来自拥有世界上最健康心脏的土著部落的生活经验
来自拥有世界上最健康心脏的土著部落的生活经验
A few years ago, I read reports of an indigenous tribe living deep in the Amazon rainforest whose members had hardly any evidence of heart disease. In fact, the researchers concluded after a year-long study that the Tsimane, as they are called, had the healthiest hearts in the world, a title previously held by Japanese women.
几年前，我读到一些报道，一个土著部落生活在亚马逊热带雨林深处，他们的成员几乎没有任何心脏病的证据。事实上，经过长达一年的研究，研究人员得出的结论是，他们所谓的齐曼人(Tsimane)拥有世界上最健康的心脏，这个称号以前由日本女性拥有。
Preventing heart disease is a topic I think about all the time, given my own significant family history of heart disease. Like many people, I worried that it was inevitable for me. So last summer, I decided to travel to Bolivia, one of the poorest countries in South America, to learn what they could teach me and the rest of the world about preventing heart disease.
鉴于我自己的重要家族心脏病史，预防心脏病是我一直在思考的一个话题。像许多人一样，我担心这对我来说是不可避免的。所以去年夏天，我决定去玻利维亚-南美洲最贫穷的国家之一-学习他们可以教给我和世界上其他地方关于预防心脏病的知识。
Getting to the Tsimane wasn't easy. After flying into La Paz, the highest capital city in the world at nearly 12,000 feet above sea level, we took a small prop plane to Rurrenabaque, a small town in the lowlands of northern Bolivia, along the Beni River and at the edge of the Amazon rainforest. We drove 4x4 trucks as far as we could into the forest and then jumped into dug-out canoes and made our way down the rivers and streams of the Amazon.We knew the Tsimane lived in small extended family clusters of 60 or so people along the banks of the river. We finally found one of the villages just as the sun was starting to set. Having traveled to more than 100 countries around the world, it is particularly exhilarating for me to find places that are still so different than any I have seen, as was the case deep in the Amazon.
去齐马内不是件容易的事。在飞往世界上海拔近12，000英尺的最高首都拉巴斯后，我们乘坐一架小型道具飞机前往玻利维亚北部低地的小镇Rurrenabaque，沿着贝尼河(Beni River)和亚马逊热带雨林的边缘。我们尽可能地驾驶4x4卡车进入森林，然后跳上挖出来的独木舟，沿着亚马逊河的河流和小溪前进。我们知道齐玛尼人生活在河岸边60人左右的小型大家庭中。就在太阳开始下山的时候，我们终于找到了其中的一个村庄。我已经去过世界上100多个国家，尤其令我兴奋的是，我发现一些地方仍然与我见过的任何地方都大不相同，就像亚马逊深处的情况一样。
That night, we set up our tents in the middle of the village and began our life as Tsimane. Thatched huts surrounded us, with no electricity or modern conveniences. One day, I pulled out my iPad, tapping and swiping through the screen, and the Tsimane were slack-jawed and wide-eyed, looking at me like I was a sorcerer.
那天晚上，我们在村子中间搭起帐篷，开始了我们作为齐玛内的生活。茅草屋环绕着我们，没有电，也没有现代化的便利设施。有一天，我拿出我的iPad，在屏幕上不停地敲击和滑动，齐曼一家人下巴松弛，眼睛睁得大大的，看着我，好像我是一个巫师。
I went foraging with the women, hunting and fishing with the men, and played soccer with the kids. My goal was to learn the secrets of those with the healthiest hearts in the world, and I approached it by focusing on the big three: diet, activity and rest.
我和女人一起去觅食，和男人一起打猎和钓鱼，和孩子们踢足球。我的目标是了解那些拥有世界上最健康心脏的人的秘密，我通过关注三大要素来实现这个目标：饮食，活动和休息。
As far as diet goes, my expectation was that theirs would be a sort of "paleo" diet, with up to 65% of their calories from animal meat. Instead, I found nearly the opposite: The Tsimane get most of their calories from carbs. Foods such as plantains, cassava, rice and corn make up nearly 70% of their diet. This type of diet is born out of necessity in the Amazon, because farmed food is more certain, especially during a poor hunting season.
至于饮食，我的预期是，他们的将是一种“古”饮食，他们高达65%的卡路里来自动物肉。相反，我发现几乎相反：齐玛尼人从碳水化合物中获得大部分卡路里。大蕉、木薯、大米和玉米等食物占他们饮食的近70%。这种饮食方式在亚马逊地区是必要的，因为种植的食物更有把握，特别是在狩猎季节。
As you might also imagine, the food there is not processed or refined, lacking any added sugars or salts. All-natural carbs are the mainstay of the healthy-hearted Tsimane, along with around 15% fat and 15% protein. Additionally, the diet provides twice as much fiber as the standard American diet, according to an article in the Lancet medical journal. Their diet has lots of micronutrients, such as selenium, potassium and magnesium, coming from their farmed food. Spending time with the Tsimane, I also learned from talking to them and from my own observations that intermittent fasting was part of the culture, not because it is fashionable but because of food scarcity.
你也可以想象，那里的食物没有经过加工或精制，没有添加任何糖或盐。全天然碳水化合物是心脏健康的Tsimane的主要成分，还有大约15%的脂肪和15%的蛋白质。此外，根据《柳叶刀》医学杂志上的一篇文章，这种饮食提供的纤维是标准美国饮食的两倍。他们的饮食中有很多微量营养素，如硒，钾和镁，来自他们的农业食品。与提斯曼人在一起，我也从与他们的交谈和我自己的观察中了解到，间歇性禁食是文化的一部分，不是因为它是一种时尚，而是因为食物匮乏。
