手機版
A group of Nestle SA researchers here are on an unusual mission: They hope to create new foods based on gut instinct.
Not the type of instinct one normally equates with intuitive decision-making, but the sophisticated processes that take place in our digestive tracts to let us know when we're hungry. There, a collection of nerve cells work together and communicate much as the neurons in our brain do. It's essentially an autonomous and self-governing second brain that we all carry in our belly.
The 'gut brain,' formally known as the enteric nervous system, is made up of some 500 million nerve cells, as many as there are in a cat's brain. They help to control muscular contractions in the gut as well as the secretions of glands and cells. And they help balance hunger and satiety, or the sense of being full, communicating those states to the big brain.
Nestle, one of the world's largest food companies, hopes to develop new types of foods that, essentially, seek to trick the gut brain. The foods could make people feel full earlier, or stay full longer, in order to curb the desire to eat more. For example, cooking french fries in oil that gets digested more slowly than regular oil could confer a longer-lasting sense of satiety, researchers speculate.
'This means that people will report a sense of fullness more quickly,' says Heribert Watzke, a senior food scientist at Nestle. 'That tells the big brain to stop eating.'
Nestle says products using its new science could be available within five years. Widely known for its chocolate, the company makes a broad array of foods including cereal, drinks, coffee, frozen meals, bottled water and pet food.
This avenue of food science, which is also being pursued by other food companies, could represent a fresh assault in the fight against flab. One in four Americans is obese, and obesity rates are also rising dramatically in parts of Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Although food companies have long tried to make effective fat-fighting food, their results have been modest.
Nestle and other food giants are now on a push to decipher the language of satiety -- the complex signals our gut brain sends to the big brain -- and use that knowledge to make better satiety-inducing foods, or foods that make you feel full longer. Nerve cells in the gut are located in the tissues lining the esophagus, stomach, small intestine and colon. Like the central nervous system, the gut brain makes use of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine.
Tracking the movement of food in a person's gastrointestinal tract isn't easy. So at a 'digestion lab' -- part of Nestle's sprawling research and development center here -- scientists use a million-dollar model of the human gut.
The machine is about the size of a large refrigerator. It has several compartments linked by valves, and it is carefully calibrated to the body's temperature. The entire setup is controlled by a computer. The front is glass, allowing observers to watch as food travels through the system.
On a recent day, the 'stomach' section at the top slowly squeezed and churned a salt solution, just like the real thing. The liquefied result then wended its way down the other tubes, representing other sections of the digestive tract. At each stage, tiny valves released the appropriate salt, bile and enzymes, which helped to digest the food.
The body is in a state of continual hunger -- its default position. But several factors work to curtail the hunger instinct, such as the presence of food in the digestive tract, or the flow of nutrients in the blood. When these satiety factors dissipate, the body again demands food.
In the quest to balance hunger and satiety, the gut brain and big brain communicate via neural signals. When food enters the stomach, the stomach stretches, and the gut brain sends a neural message to the big brain. The gut brain also knows when there are nutrients in the gastrointestinal tract, stimulating the release of peptides into the blood and resulting in another message to the brain.
A peptide release is also part of the 'ileal brake' mechanism. The ileum is the lower part of the small intestine. Fat penetrates there when there's too much for the body to process, triggering an 'I'm full' message to the big brain.
Nestle has run some early-stage experiments on foods using its artificial gut model. In a paper published in the journal Food Biophysics last year, Dr. Watzke and colleagues described one such experiment using olive oil. They first measured how long it took the artificial gut to digest olive oil at the natural rate. Then, they added a compound called monoglyceride, which formed a protective coat around the oil molecules, making it harder for the gut's juices to break through and digest the oil.
The Nestle scientists monitored the oil's progress as it gradually went through the system. They found it took eight times longer for the machine to 'digest' the olive oil-monoglyceride combination compared with the olive oil alone. This resulted in more undigested oil reaching the small intestine. In the human body, this could lead to a stronger ileal brake signal of fullness to the big brain.
參考譯文：
雀巢公司（Nestle SA）的研究人員正在瑞士沃韋(Vevey)執行一項不尋常的研究任務：根據腸胃本能開發出新型的食品。
這種本能并不是通常相當于直覺決策的那種本能，而是一種在我們的消化道中發生的復雜過程，它讓我們知道自己何時餓。在消化道中，一群神經細胞就像大腦中的神經元那樣共同協作、相互交流。它基本上可說是我們每個人腹中都有的自主自治的第二個大腦。
“腸腦”的正式名稱是腸道神經系統，它由約5億個神經細胞組成，和貓腦中的神經細胞一樣多。它們幫助控制腸道的肌肉收縮、腺體分泌和細胞。它們還幫助平衡餓感與飽腹感，并將這些狀態的信息傳輸給大腦。
雀巢公司是世界上最大的食品公司之一，目前正致力于開發可欺騙腸腦的新型食品。這種食品可以使人們提早感到吃飽，或延長飽腹時間，以抑制進食欲望。例如，研究人員推測，用消化速度慢于普通油的油炸出來的薯條可以產生更長時間的飽腹感。
雀巢公司的高級食品科學家黑里貝特•瓦茨克（Heribert Watzke）說，這意味著人們會更快地感到吃飽了。這會告訴大腦該停止進食了。
雀巢公司稱，使用該新科技的產品將于五年內面世。這家因巧克力廣為人知的公司還生產許多種食品，包括麥片、飲料、咖啡、冷凍食品、瓶裝水和寵物食品。
這種其他食品公司也在開發的食品科技代表著對抗肥胖的戰斗中的一股新鮮力量。每四個美國人中就有一個肥胖者，而在歐洲、亞洲和中東的部分國家，肥胖率也在顯著上升。盡管食品公司很久以來一直試圖生產出能有效對抗肥胖的食品，但收效甚微。
現在，雀巢公司和其他食品業巨頭正在努力破譯飽腹感語言——腸腦向大腦發出的復雜信號——并利用該知識生產出更好的引發飽腹感或延長飽腹感的食品。消化道中的神經細胞位于食道、胃、小腸和結腸的組織中。和中樞神經系統一樣，腸腦利用了羥色胺和多巴胺等神經遞質。
跟蹤食物在人胃腸道中的運動并不容易。因此，在一間“消化實驗室”（雀巢公司龐大的研發中心的一部分）中，科學家們使用了一個價值100萬美元的人類消化道模型。
這個機器和一臺大冰箱差不多大。它由幾個用閥門相連的隔間組成，并細致地調節至人體溫度。機器的整體設置由一臺電腦控制。機器前方是玻璃屏，讓觀察者能夠看到食物通過該系統的過程。
最近的某一天，機器頂部的“胃”部分緩慢地擠壓翻攪著一劑鹽溶液，就像真的胃一樣。液化產物慢慢下行到代表消化道中其他部分的其他管道里。在每個階段中，小閥門都會適當地釋放出鹽、膽汁和酶，幫助消化食物。
身體處于持續饑餓狀態之中——這是預設狀態。但有幾種因素會限制饑餓直覺，例如消化道中有食物存在，或血液中有營養物質流動。當這些導致飽腹感的因素消失后，身體就會再度產生對食物的需求。
在追求餓感和飽腹感的平衡時，腸腦和大腦通過神經信號交流。當食物進入胃時，胃會擴張，腸腦向大腦發出神經信息。腸腦還知道當胃腸道中有營養物質時，主動刺激多肽類物質向血液中的釋放，并向大腦發出另一種信息。
釋放肽也是“回腸剎車”機制的一部分。回腸是小腸靠下的部分。當這里堆積了太多身體難以處理的食物時，脂肪就會滲入，向大腦發出“我吃飽了”的信息。
雀巢公司用人造消化道模型進行了一些初期食品試驗。在去年發表于《食品生物物理學》（Food Biophysics）雜志的一篇論文中，瓦茨克博士及其同事介紹了一項用橄欖油進行的此類實驗。他們首先測量了人造消化道在自然速度下消化橄欖油需要多久。然后，他們加入了一種叫單甘油酯的混合物，它在油分子周圍形成了一層保護膜，使消化液更難溶解并消化油分子。
雀巢公司的科學家們監測了橄欖油逐漸通過這個系統時的變化過程。他們發現，機器“消化”橄欖油-單甘油酯混合物時花的時間是只加入橄欖油時的八倍。這導致更多未消化的橄欖油到達小腸。在人體中，這可能導致腸腦向大腦發出更強烈的飽腹感“回腸剎車”信號。
Not the type of instinct one normally equates with intuitive decision-making, but the sophisticated processes that take place in our digestive tracts to let us know when we're hungry. There, a collection of nerve cells work together and communicate much as the neurons in our brain do. It's essentially an autonomous and self-governing second brain that we all carry in our belly.
The 'gut brain,' formally known as the enteric nervous system, is made up of some 500 million nerve cells, as many as there are in a cat's brain. They help to control muscular contractions in the gut as well as the secretions of glands and cells. And they help balance hunger and satiety, or the sense of being full, communicating those states to the big brain.
Nestle, one of the world's largest food companies, hopes to develop new types of foods that, essentially, seek to trick the gut brain. The foods could make people feel full earlier, or stay full longer, in order to curb the desire to eat more. For example, cooking french fries in oil that gets digested more slowly than regular oil could confer a longer-lasting sense of satiety, researchers speculate.
'This means that people will report a sense of fullness more quickly,' says Heribert Watzke, a senior food scientist at Nestle. 'That tells the big brain to stop eating.'
Nestle says products using its new science could be available within five years. Widely known for its chocolate, the company makes a broad array of foods including cereal, drinks, coffee, frozen meals, bottled water and pet food.
This avenue of food science, which is also being pursued by other food companies, could represent a fresh assault in the fight against flab. One in four Americans is obese, and obesity rates are also rising dramatically in parts of Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Although food companies have long tried to make effective fat-fighting food, their results have been modest.
Nestle and other food giants are now on a push to decipher the language of satiety -- the complex signals our gut brain sends to the big brain -- and use that knowledge to make better satiety-inducing foods, or foods that make you feel full longer. Nerve cells in the gut are located in the tissues lining the esophagus, stomach, small intestine and colon. Like the central nervous system, the gut brain makes use of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine.
Tracking the movement of food in a person's gastrointestinal tract isn't easy. So at a 'digestion lab' -- part of Nestle's sprawling research and development center here -- scientists use a million-dollar model of the human gut.
The machine is about the size of a large refrigerator. It has several compartments linked by valves, and it is carefully calibrated to the body's temperature. The entire setup is controlled by a computer. The front is glass, allowing observers to watch as food travels through the system.
On a recent day, the 'stomach' section at the top slowly squeezed and churned a salt solution, just like the real thing. The liquefied result then wended its way down the other tubes, representing other sections of the digestive tract. At each stage, tiny valves released the appropriate salt, bile and enzymes, which helped to digest the food.
The body is in a state of continual hunger -- its default position. But several factors work to curtail the hunger instinct, such as the presence of food in the digestive tract, or the flow of nutrients in the blood. When these satiety factors dissipate, the body again demands food.
In the quest to balance hunger and satiety, the gut brain and big brain communicate via neural signals. When food enters the stomach, the stomach stretches, and the gut brain sends a neural message to the big brain. The gut brain also knows when there are nutrients in the gastrointestinal tract, stimulating the release of peptides into the blood and resulting in another message to the brain.
A peptide release is also part of the 'ileal brake' mechanism. The ileum is the lower part of the small intestine. Fat penetrates there when there's too much for the body to process, triggering an 'I'm full' message to the big brain.
Nestle has run some early-stage experiments on foods using its artificial gut model. In a paper published in the journal Food Biophysics last year, Dr. Watzke and colleagues described one such experiment using olive oil. They first measured how long it took the artificial gut to digest olive oil at the natural rate. Then, they added a compound called monoglyceride, which formed a protective coat around the oil molecules, making it harder for the gut's juices to break through and digest the oil.
The Nestle scientists monitored the oil's progress as it gradually went through the system. They found it took eight times longer for the machine to 'digest' the olive oil-monoglyceride combination compared with the olive oil alone. This resulted in more undigested oil reaching the small intestine. In the human body, this could lead to a stronger ileal brake signal of fullness to the big brain.
參考譯文：
雀巢公司（Nestle SA）的研究人員正在瑞士沃韋(Vevey)執行一項不尋常的研究任務：根據腸胃本能開發出新型的食品。
這種本能并不是通常相當于直覺決策的那種本能，而是一種在我們的消化道中發生的復雜過程，它讓我們知道自己何時餓。在消化道中，一群神經細胞就像大腦中的神經元那樣共同協作、相互交流。它基本上可說是我們每個人腹中都有的自主自治的第二個大腦。
“腸腦”的正式名稱是腸道神經系統，它由約5億個神經細胞組成，和貓腦中的神經細胞一樣多。它們幫助控制腸道的肌肉收縮、腺體分泌和細胞。它們還幫助平衡餓感與飽腹感，并將這些狀態的信息傳輸給大腦。
雀巢公司是世界上最大的食品公司之一，目前正致力于開發可欺騙腸腦的新型食品。這種食品可以使人們提早感到吃飽，或延長飽腹時間，以抑制進食欲望。例如，研究人員推測，用消化速度慢于普通油的油炸出來的薯條可以產生更長時間的飽腹感。
雀巢公司的高級食品科學家黑里貝特•瓦茨克（Heribert Watzke）說，這意味著人們會更快地感到吃飽了。這會告訴大腦該停止進食了。
雀巢公司稱，使用該新科技的產品將于五年內面世。這家因巧克力廣為人知的公司還生產許多種食品，包括麥片、飲料、咖啡、冷凍食品、瓶裝水和寵物食品。
這種其他食品公司也在開發的食品科技代表著對抗肥胖的戰斗中的一股新鮮力量。每四個美國人中就有一個肥胖者，而在歐洲、亞洲和中東的部分國家，肥胖率也在顯著上升。盡管食品公司很久以來一直試圖生產出能有效對抗肥胖的食品，但收效甚微。
現在，雀巢公司和其他食品業巨頭正在努力破譯飽腹感語言——腸腦向大腦發出的復雜信號——并利用該知識生產出更好的引發飽腹感或延長飽腹感的食品。消化道中的神經細胞位于食道、胃、小腸和結腸的組織中。和中樞神經系統一樣，腸腦利用了羥色胺和多巴胺等神經遞質。
跟蹤食物在人胃腸道中的運動并不容易。因此，在一間“消化實驗室”（雀巢公司龐大的研發中心的一部分）中，科學家們使用了一個價值100萬美元的人類消化道模型。
這個機器和一臺大冰箱差不多大。它由幾個用閥門相連的隔間組成，并細致地調節至人體溫度。機器的整體設置由一臺電腦控制。機器前方是玻璃屏，讓觀察者能夠看到食物通過該系統的過程。
最近的某一天，機器頂部的“胃”部分緩慢地擠壓翻攪著一劑鹽溶液，就像真的胃一樣。液化產物慢慢下行到代表消化道中其他部分的其他管道里。在每個階段中，小閥門都會適當地釋放出鹽、膽汁和酶，幫助消化食物。
身體處于持續饑餓狀態之中——這是預設狀態。但有幾種因素會限制饑餓直覺，例如消化道中有食物存在，或血液中有營養物質流動。當這些導致飽腹感的因素消失后，身體就會再度產生對食物的需求。
在追求餓感和飽腹感的平衡時，腸腦和大腦通過神經信號交流。當食物進入胃時，胃會擴張，腸腦向大腦發出神經信息。腸腦還知道當胃腸道中有營養物質時，主動刺激多肽類物質向血液中的釋放，并向大腦發出另一種信息。
釋放肽也是“回腸剎車”機制的一部分。回腸是小腸靠下的部分。當這里堆積了太多身體難以處理的食物時，脂肪就會滲入，向大腦發出“我吃飽了”的信息。
雀巢公司用人造消化道模型進行了一些初期食品試驗。在去年發表于《食品生物物理學》（Food Biophysics）雜志的一篇論文中，瓦茨克博士及其同事介紹了一項用橄欖油進行的此類實驗。他們首先測量了人造消化道在自然速度下消化橄欖油需要多久。然后，他們加入了一種叫單甘油酯的混合物，它在油分子周圍形成了一層保護膜，使消化液更難溶解并消化油分子。
雀巢公司的科學家們監測了橄欖油逐漸通過這個系統時的變化過程。他們發現，機器“消化”橄欖油-單甘油酯混合物時花的時間是只加入橄欖油時的八倍。這導致更多未消化的橄欖油到達小腸。在人體中，這可能導致腸腦向大腦發出更強烈的飽腹感“回腸剎車”信號。
