英国卫报：此时蜜糖,彼时砒霜(2)（在线收听）

There is something about the experience of consuming sugar and sweets, particularly during childhood, that readily invokes the comparison to a drug.

关于吃糖和吃甜食的经历，特别是在儿童时期，很容易让人联想到一种药物。

I have children, still relatively young, and I believe raising them would be a far easier job if sugar and sweets were not an option, if managing their sugar consumption did not seem to be a constant theme in our parental responsibilities.

我有孩子，他们相对还很年轻，虽说管理孩子的糖摄入量好像并非父母责任的一贯主题，但我相信如果没有糖或者糖果，抚养孩子会容易得多。

Even those who vigorously defend the place of sugar and sweets in modern diets – "an innocent moment of pleasure, a balm amid the stress of life",

即使是那些积极捍卫糖和甜食在现代饮食中的地位的人——“一种天真的快乐时刻，对生活压力的慰藉”，

as the journalist Tim Richardson has written – acknowledge that this does not include allowing children "to eat as many sweets as they want, at any time", and that "most parents will want to ration their children's sweets".

正如记者蒂姆·理查森所写——承认这一点并不是说孩子可以“在任何时候想吃多少糖就吃多少糖”，而且“大多数父母会想要给孩子供应限量糖果”。

But why is this rationing necessary?

但为什么必须限量配给？

Children crave many things – Pokémon cards, Star Wars paraphernalia, Dora the Explorer backpacks – and many foods taste good to them.

孩子们想要的东西有很多——精灵宝可梦的卡片，星球大战的随身用品，爱探险的朵拉背包——还有很多对他们来说很好吃的东西。

What is it about sweets that makes them so uniquely in need of rationing?

那么是什么让甜食变得如此特别反而需要限量配给呢？

This is of more than academic interest, because the response of entire populations to sugar has been effectively identical to that of children: once people are exposed, they consume as much sugar as they can easily procure.

这不仅是学术问题，因为大家对糖的反应其实和儿童是一样的：一旦接触到，就会消费地越来越多。

The primary barrier to more consumption – up to the point where populations become obese and diabetic – has tended to be availability and price.

消费增加的主要障碍——直到人们变得肥胖并患上了糖尿病——往往是供应和价格。

As the price of a pound of sugar has dropped over the centuries, the amount of sugar consumed has steadily, inexorably climbed.

几个世纪以来每磅糖的价格一直在下跌，而糖的消耗量却一直在稳步地、不可阻挡地攀升着。

In 1934, while sales of sweets continued to increase during the Great Depression, the New York Times commented:

1934年大萧条时期，糖果的销量却在持续增长。《纽约时报》评论道：

"The Depression (has) proved that people wanted candy, and that as long as they had any money at all, they would buy it."

“大萧条证明了人们想要吃糖，只要他们有钱，他们就会买。”

During those brief periods of time during which sugar production surpassed our ability to consume it,

在那些糖的产量超过了人们消费能力的短暂时期，

the sugar industry and purveyors of sugar-rich products have worked diligently to increase demand and, at least until recently, have succeeded.

制糖业和高糖产品的供应商却一直在努力增加需求，至少直到最近，他们是成功的。