An Update on My (So-Called) Paleo Diet
汇报一下我实践（所谓的）旧石器食谱的情况
As I wrote in this blog, in early May I started on a new diet, which is misleadingly (for reasons I will come back to) called the ‘Paleo Diet.’
正如我在早先那篇博客中所写的那样【编注：本组翻译了这篇博客，见：http://weibo.com/p/1001603875391709540593 】，五月初我开始尝试一种新食谱，这种食谱有个容易误导人的名字——“旧石器食谱”（我会在之后说明它容易误导人的原因）。
First, a progress report. Over the 3.5 months I lost 15 pounds, or around a pound per week. Not particularly impressive by the standards of super diets that promise that you will lose 20 pounds of fat in a month, or even in a week. On the other hand, I haven’t done anything drastic, like starving myself, or undergoing stomach stapling. In fact, I eat as much as I want, I just don’t eat certain foods (as a reminder – no cereals, no legumes, and no dairy).
首先，报告进度。经过三个半月，我的体重减轻了15磅，大约每周减一磅。以那些保证你在一个月甚至一周内减掉20磅脂肪的超级减肥食谱的标准来说，这一成果并不让人印象深刻。另一方面，我没有采取任何激烈的手段，比如让自己挨饿或去做缩胃手术。事实上，我想吃多少就吃多少，我只是不吃特定种类的食物。（友情提示：不吃谷物、豆类和奶制品）。
In any case, losing weight was never the main purpose, getting healthier was. And it worked remarkably well, much better than I expected. It is difficult to describe, but basically I feel much younger and I have a lot more energy. Probably the best way to put it is that I feel as though I stopped poisoning myself.
无论如何，减重从来不是我的主要目的，变得更健康才是。这个食谱的效果非常好，比我预期的要好得多。这很难形容，但基本上，我感觉自己更年轻、更有精力了。或许对这个食谱带给我的变化最好的表述是——我感觉好像不再毒害自己了。
I was raised in a big city (Moscow) and lived for several years in another one (New York). In 1980 I moved away from NYC and since then I have lived in a succession of small towns or in rural areas (except for two years in Seattle, but it’s hardly a megalopolis). After a while I noticed that when I come for an extended visit to a big city, after a few days I start feeling ‘off,’ not really sick, but not really well either.
我在大城市（莫斯科）长大，然后在另一个大城市（纽约）住了几年。1980年，我搬离了纽约市，之后就一直在一些小城镇或者郊区居住（在这期间我在西雅图住了两年，但它也算不上大都市）。一段时间之后，我注意到当我去大城市进行长期访问时，几天后我就会有一种“宕机”的感觉，不是真的生病，但也不是很健康。
After returning to my rural abode, I almost immediately get better. This happens every time when I have to stay in a city for longer than 3-5 days. I think what happens is that the urban pollution simply poisons your body. People who live in cities all the time are used to it, and stop noticing it (as I did, when I was a megalopolis dweller myself).
回到郊区的住所之后，我几乎立即就会变好。每次待在城市超过3-5天就会这样。我想这是因为城市的污染一直在毒害着你的身体。一直住在城里的人已经习惯了这些污染，而且也不再注意到这些污染（我自己是大城市居民的时候也是这样）。
Well, switching to my new diet was like moving away from New York (although it took a little longer to flush the poisons out of the system, but the effect was even more striking). This is what I mean when I say that I feel as though I stopped poisoning myself. So the diet definitely works. I have not done any blind trials, so it all could be just the placebo effect, but I don’t give a damn. It works. Initially I was going to give it 6 months and then decide whether to stick with it. But now, just past the midpoint, it is clear that I will be sticking with it.
切换到我的新食谱就好比搬离纽约（尽管它需要更多时间排出毒素，但效果甚至更加显著）。这就是之前我说“我感觉好像不再毒害自己了”的意思。所以，这个食谱绝对有效。我没有做过任何盲测，所以这可能仅仅是安慰剂效果，但我才不管呢！它是有效的！起初我打算用六个月时间尝试这个食谱，然后再决定是不是要继续。但现在时间只过了一半我就肯定自己会继续了。
Now to why calling this a ‘Paleo diet’ is a complete misnomer. Most people, when they hear me explain that I am on the paleo diet, at best think that I don’t eat carbs (a la Atkinson). At worst, they think I run around through the bushes barefoot and hunt game with my bare hands.
现在来说说为什么管它叫“旧石器食谱”完全是用词不当。当我给人们解释我在尝试旧石器食谱的时候，大多数人最好的理解就是我不吃碳水化合物（就像Atkins食谱）。最差的理解是，他们认为我光着脚丫在灌木丛中乱跑，赤手空拳进行追猎野兽。
I need to come up with a better name – how about the ‘post-neolithic diet’? I’ll still have to explain it, but at least people will not have any preconceived notions that I will have to dispel.
我要想个好点的名字——“后新石器时代食谱”怎么样？我仍然不得不解释它，但至少大家不会先入为主地以为我必须去追逐猎物。
When I explain to friends that I don’t eat any cereals or grains, legumes, or dairy, a frequent reply is – “what’s left?!” Actually, a lot. All kinds of meat, any seafood, eggs, all kinds of fresh vegetables (salad type – lettuce, tomatoes, cukes, radishes, green scallions, cilantro, peppers), other vegetables (all varieties of cabbages, numerous kinds of squash, avocado, olives, asparagus, onions and leaks, spinach), root vegetables (potatoes, yams, carrots, root parsley, yucca, and a number of others I haven’t explored yet), fruits and berries and nuts. No caveman ate the kind of varied diet that we can obtain by an easy trip to the supermarket. So the ‘paleo diet’ is a complete misnomer.
当我对朋友们说我不吃谷物、豆类和奶制品的时候，得到最多的回答是“那还剩啥？！”事实上，还剩非常多。所有肉类、任何种类的海鲜、蛋类、各种新鲜蔬菜（沙拉类—生菜、番茄、黄瓜、萝卜、葱、香菜、甜椒），还有其他蔬菜（各种卷心菜、种类繁多的南瓜、牛油果、橄榄、芦笋、洋葱、韭葱和菠菜），根类蔬菜（土豆、番薯、胡萝卜、欧洲防风、木薯【译注：此处原文yucca疑为yuca之讹】和其它许多我还没尝试过的根类蔬菜），还有水果、浆果和坚果。没有原始人能够吃到种类这么丰富的食物，而我们只要简单地去超市逛一圈就行。所以旧石器食谱这种叫法完全是用词不当。
Additionally, there is no particular virtue in eating an undomesticated variety, compared to a domesticated one. In particular, I suspect that wild rice is probably worse for you than white rice. Both are grass seeds, and so poisonous by definition. But with the domesticated rice there is at least hope that the most poisonous varieties have been selected out (although it is not a certainty). Interesting how an evolutionary approach makes you look at things from a very different angle.
此外，和吃养殖的食物相比，吃各种野生的食物并没有什么好处。特别是，我怀疑对人类来说菰可能不如大米【编注：菰又称茭米，与水稻同属禾本科稻亚科稻族，虽名为wild rice，但与水稻亲缘并不很近】。两者都是草的种子，所以根据定义都是有毒的。但对于种植的稻米而言，至少可以期望其中多数有毒物质在人类培育选择大米的过程中都已经被排除出去了（尽管这事并不确定）。进化论的思路能让你从不同角度看问题，这很有趣。
Another problem with this diet is that food now takes a larger chunk from the budget. Fresh vegetables are expensive! And you need to eat a lot of them to get an equivalent of a one pound package of pasta, even a fancy one. This is no poor person’s diet… Also, wild-caught salmon is more expensive than cultured salmon. And it goes without saying that a steak from a grass-fed cow will cost an order of magnitude more than a pound of pink slime. Although I haven’t yet been able to find a reliable supplier of grass-fed beef around here.
另一个问题是这种食谱要花更多钱。新鲜蔬菜很贵！并且你需要吃大量的新鲜蔬菜才能和吃一磅意大利面相当，即使是上等意大利面价格也低于这些新鲜蔬菜。这不是穷人能负担得起的食谱……此外，野生三文鱼也比家养的贵。更不用说牛排的价格了，一块草饲牛排的价格可以买到超过一磅的粉红肉泥。尽管我还没在附近找到过能买到可靠的草饲牛肉的地方。
In addition to expense in terms of money, following this diet is more time-consuming. In my family’s division of labor I am the one who cooks. So now I can’t simply stop, on my way from work, for a Chinese take-out or a pizza, I have to cook each and every meal myself. I mean, I like to cook, but doing it every day is a chore.
除了钱上的开销之外，遵照这个食谱需要花费更多时间。在我家的分工中，我是负责做饭的。所以现在我不能简单地在回家路上停车买个中餐外卖或匹萨了，我必须每顿都自己做。我的意思是，尽管我喜欢做饭，但每天都做是一种负担。
Travel has also been complicated. Most restaurants are worthless. Mexican food, for example – it’s all about tortillas, rice, beans, and cheese. There is nothing left. Indian is all about rice, lentils, other beans, nan. In most other restaurants they add ingredients I can’t eat into almost everything. Because I haven’t eaten wheat-based products for three months, I find that I am now more sensitive to small amounts of flour that may be added to a sauce.
旅行也变得麻烦了。大多数餐馆都不能吃。比如墨西哥菜，都是面饼、米饭、豆子和奶酪，没有别的了。印度菜都是米饭、扁豆、其它豆子和馕。其他大多数餐馆都会在食物中加入我不能吃的食材。由于我已经三个月没吃小麦制品了，所以我发现现在我对酱料中加入的少量面粉更加敏感了。
The best bet is French restaurants (also Italian and Spanish), but they are also the most expensive. I now have to study the menu real careful, and then negotiate substitutions. Fortunately, American waiters seem to be used to all kinds of weird dieting preferences, and in most cases are very gracious and accommodating.
最好的选择是去法式餐厅（还有意大利餐厅和西班牙餐厅），但他们都是最贵的。我现在必须非常认真地研究菜单，然后商量能不能替换掉一些食材。幸运的是，美国的服务员看上去已经习惯了各种特殊的饮食偏好，大多数情况下他们都非常友善和包容。
Finally, I had to give up beer. I still like the taste (now the memory of it…), but when I look at a glass of beer that a friend is drinking, I see the distillation of all the worst grass seed poisons (shudder). So there is no temptation to order one for myself.
最后，我不得不放弃喝啤酒。我还是很喜欢它的味道（此刻正在回想这美味……），可当我看着朋友喝的那杯啤酒时，我看见的是最糟糕的有毒种子的蒸馏提取物（不寒而栗）。所以就没有给自己也来一杯的欲望了。
The psychological aspects of this dietary shift are also very fascinating. My good colleague Jon Haidt has a wonderful metaphor. He compares our conscious mind to the rider of an elephant (the subconscious mind). The rider may be thinking he is in charge, but the elephant will do whatever he wants. That’s why it is so difficult to be on most diets, and that’s why dieters are prone to recurrent bingeing on forbidden foods. I will not embarrass myself with examples, but I have about as much control over my own elephant as an average person.
这个饮食转变引起的心理上的变化同样令人着迷。我的好同事Jon Haidt有个精彩的比喻。他把我们有意识的心智比作骑在大象上的人（大象是潜意识的心智）。骑象人认为他在掌控，但大象其实可以做任何自己想做的事。这就是为什么大多数节食食谱都很难被坚持下来的原因，这也是为什么节食者倾向于重新大吃大喝食谱禁止的食品。很尴尬，我自己就是个例子，但在控制自己大象的能力上，我已经有平均水平了。
But in the case of this diet my elephant and I seem to be of the same mind. My wife continues to eat bread, occasionally pasta and rice, and ice-cream. Today I had a dinner in a restaurant with a good friend, who was eating yammy-looking rolls, among other things. What I find surprising is that I don’t need to exert my will to stay away from these foods. At least so far – we’ll see if it lasts.
但现在这个食谱的情况是，我和我的大象看上去想法一致。我老婆继续吃她的面包，偶尔来点意大利面和米饭，还有冰激凌。今天我和一个好朋友在餐馆吃晚饭，他吃着看上去很好吃的面包卷，还有一些其它东西。让我感到惊喜的是，我不需要使用意志力就能抵制这些食物。至少现在是这样，我们以后会知道这种情况能不能持续。
翻译：bear
校对：陈小乖（lion_kittyyyyy）
编辑：辉格@whigzhou