時差N小時:讓人痛苦的饑餓

It's one of the most painful aspects of starvation towitness: the stomachs of children who are dyingappear ridiculously swollen.

餓死看起來最痛苦的一點是：即將死去的孩子的胃竟然是腫的。

It's as if the body plays an unbelievably cruel joke on itself, causing the starved to resemblepeople whose bellies are large from over-eating.

就好像是身體在和自己開了一個難以置信的又殘酷的玩笑，將那些饑餓的人與暴飲暴食將肚皮撐大的人作類比。

Is there a connection? In fact the two instances -- starvation and overeating -- only resembleeach other in a superficial way.

這有聯(lián)系嗎?事實上，這兩個實例——饑餓和暴飲暴食——表面上看起來是平等的。

The belly of an over-eater looks the way it does due to a build-up of fat cells, also present onother areas of the body.

一個暴飲暴食者的肚皮看起來就像是由脂肪細胞撐起來的，而且也會顯現(xiàn)在身體的其他部位。

The starvation belly stands out in painful relief against emaciated arms, legs, and face, andwill appear more taut and inflexible.

而饑餓者則表現(xiàn)出痛苦的體態(tài)特征，瘦弱的胳膊，腿和臉，而且會顯得緊繃又呆板。

That's because the belly on a starving person has nothing to do with fat. Rather, it is often theresult of Protein Calorie Malnutrition, or PCM.

那是因為饑餓者的胃與脂肪無關(guān)，相反，那通常是熱能營養(yǎng)不良所導致的，或者說叫PCM。

PCM means a healthy number of calories are being eaten -- say in the form of rice -- but with asevere deficiency in protein.

PCM意味著被吸入的有益于身體健康的卡路里含量——只以大米為食——但嚴重缺乏蛋白質(zhì)。

This is often the case in third-world countries where meat and fish are rare or too expensive formany.

在第三世界經(jīng)常會出現(xiàn)這種情況，在那里肉和魚是很少見的或者說對很多人來說都是負擔不起的。

Even in a healthy state, the blood vessels and organs leak fluids a little.

甚至在身體健康的時候，血管和器官也是會泄露一點點液體的。

This is generally no problem, as the lymphatic system removes the excess, and a little fluidcushioning the organs is a good thing.

這通常是沒有問題的。因為淋巴系統(tǒng)會將剩余部分移除，而且器官中含有一點緩沖液是有好處的。

In PCM, however, the lymphatic system can't keep up with the leakage, and the stomach areabegins to bloat with its own waste fluids.

熱能營養(yǎng)不良的時候，通常是淋巴系統(tǒng)的補救速度趕不上排泄速度，從而胃里會殘留廢棄液體并開始腫脹。

Add to this the likelihood of a swollen liver, which is another result of PCM, and you wind upwith the terrible irony of a person on the verge of starvation looking weirdly similar to anovereater.

再加上肝臟腫大的可能性，那是導致熱能營養(yǎng)不良的另一個因素，而你最終會感覺那是一個處饑餓邊緣的可怕的具有諷刺性的一個人，而他看起來又像是一個暴飲暴食者。