 取决于它的制备方式和它来自什么动物。 The most healthy animals to eat are probably fish 吃的最健康的动物可能是鱼， they contain fatty acids, like omega-3 它们含有脂肪酸，如 omega-3， which may lower the risk of cardiovascular diseases 这可能会降低患心血管疾病的风险 and support anti-inflammatory immune functions 并支持抗炎免疫功能。 As part of a balanced diet, fish can be eaten regularly without health risks 作为均衡饮食的一部分，可以定期食用鱼而不会对健康造成危害， however, overfishing contributes to overfishing 然而，过度捕捞会导致过度捕捞。

Chicken is regarded as the meat with the fewest health risks 鸡肉被认为是健康风险最小的肉类。 but still, its high content of saturated fats is associated with 但是，它的高饱和脂肪含量仍然与 a higher cholesterol level and cardiovascular disease 较高的胆固醇水平和心血管疾病。

Things start to get problematic with high intakes of red meats 大量摄入红肉开始出现问题 like beef, veal, pork, lamb, horse and goat 如牛肉、小牛肉、猪肉、羊肉、马和山羊。 Large-scale meta-analysis studies have shown 大规模的荟萃分析研究表明 that eating 100 grams of red meat every day increases the risk of diabetes by 19% 每天吃 100 克红肉会使患糖尿病的风险增加 19%， strokes by 11% and, colorectal cancer by 17% 中风 11%，结直肠癌 17%。

However, most studies that linked health risks 然而，大多数将健康风险联系起来的研究 to eating red meat were case-control studies 吃红肉是病例对照研究， which means taking a group of people with a disease 这意味着带一群患有疾病的人 and classifying them by their eating habits 并根据他们的饮食习惯对他们进行分类， and people who eat less meat tend to live a healthier lifestyle in general 一般来说，少吃肉的人往往过着更健康的生活方式。

Things get worse when we look at processed meat though 但是，当我们查看加工肉类时，情况会变得更糟。 Processing meat means adding certain chemicals 加工肉类意味着添加某些化学物质 by curing, smoking, sorting or fermenting 通过腌制、熏制、分类或发酵 or in other words, making it delicious 或者换句话说，让它变得美味。 Bacon, ham, salami, sausages and hot dogs 培根、火腿、意大利腊肠、香肠和热狗 contain chemicals that are harmful for us like nitrates and nitrites 含有对我们有害的化学物质，如硝酸盐和亚硝酸盐 that can damage the DNA in our digestive system and lead to cancer 这会破坏我们消化系统中的 DNA 并导致癌症。

多少肉是安全的？Permalink

The W-H-O reviewed 800 studies over 20 years, concluding that W-H-O 回顾了 20 年来的 800 项研究，得出的结论是 processed wheat is strongly linked to an increased risk of colorectal cancer 加工小麦与结直肠癌风险增加密切相关。 Each extra 50 grams of processed meat per day 每天每增加 50 克加工肉类 increases the risk of cancer by 18 percent 使患癌症的风险增加 18%， which puts processed meat in the same category as smoking 这将加工肉类与吸烟归为一类， and also significantly increase the chance of suffering from 也显着增加患上 diabetes, strokes and coronary heart diseases 糖尿病、中风和冠心病。 It also makes a difference what sort of life our meat lived 我们的肉过着什么样的生活也有所不同。 It's common to feed large amounts of antibiotics to livestock 给牲畜喂食大量抗生素是很常见的 in order to prevent diseases that can spread antibiotic resistance 以预防可能传播抗生素耐药性的疾病。

To blame meat alone for bad health would be wrong though 但是，仅仅将健康问题归咎于肉类是错误的。 There is no evidence that the very essence of meat 没有证据表明肉的本质 has any negative effect beyond its high fat content 除了其高脂肪含量之外，还有任何负面影响。 Most public health agencies suggest cutting meat consumption to 500 grams a week 大多数公共卫生机构建议将肉类消费量减少到每周 500 克， while studies suggest cutting down processed meat as much as possible 而研究建议尽可能减少加工肉类。 The average American consumes around 1600 grams of meat a week 美国人平均每周消耗大约 1600 克肉。

Aside from health concerns 除了健康问题， the meat industry is one of the largest contributors to climate change 肉类行业是气候变化的最大贡献者之一 and has reached a scale where it's impossible 并且已经达到了不可能的规模 to deliver millions of tons of meat and still treat animals with dignity 运送数百万吨肉类，仍然有尊严地对待动物。

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