Amy and Nancy are 24-year-old twins.

Amy 跟 Nancy 是 24 歲的雙胞胎。

So, Amy and Nancy, what we want to do is to look at how food processing impacts your health.

Amy、Nancy，我們要做的是看看加工食品會如何影響你們的健康。

They're taking part in a test with Doctor Sarah Berry and Professor Tim Specter from King's College London.

他們正在與倫敦國王學院的 Sarah Berry 博士和 Tim Specter 教授一起參與測驗。

What you're going to do is for two weeks, Nancy, you're going to be doing the unprocessed diet and Amy, you're going to be eating the ultra-processed diet.

接下來兩個禮拜，Nancy，你要吃沒有加工過的食品，然後 Amy，你要吃超加工食品，

Then we're gonna get you back here and then we're going to do the same test again and look at how these different foods have impacted your health.

接著我們會讓你回到這裡再次做同樣的測驗，看看這些不同的食物對你們的健康有什麼影響。

The twins diet will be matched exactly for calories, nutrients, fat, sugar, and fiber.

雙胞胎的飲食在卡路里、營養、脂肪、糖和纖維方面會完全一樣。

Ultra-processed food accounts for more than 50% of our energy intake and it's an even bigger problem in children.

超加工食品占我們熱量攝取量的 50% 以上，而在兒童身上更是一個大問題。

So it accounts for about 65% of our energy intake for children.

它約佔兒童熱量攝取量的 65%。

This is actually increasing at an alarming rate.

這種情況以令人擔憂的速度增長。

We believe ultra-processed foods are having an unfavorable effect on our health is because the actor processing foods breaks down the structure of the foods.

我們認為超加工食品對我們的健康產生不利影響是因為，食品在加工的過程破壞了食物的結構。

Often ultra processed foods have very little fiber in them, or the fiber is removed.

通常超加工食品中的纖維素非常少，或者纖維素被去除很多。

Many of these ingredients most people won't have heard of.

許多內含的成分可能很多人沒有聽說過。

But what we don't know is how all of these different chemicals might interact together in terms of our health.

但我們不知道的是，這些不同的化學物質跟我們的健康會如何相互作用。

I do eat some processed foods just out of convenience, but I do love lots of fresh food and have quite a healthy diet. I think.

出於方便，我確實會吃一些加工食品，但我喜歡吃很多新鮮食物，飲食習慣相當健康，我覺得啦。

So I think it is gonna be a bit of a shift.

所以我想我的身體會發生一點變化。

For breakfast this morning I had a quinoa porridge with berries on top and it's done a really good job at keeping me energized and full.

今天早餐我吃了一碗藜麥粥，上面放了些莓果，可以讓我保持充沛的精力和飽足感。

So it's the end of the day now and I've got a bit of a headache, to be honest.

今天要過完了，老實說，我有點頭痛。

So yeah, ending the day, still hungry, feeling a bit sort of rubbish and yeah, a bit of a headache.

所以，一天結束，我仍然很餓，感覺有點噁心不舒服，還有點頭疼。

Lots of the things that you've just described are about your headache.

你剛才描述的很多狀況都是跟頭痛有關。

All point to the fact that you're probably having what we call a glucose dip, which is a dip in blood sugar that happens about 2 to 4 hours after people consume really heavily processed refined carbohydrates.

所有的跡象表明，你可能正在經歷我們所稱之為葡萄糖下降的情況，也就是在人們攝入高度加工的精製碳水化合物後大約二到四小時內出現血糖下降。

This is a mousse made with fruit puree and only 73 calories.

這是由水果泥製成的慕斯，每份只有 73 卡路里。

Yeah, you'd think that would be a healthy option.

你可能會覺得這是一個健康的選擇。

Oh my goodness.

我的天哪。

Pork gelatin, glucose fructose syrup, acidity regulator, citric acid, sodium hydroxide, modified maize starch.

豬明膠、葡萄糖果糖漿、酸度調節劑、檸檬酸、氫氧化鈉、化製玉米澱粉。

There's a term we use called the health halo where, you know, you have packaging says "High in fiber or low in sugar, low in salt, plant-based,"

有個術語叫「健康光環效應」，在包裝上標註「高纖維、低糖、低鹽、植物性」等字樣，

sort of these kind of magic words that make people think, "Wow, these are really healthy."

這些「神奇的」詞彙讓人們誤以為這些食品非常健康。

If anything ever says "low, reduced or no," I'd always be a bit suspicious because how else have they therefore made that food taste great.

如果有食品宣稱「低、減少或不含」，我都會抱持懷疑態度，因為如果這樣，他們是如何讓食品保持美味的呢？

In the last decade, the evidence has been slowly growing that ultra processed food is harmful for us in ways we hadn't thought.

在過去的十年裡，越來越多的證據表明，超加工食品對我們的健康有害，這是我們之前沒有意識到的。

The twins find there is one ingredient they keep seeing again and again on food packets.

雙胞胎發現他們不斷在食品包裝上看到同一種成分。

And then emulsifier again, we've seen that a few times, haven't we?

又是乳化劑，我們已經看到好幾次了，對嗎？

Emulsifiers are essentially a glue.

乳化劑本質上是一種膠水。

They stick components together so that they have a good mouth feel and they don't fall apart in your mouth or on the plate.

它們將食物的成分粘合在一起，以確保口感良好，不會在口中或盤子上散開。

So here we have carboxymethyl cellulose CMC, which is one of the commonest emulsifiers used in the food industry.

這個是羧甲基纖維素（CMC），它是食品工業中常見的一種乳化劑。

And I'm just gonna demonstrate what happens when you just add water to it and it very rapidly becomes like a glue.

我來示範一下如果把它加水會發生什麼，它會迅速變成像膠水一樣的物質。

The food industry uses around 60 different emulsifiers to enhance the appearance, texture and shelf life of ultra-processed foods.

食品工業使用約 60 種不同的乳化劑來改善超加工食品的外觀、口感和保質期。

Some are naturally occurring, others are chemically produced.

有些是自然產生的，而其他一些是化学合成的。

It's found in an incredible number of our foods and they are potentially harmful.

大量的食物中都有它的存在，而且它們具有潛在的危害性。

Doctor Mathilde Touvier is leading one of the world's biggest studies into food additives, publishing regular reports based on the health and eating habits of 174,000 people.

Mathilde Touvier 醫生是帶領世界上最大的食品添加劑的研究者之一，並根據 17.4 萬人的健康和飲食習慣定期發布報告。

She's been looking emulsifiers' long-term impact on health.

她一直在研究乳化劑對健康造成的長期影響。

The BBC has had exclusive access to the early results.

BBC 獨家獲得了初期的結果。

They are yet to be verified by peer review, but she says they're concerning.

這些報告尚未經過同行的檢驗，但她表示這些發現令人擔憂。

We observed a significant association between emulsifiers' fire intake and increased risk of cancer overall and breast cancer, not only but also with cardiovascular diseases

我們觀察到摄入乳化劑跟整體癌症和乳腺癌風險增加之間才在顯著關聯，不僅如此，還與心血管疾病有關。

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, food safety is regulated by the Food Standards Agency, the FSA.

在英格蘭、威爾士和北愛爾蘭，食品安全由食品標準局（FSA）進行監管。

It says it's about to launch a public consultation on some emulsifiers.

據稱，FSA 即將就一些乳化劑展開公聽會。

A spokesperson for the Food and Drink Federation said,

英國食品和飲料協會的發言人稱：

"Food manufacturers take the health of consumers and safety of the food they produce seriously and adhere to the strict regulations.

「食品製造商應認真對待消費者的健康和所生產食品的安全，並遵守嚴格的法規。

In the UK, all additives are independently and rigorously assessed to safety by the Food Standards Agency before they can be used in food."

在英國，所有食品添加劑在被允許用於食品之前，都要經過食品標準局進行獨立且嚴格的安全評估。

The results of the twins test are now in.

雙胞胎測驗的結果出來的。

Amy, you were on the ultra-processed food diet.

Amy，你是超加工食品組的。

Your results were really quite different to your sisters.

你的結果跟你的姐妹非常不一樣。

They were far worse.

你的健康數據相較之下差了很多。

Your blood fat levels actually went up; your lipids which are markers of heart disease, they were increased; your blood sugar was noticeably worse.

你的血脂上升了；你的脂類，也就是衡量心臟病的標誌物，增加了；你的血糖明顯變糟了。

You actually gained weight nearly a kilogram and you actually lost weight.

你還增加了近一公斤的體重，然後你的體重是下降的。

It's a bit scary, isn't it? After only two weeks to see those sorts of results.

這有點可怕，對吧？才两周就出現這樣的結果。

So just imagine what that would be over 20 years.

所以想想一下如果持續超過 20 年會發生什麼事情。

After just two weeks of the test, the impact of Amy's ultra-processed diet will be fully reversible.

在只有進行了僅僅兩周的測試後，Amy 的超加工食品飲食對身體的影響是完全可逆的。

But the results are in line with a growing body of evidence, linking chemical additives and ultra processing to serious health consequences.

然而，這些結果與越來越多的證據吻合，證明化學添加劑和超加工食品與嚴重的健康後果有關。

We already have the most obese children in Europe.

我們國家的兒童在整個歐洲是最肥胖。

That means more type two diabetes, more cancers, more heart disease, more misery, more mental illness.

這代表會出現更多的第二型糖尿病、更多的癌症、更多的心臟病、更多的苦難、更多的精神疾病。

This really is a future time bomb.

這在未來是一個潛在的問題。

There are now dozens of scientific studies warning of the dangers of diets high in ultra-processed food.

現在已經有數十項科學研究警告超加工食品飲食帶來的危險性。

The twin's test showed the potential impact these foods can have on you in just two weeks.

雙胞胎的實驗結果顯示，這些食物在短短兩週內就可能對產生潛在影響。

Esme Stallard, BBC News.

以上是 BBC 新聞記者 Esme Stallard 的報導。