论文标题：Addressing the sugar, salt, and fat issue the science of food way

期刊：npj Science of Food

作者：Pingfan Rao, Raymond L. Rodriguez & Sharon P. Shoemaker

发表时间：2018/07/16

数字识别码：10.1038/s41538-018-0020-x

原文链接：https://www.nature.com/articles/s41538-018-0020-x?utm_source=WeChat&utm_medium=Social_media_organic&utm_content=JesGuo-Nature-npj_Science_of_Food-Biology-China&utm_campaign=NPJ_USG_JRCN_JG_npjscifood_sugar_salt

微信链接：https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/o-buJGY-m0hFa4FgVwIsww

原文作者：Pingfan Rao, Raymond L. Rodriguez & Sharon P. Shoemaker

人类从诞生之初就开始了与盐、糖和脂肪的长久羁绊并且从中获益良多。盐对于体内液体平衡至关重要，糖能够为生理与心理活动供能，而不同类型的脂肪是大脑的主要组成部分。然而，随着时间的推移，我们逐渐发现这三种成分似乎具有神奇的魔法，能够将味道难闻、不新鲜、近乎无味的食物转化为甜味、咸味和美味的营养物质。由于能够为大量不同的食物调味，上述“原料三剑客”成为了烹饪界的宝藏，在全世界范围内广泛应用，用于烹饪各种美味的食品。慢慢地，我们将这些食品与重要的历史事件、宗教仪式中不可或缺的元素、各大宴会与节日、以及童年的美好回忆关联起来。

到了20世纪中叶，糖、盐和脂肪三剑客又呈现出新的精神性感知作用。食品加工行业发现，这三剑客通过不同的配比，可以让食客感到饱足、愉悦和快乐。美国市场研究员和精神物理学家Howard Moskowitz将这种状态命名为“极乐点”，即食物的咸度、甜度和丰富度对于消费者来说都恰到好处。当食品加工行业在这种极乐点之上再增加一点松脆的口感时，新一代令人极度渴求的食物便诞生了。这些令人渴求的食物有很多种：各种薯片、加糖谷脆、糖果、饼干、油炸食品、甚至意面酱汁，这些食品在消费者（尤其是儿童）中广受欢迎。因此加工食品公司的利润也大幅飙升。

随着对这些令人渴求的美味食品的兴趣和摄入激增，自然而然地，人们对包括新鲜水果、蔬菜和全谷物在内的传统家常菜的兴趣和摄入开始减少。如今，就食糖消耗情况而言，诸如美国等发达国家的人均年食糖摄入量为68~77 kg。而在18世纪初时，人均年食糖摄入量为1.8~2.7 kg。近年来为了减少盐和糖的摄入，人们研究出了代糖，政府也提出了建议摄入量，然而有趣的是，这些措施仅仅起到了微乎其微的作用。来自营养与生物医学研究领域的一些业内人士推测，这些令人渴求的美味食物可以通过增加多巴胺分泌来调节大脑的食物奖励系统，从而导致成瘾性。

1999年，美国一些最大的食品加工厂商的负责人私下会晤，讨论了一些令人不安的数据。这些数据表明，令人渴求的食物的摄入与肥胖症、2型糖尿病和心血管疾病的患病率上升存在相关性。而且，在一些特定种族/民族的人群中，这些疾病的患病率会更高。这一结果同样令人不安，这意味着存在强烈的遗传因素，能够影响人们如何感知食物（如通过气味或味道），以及这些食物如何与人们的生理活动与代谢活动相互作用。这些研究结果催生了营养基因组学这一新兴领域的发展，证实了存在食物与基因组之间的相互作用，以及称之为单核苷酸多态性（SNPs）的遗传变异。其中一些SNPs能够解释为何有的人对糖的味道特别敏感，而有的人则更喜欢鲜味。同样，营养基因组学还能够解释为何在摄入同等热量的食物时，有些人会增重，有些人却会减重。

如今，世界各地均在出售和消费这些令人渴求的食品和软饮料，人们已经关注到其对全球健康所造成的负面影响，包括肥胖及其并发症、糖尿病以及心血管疾病的发病率升高。发展中国家的一些实例显示，食物短缺和营养缺乏正在逐渐被精加工过的“极乐点”配方、令人渴求的食品所取代，导致“消瘦型糖尿病”（即不伴肥胖的2型糖尿病）的发病率升高。于是，曾经的糖、盐、脂肪宝藏三剑客逐渐成为公众批判的众矢之的，政府建立了专门的机构对其进行严格监管。例如，已有11个国家对糖征收国税，美国已有9个城市对糖征税。

在控制人们过度摄入甚至依赖令人渴求的食物方面，政府管理、征税、和妖魔化糖盐脂肪是唯一办法么？我们认为并不是。我们相信在解决这一具有挑战性的问题上，食品科学与技术尚未发挥出全部的力量。比如，我们总是注重在加工食品与饮料中使用高精度的原料，这是否剥夺了这些原料本身在完整和自然状态下即能带来愉悦感的特性？那么是不是可以通过使用较低浓度的原料（例如粗糖和海盐等）来达到极乐点？对于新鲜或加工过的水果、蔬菜、全谷物的混合物，是否也可以达到类似的极乐点？一些极乐点配方食品是否对一些特定人群更加有害？如果是，那么我们能否不采用“一刀切”的策略，而是基于不同种族和社会文化因素来重新调整食品加工的配方，来提供满足感和食物奖励？最后，能否通过训练消费者的感知，使得在不减少愉悦感的同时，其能够更喜欢较低极乐点的食物？

这些只是现今食品科学与技术所面临的众多令人激动的挑战中的一部分。通过“食品科学”的方式解决糖、盐、脂肪的问题，定会带来我们都期望的，对健康和长寿有益的产品和结果。

摘要：

Humans have had a long and beneficial relationship with salt, sugar, and fat that dates back to the origin of the species. Salt is essential for fluid balance, sugar provides the energy for physical and mental activity while fats of various types make up most of the mass of the brain. Over time, however, we discovered the seemingly magical properties of these three ingredients to transform smelly, stale, and near tasteless foods into sweet, savory, and delightfully flavorful nutrition. As a result of their ability to “flavorize” a vast array of foods, this trio of ingredients became a culinary treasure and used around the world to create those wonderful foods we have come to associate with important historical events, indispensable elements in religious rituals, feasts, festivals as well as those sweet memories from our youth.

By the mid 1900s, this trio of salt, sugar, fat took on a new psychosensory dimension when the processed food industry discovered that these ingredients could be formulated to produce a state of satiety, pleasure, and hedonia in those who consumed them. American market researcher and psychophysicist, Howard Moskowitz, termed this the “bliss point” or the point where the levels of saltiness, sweetness, and richness were perceived by the consumer as just right. When the processed food industry added a crunchy mouth feel to their bliss point formulations, a whole new generation of “craveable” foods was created.1A vast array of craveable chips, dry sweetened cereals, candies, cookies, fried foods, and even spaghetti sauces became wildly popular among consumers, particularly children, and profits for processed food companies soared.

Of course, as interest and consumption of craveable foods surged, interest and consumption of more traditional, home cooked cuisine that included fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains began to wane. In terms of current sugar consumption, developed countries like the U.S. are consuming between 68 and 77 kg per year compared to the 1.8–2.7 kg consumed annually in the early 1700s.2 Interestingly, the introduction of sugar substitutes and government recommendations to lower the intake of sugar and salt have produced only slight reductions in recent years. It has been speculated by some in the fields of nutrition and biomedical research that these craveable foods can dysregulate the brain’s food reward system by increasing dopamine production, thus making them addictive.1

By 1999, the leaders of some of the largest processed-food companies in the U.S. met privately to discuss disturbing data that associated the consumption of craveable foods with an upturn in the rates of obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Equally disturbing was the finding that the rates of these diseases were higher in certain racial/ethnic populations suggesting strong genetic components in how people perceive the foods they eat (i.e., taste and smell) as well as how these foods interact with their physiology and metabolism. These findings spawned the new field of nutritional genomics that provided evidence for diet × genome interactions and genetic variations called single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs). Some of these SNPs explained why certain individuals are “super tasters” for sugar while others prefer umami flavors. Nutritional genomics also helped explain why some people gain weight while other lose weight on the same isocaloric diet.

Today, craveable foods and soft drinks are sold and consumed worldwide and their negative impact on global health is being noticed in terms of increased rates of obesity and its comorbidities, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.3 In some instances, food shortage and nutritional deficiencies in the developing world are being replaced with processed, bliss point-formulated, craveable foods resulting in increasing rate of “skinny diabetes” (Type 2 diabetes without obesity). As a consequence, the treasured trio of salt, sugar, and fat have become the subjects of much criticism by the public and extensive oversight by government agencies. For example, 11 countries have national taxes on sugar while there are nine cities in the U.S. with sugar taxes.

Is government regulation, taxation, and the demonization of salt, sugar, and fat the only way to curb the overconsumption and dependency on craveable foods? We, think not. We believe that the full force of food science and technology is yet to be applied to this challenging problem. For example, by emphasizing the use of highly refined ingredients in our processed foods and beverages, have we robbed them of their full and natural hedonic properties? Could the use of raw sugars and sea salt, for instance, help achieve bliss points at lower concentrations of these ingredients? Is there a bliss point equivalent for mixtures of fruits, vegetable, whole grains, fresh or processed? Are some bliss point-formulated foods more detrimental for one subpopulations than another? If so, can processed foods be re-formulated to achieve satiety and food reward based on racial/ethnic and socio-cultural factors instead of taking a “one size fits all” approach. Lastly, can consumers be sensorially trained to prefer lower bliss point foods without the loss of their hedonic properties?

These are just some of the exciting challenges facing food science and technology today. Addressing salt, sugar, and fat issue the “science of food” way is sure to produce the products and responses that will deliver those benefits of health and longevity that we all desire.

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https://www.nature.com/articles/s41538-018-0020-x?utm_source=WeChat&utm_medium=Social_media_organic&utm_content=JesGuo-Nature-npj_Science_of_Food-Biology-China&utm_campaign=NPJ_USG_JRCN_JG_npjscifood_sugar_salt

期刊介绍:

npj Science of Food(https://www.nature.com/npjscifood/) is an online-only and open access journal publishes high-quality, high-impact papers related to food safety, security, integrated production, processing and packaging, the changes and interactions of food components, and the influence on health and wellness properties of food. The journal will support fundamental studies that advance the science of food beyond the classic focus on processing, thereby addressing basic inquiries around food from the public and industry. It will also support research that might result in innovation of technologies and products that are public-friendly while promoting the United Nations sustainable development goals.

（来源：科学网）