Artificial sweeteners are so bad for our health 

人造甜味剂非常不利健康 

Artificial sweeteners have been fooling us. We thought they were better for us than sugar but new research says they're just as bad, possibly even worse. This shocking news emerged from a study of more than 450,000 middle-aged people started 16 years ago and followed up until now. 

人造甜味剂骗了我们！我们以为它们比糖更有利于健康，但新研究表明，它们和糖一样，甚至更糟。一项针对超过45万名成年人的研究得出了这一令人震惊的消息，该研究从16年前开展至今。 

And earlier this year two other studies rang the alarm bell, one of them finding obese women who drank just two diet drinks a day doubled their risk of stroke. This new study adds to the mounting evidence about the harm artificial sweeteners can do. 

今年年初，另外两项研究也敲响了警钟，一项研究发现每天只喝两杯健怡饮料的肥胖女性中风的风险增加了一倍。这项新研究为人造甜味剂的潜在危害提供了更多证据。 

Scientists found that people who drank more than two sugary drinks a day were 17% more likely to die prematurely than those who rarely had them. But, much more frightening, the risk of premature death was even higher in people who consumed drinks containing artificial sweeteners. 

科学家发现：每天喝两杯以上含糖饮料的人早死的风险比那些很少喝含糖饮料的人高17%。但更加惊恐的是，饮用含人造甜味剂饮料的人早死的风险更高。

And the case against artificial sweeteners gets even stronger. They were also found to increase the risk of heart disease by 40%. What’s going on? Well, we’re only now learning how damaging artificial sweeteners are on the 100 trillion bacteria in our guts that are so essential for our health. 

反对人造甜味剂的呼声日益增高。人们还发现人造甜味剂或使心脏病风险增加40%。这是为什么？直到现在我们才知道人造甜味剂会对人体肠道中的100万亿种细菌造成极大伤害，而这些细菌对我们的健康至关重要。

We've found out this intriguing fact by doing some ingenious experiments. Artificial sweeteners were given to mice that were split into three groups – some were given water, some sugary water, and some water with saccharin. 

我们通过一些巧妙的实验发现了这一有趣的事实。实验员将小鼠分成三组，一组喂水、一组喂含糖水、另一个喂糖精水。 

Mice in the saccharin group stopped being able to handle glucose, the first step on the way to diabetes. When faecal samples from the gut bacteria of these mice were given to other normal mice they also developed glucose intolerance. 

糖精组的小鼠无法再处理葡萄糖，而这是迈向糖尿病的第一步。当实验员将这些小鼠的肠道细菌的排泄样本供给其它正常小鼠时，这些小鼠也开始出现葡萄糖耐受不良的问题。 

Plus they grew bacteria associated with obesity and diabetes. The worrying finding was that the same thing happened with human beings. Why? The theory is artificial sweeteners provoke inflammation, which encourages obesity. Sure enough, a recent study of more than 7,000 American teenagers found the zero-calorie diet drinkers consumed 200 extra calories a day, which could lead to being overweight. 

此外，它们还会长出与肥胖症和糖尿病相关的细菌。令人担忧的是，这一现象也同样发生在人类身上。为什么？理论情况下，人造甜味剂会引发炎症，从而加剧肥胖。果然，最近一项有关7000多位美国青少年的研究发现：喝零卡路里健怡饮品的青少年每天会额外摄入200卡，从而可能导致体重过重。