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進入中英對照讀新聞》Obesity dulls sense of taste, study suggests研究稱肥胖會讓味覺變遲鈍
新研究指出，肥胖會讓味覺變遲鈍。（示意圖，法新社）
◎陳成良
Obesity dulls the sense of taste, according to research that offers new insights into why some people enter a persistent cycle of weight gain.
研究表明，肥胖會使味覺遲鈍，該研究為某些人為何會進入持續的體重增加循環，提供了新見解。
Researchers found that within eight weeks of becoming obese, mice lost 25% of their taste buds. The findings suggest that weight gain not only changes appetite but may also fundamentally alter the way taste is perceived.
研究人員發現，老鼠在變胖後的8週內，味蕾會減少25%。研究結果表明，體重增加不僅會改變食慾，還可能從根本上改變人們對味覺的感知方式。
“Obesity is by nature very complex,”said Robin Dando, a food scientist at Cornell University in New York and senior author. “There are a bunch of different factors that contribute to our state of obesity – we think a change to taste is one of those, and one that people don’t tend to consider.”
「肥胖本質上非常複雜」，紐約康乃爾大學的食品科學家、資深作者羅賓丹多說。「有很多不同的因素會導致我們的肥胖狀態——我們認為改變口味就是其中之一，而人們往往忽視這一點。」
The findings are the latest to push back against the assumption that people become obese because they love food more than the average person and so find it harder to resist.
有觀點認為，人們之所以變胖是因為他們比一般人更愛吃，更難抵禦吃的誘惑，上述研究發現是反駁該觀點的最新例證。
新聞辭典
dull：動詞，弄鈍，弄遲鈍，減輕。例句：Watching television dulls one ’s wits .（看電視能使人頭腦遲鈍。）
obese：形容詞，過胖的；肥胖的。obesity則是名詞，例句：Overweight and obesity are closely linked to type 2 diabetes.（過重和肥胖與第二型糖尿病有密切關係。）
