Ukon no Chikara.

Ukon no Chikara.

You can find it at almost any convenient store, and sometimes Japanese izakayas will sell them at the front desk or let you order it from the menu.

幾乎在任何一家便利店都能找到，有時日本居酒屋會在前臺出售，或者讓你從菜單上點。

An izakaya is like a pub or a bar.

居酒屋就像酒館或酒吧一樣。

Ukon no Chikara means "turmeric power.”

Ukon no Chikara的意思是 "薑黃的力量"。

It's supposed to prevent you from getting a hangover.

它應該是防止你得到一個宿醉。

When I was going to University in Tokyo, I participated in a lot of Nomikais - Nomi means drink, Kai means meeting.

在東京上大學的時候，我參加了很多Nomikais--Nomi是喝酒的意思，Kai是開會的意思。

Basically drinking parties.

基本上是喝酒聚會。

As someone who's naturally weak when it comes to alcohol, over the years, I drank a lot of these ukon no chikaras.

作為一個天生酒量較弱的人，這些年，我喝了很多這種ukon no chikaras。

So what's in it, and does it even work?

那麼這裡面有什麼，到底有沒有用呢？

Well, in every bottle, there's 30 milligrams of curcumin, a compound found in turmeric.

每一瓶裡都有30毫克薑黃素 一種薑黃中的化合物

And, curcumin has been shown to have all kinds of health benefits.

而且，薑黃素已經被證明對健康有各種好處。

In 2012, Subash Gupta and colleagues published an article about the Therapeutic Roles of Curcumin.

2012年，Subash Gupta及其同事發表了一篇關於薑黃素的治療作用的文章。

The article is very thorough, citing over a hundred studies and lists what dosage had what specific outcome in trying to ameliorate what disease.

文章非常詳盡，引用了一百多項研究，並列舉了什麼劑量有什麼具體的結果，試圖改善什麼疾病。

The study says: "Some promising effects have been observed in patients with various diseases including cancer, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, Crohn's disease, irritable bowel syndrome, diabetes, and 23 other diseases are listed here.

研究稱："在癌症、心血管疾病、關節炎、克羅恩病、腸易激綜合徵、糖尿病等多種疾病的患者中觀察到一些有希望的效果，這裡列出了其他23種疾病。

Initially, turmeric having benefit for all these different diseases sounds kind of ridiculous, but these are all pro-inflammatory diseases.

最初，薑黃對所有這些不同的疾病都有好處，聽起來有點可笑，但這些都是促發發炎的疾病。

And the curcumin found in turmeric is a very powerful anti-inflammatory.

而薑黃中的薑黃素是一種非常強大的抗炎藥。

So, what about hangovers: The study says that curcumin has also shown protection against liver conditions, chronic arsenic exposure, and alcohol intoxication.

那麼，宿醉怎麼辦。研究表明薑黃素還顯示出對肝臟疾病的保護作用 慢性砷暴露和酒精中毒。

So, If we go down to table 1 and look for Alcohol Intoxication, we find that a single dose of just 30 milligrams of curcumin inhibited alcohol intoxication.

所以，如果我們到表1中去找酒精中毒的情況，我們發現，單劑量僅30毫克的薑黃素就能抑制酒精中毒。

That happens to be the same amount in each bottle of ukon no chikara.

這恰好是每瓶ukon no chikara的相同數量。

Let's go to citation 73 to see which study talks about this.

我們去引73看看哪項研究談到了這個問題。

And of course, it was published by a Japanese team.

當然，它是由日本團隊出版的。

In this article from 2011, they gave subjects a solution of curcumin where the particle size has been drastically reduced to improve bioavailability - to improve the absorption of the curcumin.

在2011年的這篇文章中，他們給受試者提供了一種薑黃素的溶液，其中的顆粒大小被大大縮小，以提高生物利用率--改善薑黃素的吸收。

They found that this curcumin solution significantly reduced the amount of acetaldehyde in the blood after alcohol consumption.

他們發現，這種薑黃素溶液能顯著降低飲酒後血液中乙醛的含量。

Acetaldehyde is a toxic byproduct of ethanol or alcohol metabolism.

乙醛是乙醇或酒精代謝的有毒副產品。

Acetaldehyde is some 10 to 30 times as toxic as alcohol itself.

乙醛的毒性是酒精本身的10到30倍左右。

It's one of the ways drinking alcohol makes you feel like crap and gives you a hangover.

這也是飲酒讓你感覺很糟糕，讓你宿醉的方式之一。

Some people, predominantly East Asians, have a mutation in their alcohol dehydrogenase gene, which makes them convert ethanol to acetaldehyde unusually fast.

有些人，主要是東亞人，他們的酒精脫氫酶基因發生了突變，使得他們將乙醇轉化為乙醛的速度異常快。

And, they break acetaldehyde down more slowly, leading to a very high concentration of acetaldehyde.

而且，它們分解乙醛的速度比較慢，導致乙醛的濃度非常高。

Some estimates say 6 times as much as normal.

有人估計說是正常的6倍。

And this leads to something known as the alcohol flush reaction, where people's neck and face turn quite red.

而這就導致了所謂的酒精潮紅反應，人的脖子和臉都會變得相當紅。

This is more commonly known as the "Asian Flush.”

這就是比較常見的 "亞洲同花順"。

OK, so curcumin reduces acetaldehyde, making alcohol metabolism less toxic, so you have less of a chance of getting a hangover, or at least it won't be as bad.

好了，薑黃素可以降低乙醛，使酒精代謝的毒性降低，所以你宿醉的機會就少了，至少不會那麼嚴重。

But, to be honest, for me it was never really clear if the ukon no chikara drink even did anything.

但是，說實話，對我來說，它從來沒有真正清楚，如果ukon沒有chikara飲料甚至做任何事情。

And it's probably because I wasn't effectively absorbing those 30 mg of curcumin.

而這可能是因為我沒有有效吸收那30毫克的薑黃素。

This is because your liver seems to treat curcumin like it would a foreign substance, so it doesn't absorb it very well.

這是因為你的肝臟似乎把薑黃素當成了異物，所以它吸收得不是很好。

When you consume curcumin on its own, there is only a tiny rise in the levels in your bloodstream.

當你單獨食用薑黃素時，血液中的含量只會有微小的上升。

This very low absorption rate is the problem the study I mentioned earlier tried to solve by reducing the particle size.

這種極低的吸收率就是我前面提到的研究試圖通過減小顆粒大小來解決的問題。

But, there's an easier way to absorb curcumin more effectively.

但是，有一個更簡單的方法可以更有效地吸收薑黃素。

Just take it with some black pepper.

加點黑胡椒就可以了。

A compound in black pepper called piperine inhibits the process in the liver that hinders curcumin absorption.

黑胡椒中一種叫做胡椒鹼的化合物能抑制肝臟中阻礙薑黃素吸收的過程。

This study found that curcumin bioavailability went up 2000% , just by consuming a quarter of a teaspoon of black pepper along with it.

這項研究發現，薑黃素的生物利用度上升了2000% ，只需同時食用四分之一茶匙的黑胡椒。

You can also add a bit of good fat and apply some heat to the turmeric to further improve absorption of the curcumin.

也可以加點好的脂肪，在薑黃上塗抹一些熱量，進一步提高薑黃素的吸收。

Adding fat to the mix helps the curcumin to be absorbed directly because it's fat soluble, so if you take it with fat, it will be processed through the lymphatic system, helping to bypass the liver.

加入脂肪有助於薑黃素直接被吸收，因為薑黃素是脂溶性的，所以如果用脂肪服用，會通過淋巴系統處理，有助於繞過肝臟。

And heat also seems to improve the effects of curcumin.

而高溫似乎也能提高薑黃素的效果。

This study found that getting the turmeric hot by adding it to people's food while cooking had much better effects than just taking it in capsule form.

這項研究發現，在烹飪時將薑黃加入到人們的食物中，讓薑黃變得熱乎乎的，比單純服用膠囊的效果要好得多。

If we look at the ingredients in Ukon no Chikara it has high fructose corn syrup, autumn turmeric extract, salt, thickening agent, coloring, fragrance, sweetener, inositol, more sweetener, then vitamin B6, B1 and B2, and emulsifier.

如果我們看一下烏空之千拉的成分，它有高果糖玉米糖漿、秋薑黃提取物、鹽、增稠劑、色素、香精、甜味劑、肌醇，更多的是甜味劑，然後是維生素B6、B1和B2，還有乳化劑。

So it doesn't really look like there's anything in here to help with the absorption of the curcumin.

所以看起來這裡面並沒有什麼東西可以幫助薑黃素的吸收。

This is probably why I didn't have any luck with it, but to be fair, back then I was drinking a lot of alcohol - I would have 3 drinks within the first hour of a Friday night, but nowadays I'll have maybe 3 drinks per month.

這可能是我沒有任何運氣的原因，但公平地說，那時我喝了很多酒--我會在週五晚上的第一個小時內喝3杯酒，但現在我每個月可能會喝3杯酒。

Recently my brother came to visit and we celebrated his birthday with some beers.

最近，我的哥哥來了，我們用一些啤酒慶祝他的生日。

My tolerance for alcohol is much lower now that I rarely drink, so I was expecting the beers we had to give me a hangover.

我現在對酒精的耐受力降低了很多，很少喝酒，所以我期待著我們的啤酒能讓我宿醉。

So I tried taking a couple grams of ground turmeric with black pepper and the next morning felt surprisingly ...normal.

於是我試著吃了幾克薑黃粉加黑胡椒，第二天早上感覺竟然......正常。

A couple weeks after that I had the chance to put turmeric to the test again, and I had more surprisingly positive results.

之後的幾個星期，我又有機會把薑黃進行了測試，我有更令人驚訝的積極結果。

It's not magic, but it was substantial - much better results than I ever had drinking one of these.

它不是魔術，但它是實質性的 - 比我曾經喝過的這些更好的結果。

Personally, I've found 3 grams of ground turmeric with about a gram of black pepper has some pretty impressive effects- not just to mitigate hangovers, but anti-inflammatory effects as well.

就我個人而言，我發現3克薑黃粉和大約一克黑胡椒有一些相當令人印象深刻的效果--不僅僅是減輕宿醉，還有抗炎作用。

You can mix the turmeric and black pepper with hot water just off a boil and some coconut milk and cinnamon, and it's pretty good.

你可以把薑黃和黑胡椒用剛燒開的熱水混合，再加上一些椰奶和肉桂，就很不錯了。

Then again, you can use whatever healthy fat you want.

再有，你可以用任何你想要的健康脂肪。

You could eat some macadamia nuts or an avocado along with the turmeric and black pepper in hot tea.

你可以在熱茶中吃一些夏威夷果或牛油果以及薑黃和黑胡椒。

With the holidays and holiday parties coming up, I figured it would be good to share this.

隨著假期和節日聚會的到來，我想這是很好的分享。

Even if you don't like the taste of curry, it's worth trying.

即使你不喜歡咖喱的味道，也值得一試。

It won't allow you to drink infinite alcohol of course, but you might wake up feeling better than you did last year.

當然，它不會讓你喝下無限的酒精，但你醒來後可能會感覺比去年更好。