For better weight control, fiber¹ up!

想控制体重，多补充纤维吧！

The latest trick to fighting obesity² isn't a focus on eating less fat or sugar (although that would probably help): It's eating more fiber. And not just any kind of fiber. It should be the fermentable³ type. Microbes in the gut⁴ chow down on this type of fiber. As they break it down, they release a chemical that moves to the brain. There it curbs⁵ appetite.

最新的减肥方法不是减少脂肪和糖分的摄入（尽管吃多吃这些也可能会让你变胖），而是多吃纤维。这里所说的纤维并不是任何一种都可以，而是那种可以发酵的纤维。肠内的细菌会对这种类型纤维大快朵颐。当它们将其分解时会释放一种化学物质传送给大脑，此时食欲会被控制。

Researchers at Imperial College London, in England, say their study is the first to link eating fiber to the brain hormones⁶ that help you feel full. They published their findings April 29 in Nature Communications.

英国帝国理工学院研究者称他们是首例把食用纤维和大脑荷尔蒙联系起来解释食用者会有饱腹感。4月29日他们在自然通讯上发表了这一结果。

Scientists have known that obese⁷ people tend to eat foods low in dietary fiber. At some level, that made sense. Fermentable fiber - fiber that is broken down by gut microbes - makes people feel full after eating somewhat less. Such fiber is found in fruits, vegetables, oats and barley⁸.

科学家们发现肥胖的人通常不会食用多纤维食物。在某种层面上这种做法合情合理。可发酵纤维，即可以被肠道细菌分解的纤维会让人们有饱腹感，尽管吃的很少。水果，蔬菜，燕麦等食物中含有此类纤维。

Hundreds of thousands of years ago, our paleolithic ancestors ate nearly 100 grams of fermentable fiber each day, says Gary Frost. He's a dietician who led the new study. Today, people's diets are very different. We eat only 10 to 20 grams of all types of fiber each day. Most comes from whole-grain wheat and bran. Those types do not break down in the gut, Frost notes. Modern diets also are full of convenience foods, such as snacks and frozen dinners. These tend to be high in fat and sugar. Add in our couch-potato lifestyle and it's a recipe for obesity.

新研究领导者兼营养学家Gary Frost称几十万年以前，我们的旧石器时代祖先每天吃掉近100克的发酵纤维，而今天人们的饮食较之从前大有改变。每天我们仅摄入10-20克各类型纤维，多数是全麦小麦和麦麸，这类粗纤维食物恰恰不会在肠胃里分解。现代饮食同时也充满了各类快捷食品，如冷冻餐和快餐等等。而这类食品正好富含脂肪和糖分，加入了我们"沙发土豆"的生活方式，助肥为虐。

Eating more fermentable fiber reduces the risk of becoming overweight or obese. But until the new study, exactly how the fiber did that was unclear.

食用更多可发酵纤维能够降低超重或者肥胖的危险，但是直到新研究的问世人们才具体的了解粗纤维是如何起作用的。