巧克力還是芝士?科學揭祕人類到底更喜歡哪一個
When it comes to a choice between sweet or savoury, it's often a case of chocolate or cheese. And according to a US study, humans will choose carbohydrate-rich chocolate over cheese when the option is presented.
涉及甜還是鹹的選擇時，通常面臨的都是巧克力還是芝士這道選擇題。一項美國研究表示，當有物可選時，人類會選擇碳水化合物豐富的巧克力，而非芝士。Dana Small at the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, performed a study where volunteers were asked to put monetary bids on a variety of different foods. They found that the volunteers would place higher bids on things like cake, chocolate and sugary treats over savoury snacks like cheese.
康涅狄格州紐黑文耶魯大學醫學院的Dana Small開展了一項研究，要求志願者對各種不同的食物進行金錢投標。他們發現，志願者在蛋糕、巧克力和甜食等食物方面投標的金額要高於芝士等鹹味零食。
Furthermore, the researchers carried out brain scans of the volunteers and found there was a surge of activity in the part of the brain involved with habits and rewards when they were choosing the sweet snacks like chocolate.
此外，研究員對這些志願者的大腦進行了掃描，他們發現當志願者選擇巧克力等甜食時，他們涉及習慣和獎勵的大腦區域活動激增。
"These results provide the first demonstration that foods high in fat and carbohydrate are, calorie for calorie, valued more than foods containing only fat or carbohydrate and that this effect is associated with greater recruitment of central reward circuits," explained the research team.
"這些結果首次證明了脂肪含量和碳水化合物含量高的食物比只含有脂肪或只含有碳水化合物的食物更受重視，這一效應與更多的中央獎勵迴路補充相關，"該研究團隊解釋道。In a separate study, researchers from Columbia University discovered a way to remove cravings for sugar in mice, and say that the technique could one day be applied to humans. The team performed several experiments in which the sweet or bitter connections to the amygdala were artificially switched off.
在另一項研究中，哥倫比亞大學的研究員發現了一種方法，可消除老鼠對糖的渴望。研究員稱這種技術有一天可用於人類。該團隊開展了多項研究，人爲地關閉了扁桃體對甜味和苦味的感知。When the sweet connections were turned off, the mice could still recognise and distinguish sweet from bitter, but lacked the basic emotional reactions, like preference for sugar or aversion to bitter. Dr Wang said: "It would be like taking a bite of your favourite chocolate cake but not deriving any enjoyment from doing so. After a few bites, you may stop eating, whereas otherwise you would have scarfed it down."
甜味感知被關閉時，老鼠仍能識別、辨別出甜味和苦味，但卻喪失了基本的情緒反應，比如喜歡甜味、討厭苦味。Wang醫生說道："就像咬了一口你最愛的巧克力蛋糕，但卻不會從中獲得任何樂趣。吃了幾口之後，你可能就不吃了，或者會狼吞虎嚥的吃完。"The researchers believe that the technique could one day be applied to humans, and could be used to treat people with obesity or eating disorders.
研究員認爲這項技術有一天或將被用於人類，可用於治療肥胖或飲食失調。
