双语健康：贪吃既损身材更损脑(图)

　　Next time you crave a bar of chocolate, FREEZE, perhaps you are notworried about gaining weight but at least think about your brainperformance。

　　A research revealed that being obsessed over a sweet treat makes itdifficult to concentrate on other tasks. Fighting an all- consumingdesire for chocolate HobNobs or strawberry ice cream can haveconsequences ranging from simple memory lapses to car crashes, sayscientists。

　　The research focuses on cravings for specific foods and brands.Someone experiencing a craving isn't just hungry, he wants to eat aparticular brand of biscuits or flavour of ice cream - and nothing elsewill do。

　　The Australian research team set out to see whether the intensityof these desires affects our ability to concentrate on other things.They found that volunteers whose favourite chocolate bar was unwrappedand within their reach had slower reactions and poorer memory during thetest than those who did the same tests in a chocolate-free zone。

　　The researchers, from Melbourne's Flinders University believe thatwhen we crave a food we draw a mental picture of it. This picture tiesup brain regions needed for other tasks, including maths and memorisingand the consequences don't end there。

　　Writing in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science,the researchers, from Melbourne's Flinders University, said: 'Althoughcognitive effects of individual food cravings are likely to be small, inpractice, they can compromise optimal performance in everydaysituations, thereby reducing work efficiency or increasing thelikelihood of accidents.'

　　下一次当你想吃一块巧克力的时候，还是缓缓吧。你的体重可能不会因此减轻，但你的大脑可会因此而感谢你。

　　新研究成果显示，对某种甜食的痴迷对大脑构成了极大负担，以致难以将精力集中到其他任务上。科学家们说，对HobNob巧克力或者蓝莓冰激凌念念不忘能够导致从简单的记忆错误到车祸等各种后果。

　　研究人员的研究集中在对某些特定食物和品牌的渴望上。这些人不仅是饥饿，他们想吃的是某种特定的饼干或冰激凌，其他东西都不行。

　　考虑到这种渴望的强烈程度，澳大利亚研究人员试图弄明白，将注意力集中到其他事情上的能力是否因此受到了影响。志愿者于是坐在自己最喜欢的巧克力旁，接受了一系列测试，结果与在没有巧克力的环境中接受测试的另一批志愿者相比，前者的反应更慢，记忆力更差。

　　这些来自墨尔本的弗林德斯大学的研究认为，在我们很想吃某种食物的时候，我们脑中画了一幅这种食物的图画，而这种图画占用了执行解数学题和记忆等其他任务的大脑区域，而且后果还不止这些。

　　他们在《最新心理科学指南》双月刊上撰文称：“虽然对某一种食物的渴望在认知方面的影响可能很小，但实际上，认知资源的略微减少也可能有损日常状态中的最佳表现，从而降低工作效率或增加发生事故的风险。”