注意！为了减肥不吃早餐可能并不会变瘦.

　　When I was younger, my mother said that if I don’t eat breakfast then I’ll "train" my metabolism to slow down, thus leading to weight gain and associated health issues. I prer to just have some tea and eat a snack a few hours after getting up. Any truth to her theory?

　　在我还小的时候，我的妈妈就说过，如果不吃早餐，我的新陈代谢就会被“训练”得变慢，从而导致体重增加和相关的健康问题。我更喜欢在起床后的几小时内只喝茶吃点心。妈妈的理论对不对?

　　The food industry has promoted this claim for decades to sell breakfast cereal. But rigorous scientific studies have found no evidence that it’s true.

　　食品行业宣传这一说法来推销早餐麦片已有好几十年了。但是，严谨的科学研究尚未发现能够证明其真实性的证据。

　　The idea that a hearty breakfast is good for your health dates back to the 1920s, when Edward Bernays, a public relations guru, led a nationwide media campaign encouraging people to start their mornings with bacon and eggs. One of Mr. Bernays’s clients at the time was Beech-Nut Packing Company, which sold bacon and other pork products.

　　丰盛的早餐有益于健康的说法要可追溯至20世纪20年代，一个名为爱德华?伯内斯的公关专家领导了一场全国性的媒体活动，鼓励人们早餐吃培根和鸡蛋。当时，伯内斯先生的一个客户正是销售培根和其他猪肉产品的比纳肉类加工公司。

　　In the decades that followed, dozens of observational studies reported that breakfast eaters tended to be leaner. Though these studies could not show cause and fect, many health authorities and food companies asserted that they proved that eating breakfast protects against weight gain.

　　在随后的几十年里，多项观察研究报告指出，吃早餐的人一般会更瘦一点。尽管这些研究不能证明因果关系，但是很多健康专家和食品公司宣称，他们已经证实吃早餐会防止体重增加。

　　But experimental studies that randomly assigned people to eat or skip breakfast have found no such thing. One of the most recent studies found no difference “in weight change and most health outcomes” between people assigned to eat breakfast for six weeks and those assigned to skip it.

　　但是在将人随机分为吃早餐和不吃早餐两组的实验研究中，并没有得出这样的结论。最近的一项研究发现，在被分入吃早餐组和不吃早餐组的人中，“体重变化和绝大多数健康成果”在六周内没有什么差异。

　　“Whether or not you have breakfast in itself is not going to impact your body weight,” said James Betts, an author of the study and an associate professor of nutrition and metabolism at the University of Bath in England.

　　该项研究的作者、英国巴斯大学营养和代谢学副教授詹姆斯?贝茨表示，“吃不吃早餐不会影响你的体重”。

　　Dr. Betts said that unlike randomized trials, observational studies of breakfast consumption could be misleading. They show, for example, that people who eat breakfast also follow other behaviors associated with good health. They tend to drink and smoke less, consume less sugar, eat more fiber and exercise more than those who skip a morning meal.

　　贝茨博士表示，与随机试验不同，吃早餐的观察研究可能有误导性。例如，它们显示吃早餐的人也有与健康相关的其他行为。与不吃早餐的人相比，他们一般很少吸烟喝酒，摄入糖类更少，多吃纤维性食物，并且勤于锻炼。

　　“All we know from observational studies is that people who have breakfast are leaner,” he said. “But it may be other factors that are the reason.”

　　“我们从观察研究中得知，吃早餐的人更瘦”，他说，“但可能是其他因素作用的结果”。