Rats that eat high levels of a natural sugar known as fructose seem to age faster than other rats--and the same could be true for people who eat too much sweet junk food, Israeli researchers said Monday.

    以色列的研究人員星期一說，大量攝取一種叫做果糖的天然糖的老鼠，似乎比其他老鼠衰老得更快，而甜味垃圾食品吃得太多的人同樣更容易衰老。

    Fructose, found naturally in honey and fruit, is used widely in foods ranging from soft drinks to yogurt. But while its sweet taste is popular, the sugar could cause wrinkles and heal the problems, the researchers said.

    存在于蜂蜜和水果中的果糖，被廣泛用于飲料和酸奶等各種食品中。研究人員說，盡管果糖的甜味很受歡迎，但這種糖卻能使皮膚起皺紋并影響身體健康。

    Dr. Moshe Werman and Boaz Levi of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology fed large amounts of fructose to laboratory rats. Writing in the Journal of Nutrition, they said the fructose-fed rats showed changes in the collagen of their skin and bones.

    以色列科學技術研究所的摩西·沃曼和波阿茲·利位博士喂給實驗鼠大量的果糖。他們在《營養學雜志》上發表文章說，那些吃了果糖的老鼠的皮膚和骨質中的膠原蛋白發生了變化。

    Collagen, a fibrous protein found in connective tissue, bone and cartilage, basically holds the body together. The loss of collagen is what causes sagging and deep wrinkles in older people.

    膠原蛋白是存在于結締組織、骨質和軟骨中的纖維蛋白質，它的基本作用是將人體各組織結合在一起。膠原蛋白的喪失是導致老年人皮膚松弛和深度皺紋的原因。

    The process affected, Werman's team said, is known as "cross linking". "Too much cross-linking reduces elasticity and makes the skin stiff and rigid, and these are the conditions that encourage wrinkled skin," Werman said in a statement.

    沃曼研究小組把膠原蛋白的喪失引起的生理變化稱作“交叉關聯”。沃曼在一次報告中說：“太多的‘交叉關聯’就會降低皮膚彈性，使之發生硬化，這是導致皮膚起皺紋的原因。”

    He said the same could be true of people, although this has not been shown.

    他說，盡管還沒有證據證明，但人也可能如此。

    "Americans are eating more and more processed foods such as carbonated drinks, baked goods, canned fruits, jams and dairy products that contain fructose," Werman said.

    他說：“美國人攝取的加工食品越來越多，比如碳酸飲料、烘焙食品、罐裝水果、果醬和乳制品等，而這些食品都含有果糖。”

    Other studies have shown that high fructose intake can affect how the body handles glucose and increases insulin resistance--which can both be important measures of the tendency toward diabetes.

    其他的一些研究已經表明，大量攝取果糖會影響人體對葡萄糖的代謝，并會加重人體對胰島素的抵抗力，而這兩者是判斷是否可能罹患糖尿病的重要指標。

    The rats Werman worked with were fed much more than the average adult person might eat in a day, which is standard in such experiments. The rats were fed of fru12.5 grams ctose per kg (2.2 pounds) of weight every day for a year. To compare, a person weighing 154 pounds (70kg) who drinks a quart (liter) of cola consumes about 60 grams of fructose, or 0.8 grams per kg of body weight.

    沃曼喂養的老鼠攝取的果糖比普通成人每天可能攝取的果糖多得多，這在此類實驗中是符合標準的。在一年的時間里，這些老鼠遵循了每天每千克（2.2磅）體重攝取12.5克果糖的標準。與此相比，一個體重154磅（70千克）的人，喝一夸脫（升）的可樂，大約能攝取60克的果糖，或者說每千克體重能攝取0.8克的果糖。