口腔里的细菌是人们不喜欢西兰花的原因之一 | 经济学人早报精选

文 / 王不留（微信公众号：考研英语笔记）

 

2021年9月26号的早晨，来杯“经济学人浓香咖啡”，提神解困。

 

Broccoli brats: why kids won’t eat their greens

 

 

Making sure children get their daily vegetables can be a war of nutrition. The conflict is rarely fiercer than when fought over members of the brassica family, which includes broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower. Research in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry suggests that kids may have more cause for complaint than adults realise. Compounds in these veggies can react with natural oral bacteria to produce nasty, sulphurous odours.

 

Analysis of 98 child/parent pairs revealed that the amount of these volatiles produced varies greatly between people. But some children inherit repulsion to brassica. The kids who produced the most sulphurous volatiles were the most likely to spit out their sprouts. That relationship disappeared by adulthood, as tastes grew more accepting. So when a child tries to refuse cauliflower, citing “high natural levels of S-methyl-ʟ-cysteine sulfoxide”, parents can fall back on an old stratagem—telling them they’ll love it one day.

 

Broccoli brats: why kids won’t eat their greens

 

西兰花淘气鬼：为什么孩子们不吃这些蔬菜？

 

Broccoli 西兰花 ;  绿菜花 

brats 没有规矩的人 ;  顽童 ;  淘气鬼；brat的复数 

 

Making sure children get their daily vegetables can be a war of nutrition. The conflict is rarely fiercer than when fought over members of the brassica family, which includes broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower. Research in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry suggests that kids may have more cause for complaint than adults realise. Compounds in these veggies can react with natural oral bacteria to produce nasty, sulphurous odours.

 

确保孩子们每天都吃蔬菜就是一场营养战。可是，如果有西兰花、卷心菜和花椰菜等芸苔属植物的时候，这场冲突更为激烈。《农业和食品化学》杂志的研究表明，孩子们的抱怨可能比成人意识到的更合理。因为，这些蔬菜中的化合物会与口腔中天然的细菌发生反应，产生难闻的硫磺味。

 

fiercer 凶猛的 ;  凶狠的 ;  凶残的 ;  狂热的 ;  强烈的 ;  猛烈的 ;  狂暴的 ;  恶劣的 ;  fierce的比较级 

brassica 芥属植物 

broccoli 西兰花 ;  绿菜花 

cauliflower 花椰菜 ;  菜花 

sulphurous 含硫的 ;  有硫的气味的 

odours 气味 ;  臭味 ;  odour的复数

 

王不留(wbliu85)注：

 

西兰花

 

 

卷心菜

 

 

花椰菜

 

Analysis of 98 child/parent pairs revealed that the amount of these volatiles produced varies greatly between people. But some children inherit repulsion to brassica. The kids who produced the most sulphurous volatiles were the most likely to spit out their sprouts. That relationship disappeared by adulthood, as tastes grew more accepting. So when a child tries to refuse cauliflower, citing “high natural levels of S-Methyl-L-cysteine sulfoxide”, parents can fall back on an old stratagem—telling them they’ll love it one day.

 

针对招募的98对儿童/父母的分析发现，这些挥发物的产生量在人们之间的差异很大。有些孩子遗传了对芸苔属植物的厌恶。产生最多含硫挥发物的孩子最有可能吐出蔬菜。随着品味越来越被接受，这种厌恶感在成年后就消失了。因此，当孩子以“SMCSO化合物的天然含量高”为由不吃花椰菜时，父母可以求助于一个古老的策略，告诉孩子们有一天会喜欢它。

 

volatiles 挥发物

repulsion 排斥 ;  斥力 ;  排斥力 ;  强烈的反感 ;  憎恶 

sulphurous 含硫的 ;  有硫的气味的 

spit out 吐出… ;  愤怒地说 

sprouts 萌芽

fall back on 诉诸/求助于；转而做，转而使用，转而依靠 

stratagem 谋略 ;  计策，计谋 

 

王不留(wbliu85)注：

 

芸苔属植物含有一种叫做S-methyl-L-cysteine sulfoxide(SMCSO)的化合物，当跟蔬菜中存在的另一种酶混合时会产生含硫的气味。

 

S-Methyl-L-cysteine sulfoxide 这是一种化合物，没找到恰当的翻译，这种物质简称为SMCSO。

 

 

跟SMCSO混合产生臭味的酶是由口腔微生物群中的细菌产生的，不同的人有不同程度的这种特定口腔细菌。

 

一组澳大利亚研究人员开始调查唾液中细菌产生的硫气味的水平是否与跟人们对芸苔属蔬菜的主观偏好有关。

 

研究人员为这项研究招募了98对儿童/父母。他们将所有受试者的唾液样本跟花椰菜粉混合，随后产生的挥发性气体进行分析。

 

研究发现，不同样本产生的硫挥发物含量存在显著差异，但儿童的硫挥发物含量确实跟父母相似，这表明他们拥有相似的口腔微生物群。

 

研究发现，儿童对芸苔类蔬菜的强烈厌恶跟唾液中硫挥发物含量高之间存在明显的相关性。有趣的是，这种关联在挥发性硫特征相似的父母中没有发现，这表明他们可能对苦味或刺激性味道的忍耐力随着年龄的增长而增长。

 

今天的经济学人全英文早报请看 ->> “The Economist Espresso 20210926” 。

 

注：早报精选每周一到周五更新。周六提供当日刊《经济学人》内容精华及下载链接。

标签：kids,cauliflower,sulphurous,挥发物,their,西兰花,早报,口腔
来源： https://www.cnblogs.com/jianzhanbiji/p/15355432.html