英语流利说20190118

Protein mania: the rich world's new diet obsession

mania, 狂热，热衷，狂爱

obsession, 执念，着魔，萦绕

Are you getting enough protein? The question provides its own answer: if you are worrying about the amount of protein in your diet, then you are almost certainly eating more than enough.

protein, 蛋白质 

You merely need to visit a western supermarket today to see that many people regard protein as some kind of universal elixir -- one food companies are profitably adding to anything they can. "When the Box Says 'Protein', Shoppers Say 'I'll take it'"  was the headline of a 2013 article in the Wall Street Journal.

companies are profitably adding to anything they can，作为one food的后置定语，one food作为elixir的同位语。

merely, 仅仅

elixir, 炼金药，长生不老药

The intensity of our protein obsession can only be understood as part of a wider series of diet battles that go back half a century. If we now thirsty for protain as if it were water, it may be because the other two macronutrients -- fats and carbohydrates -- have each in turn been made to seem toxic in the public mind. 

intensity, n.(感情或看法的)强烈；剧烈

thirsty for, 渴望

macronutrient, macro-nutrient, 主要营养物质

carbohydrates, 碳水化合物

toxic, 毒药

In the current nutrition wars, protein has emerged as the last macronutrient left standing. David L Katz, an American doctor and public health scholar who is the director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center said: "First they told us to cut fat. But instead of wholegrains and lentils, we ate low-fat junk food." Then food marketers heard the message about cutting carbs and sold us protein-enriched junk foods instead. 

emerge, 出现，浮现

wholegrain,  全谷物的

lentil, 小扁豆

For decades now, there has been a tendency to think about what we eat and drink in terms of nutrients, rather than real whole ingredients in all their complexity. A combination of diet fads and clever marketing has got us here. It doesn't matter whether we fixate on "low fat" or "low carbs" or "high protein" -- we are making the same old mistakes about nutrition in new form. 

fad, n.一时的风尚；短暂的狂热

fixate, v.具有不正常的偏爱；迷上，迷恋