不知从何时起，在国外悄然兴起了一阵“爸爸肚”风，女人们不追求那些身材火爆的美少男，反而青睐那些大腹便便的中年男子。新研究发现，年长体胖的男性不但更讨女人喜欢，而且寿命更长，生育能力也更强。

Pudgy older fathers live longer, are more attractive to the opposite sex and are better at passing on their genes¹ than their leaner counterparts, scientists have claimed.

科学家表示，年长体胖的男性比偏瘦的男同胞更长寿，更吸引异性，生育能力也更强。

Becoming fatter after fatherhood due to decreasing testosterone levels may not fit the “macho” ideal, but it actually prolongs lives and strengthens immune systems, according to Richard Bribiescas, professor of anthropology² and deputy provost at Yale University.

男性做了父亲以后，会因睾酮水平下降而体态发胖。老来发胖也许看起来不够爷们儿，但它的确能延长寿命、增强免疫系统，耶鲁大学副教务长兼人类学博士理查德•布比斯卡斯如是说。

There is evidence that these men are less likely to suffer from heart attacks and prostate cancer, while a study in 2008 found that men with high metabolisms³ were around 50 per cent more likely to die in a given year than those whose bodies burned up less energy at rest.

有证据表明，这些身材走样的男性突发心脏病、患上前列腺癌的可能性更小。而2008年一项研究发现，在指定年度内，新陈代谢旺盛的男性比新陈代谢慢的男性死亡率高出约50%。

“Macho makes you sick,” said Prof Bribiescas. “The Hollywood image of the swaggering, dashing man dispatching bad guys and carrying the day conjures⁴ up a perception of indestructibility.

“强壮的身材其实不利于你的健康，”布比斯卡斯博士说道，“好莱坞打造出的那些狂拽酷炫、上天入地、嫉恶如仇、拯救世界的猛男形象总给人一种男人坚不可摧的错觉。”

“While men are on average larger and physically⁵ stronger than women, men have a considerable weakness.

“虽然男性相比女性的平均体型更高大，身体也更加强壮，但是他们却有一个严重的弱点。”

“We have a harder time fighting off infections and illness compared with women, and...men simply do not take care of themselves.

“相比女性，我们男性在抵抗传染病等疾病上更费劲......而且男人简直不会照顾自己。”

Prof Bribiescas also argues that becoming more podgy makes dads more likely to invest their time in their children rather than looking for other women, while the increased levels of fat could make them more attractive to women.

布比斯卡斯博士还指出，老爹们越胖，猎艳的可能性就越小，而投入到孩子身上的时间就越多，但他们越发福，越讨女人喜欢。

Among those to father children later in life are Robert De Niro, who had a child at 68, and Rod Stewart, who was 66 when his eighth child was born.

老来得子的美国演员罗伯特•德尼罗和英国摇滚歌手洛德•斯蒂沃特就是两个很好的例子，前者在68岁有了第一个孩子，后者在66岁有了第八个孩子。

“[One] effect of lower testosterone levels is loss of muscle mass and increases in fat mass,” Prof Bribiescas writes in his book How Men Age: What Evolution Reveals About Male Health and Mortality.

“睾酮水平降低的影响之一就是肌肉含量减少、脂肪含量增加，”布比斯卡斯博士在《男性的衰老之旅：进化所揭示的关于男性健康和死亡的真相》一书中写道。

“This change in body composition not only causes men to shop for more comfortable trousers but also facilitates increased survivorship and, hypothetically, a hormonal⁶ milieu⁷ that would more effectively promote and support paternal⁸ investment.”

“这种机体成分的变化不仅会让年长男性更青睐宽松舒适的裤子，还会增强他们的生存能力。此外，年长胖男的荷尔蒙环境或许还能更有效地促使他们加大对后代的投入。”

The research follows the "dad bod" trend, in which middle-aged⁹ men were praised for their doughy¹⁰ physiques.

该项研究迎合了正流行的“爸爸肚”审美风潮，即中年男人松弛的肚皮如今越来越受到人们的喜爱。

However, a Cambridge University study last year found that women searching for a father for their children should choose long-distance runners, who traditionally have very low levels of fat, because they are more likely to have stronger sex drives and higher sperm¹¹ counts.

然而，剑桥大学去年的一项研究发现，女性在寻找能够与其组建家庭，养育后代的另一半时，应选择脂肪含量极低，善于长跑的男性，因为他们的性功能可能更强、精子数也更多。