健康生活:花費不高,飲食卻更健康的方法

The deal last week by Shuanghui, China's largest pork producer, to buy U.S. pork company Smithfield at a big premium shows how much Chinese are willing to pay for safe food.

上週中國最大的豬肉生產商雙匯給出大幅溢價，宣佈收購美國豬肉製造商史密斯菲爾德，由此可以看出，中國人爲了安全的食品不吝付出高價。

After a spate of food scandals, it is no surprise that consumers in China are hugely concerned about food safety. David Laris, a chef and creator of several high-end restaurants in Shanghai, reckons that if a family of four in Shanghai eats just organic food, the grocery bill would be about $600 a week. 'At home, we spend too much money buying food; there is no shortcut financially, ' he said.

在一系列和食品有關的醜聞之後，中國普通消費者當然非常重視食品安全。在上海開了幾家高級餐廳且擔任大廚的David Laris說，如果一個上海的四口之家只吃有機食品，那麼一週買菜的開銷就有三四千元人民幣之多，“我們在買菜上花太多錢了，在這方面的開支沒法走捷徑”。

But industry insiders, doctors and consumers say there are ways to reduce the risks of eating food produced in China without going over budget.

但通過同業內行家、醫生還有普通消費者的訪談後發現，中國消費者還是有既降低“中國製造”的食品風險，同時又不超出預算的辦法的。

Mr. Laris says he can't run a profitable restaurant selling all organic food, so he uses a combination of imported food and carefully sourced local ingredients.

知道你的食品來自哪裏。Laris先生不認爲他的餐廳如果只用有機原料還能賺錢，所以他除了使用進口食品，還會仔細挑選本地的原料。

It is ironic for a country that has a goal of moving people from farms to cities that some city dwellers now say they are growing their own vegetables and rice, and making their own bread and yogurt.

考慮到中國的目標是讓農民更多地搬到城市裏生活，聽到城裏人開始自己種植蔬菜和米，還有自己做麪包和酸奶，不免讓人感到有點意外。有些餐廳也追趕了這一潮流。比如上海有一家叫G+極食的餐廳，在店裏種植蘑菇和豆芽，飯後顧客還可以把蘑菇根莖拿回家去繼續種植。

China Resources Group's Wu Feng Butchers, a distributor of mainland beef and pork in Hong Kong, now is also serving its home market with export-quality products as demand grows.

進口的蛋白質價格相當不菲。但除了菜場裏30元一隻的雞和高級超市裏120元一隻的法國春雞，還是有些中間地帶的。比如華潤集團旗下的五豐行，原來主要給香港供應大陸牛肉和豬肉，但現在隨着國內需求的上升，也開始服務本地市場。

Oil from restaurant waste bins and gutters are often packaged and resold as cooking oil after some rudimentary reprocessing. When her family eats out, they order pizzas, because that is less likely to use local oil.

在家吃飯和中午帶飯也成爲新的潮流。上海一位家庭主婦Laura Zhang說，就算五星級酒店的中國菜，也難免沒有地溝油，那些從廚餘和陰溝裏蒐集來的油往往只是粗粗過濾一下就拿去再賣。所以她們要出去吃飯時常常點比薩餅，因爲相對來說它用本地油的可能性不大。

Milk for children is one area where most people won't compromise, so they buy imported dairy products. The country's dairy industry hasn't recovered from a 2008 scandal in which an estimated 300, 000 babies were sickened and six were killed by tainted powdered-milk formula.

注意你最常吃的食品。對於給孩子喝的牛奶，消費者是最不願意妥協的，所以人們一般都買進口乳製品。中國乳製品行業一直沒有能夠從2008年的醜聞中恢復過來，當年估計有30萬個寶寶因爲喝了毒奶粉而患有結石病，其中有六人死亡。

Foreign brands of baby formulas can sell for up to twice as much as domestic brands. But they often use nonfat milk powder and add vegetable oil, which may be harder for babies to digest. A lot of domestic brands now use imported raw ingredients, so the price gap hardly looks justifiable for budget-conscious consumers.

外國品牌的奶粉在中國可以賣到本地奶粉價格的兩倍之多。但它們常常使用脫脂奶粉，再加入植物油，這對嬰兒的消化未必是好的。其實現在很多本土品牌也主要使用進口奶源，所以對於注重價格的消費者來說，這麼大的價格差距看著有點不值。

Rice is another staple that Chinese consume in large quantities. Last month, the government reported that nearly half the samples of rice in Guangzhou bore cadmium above permissible levels news that struck a nerve across China. Consumers may be better off buying foreign rice, despite the cost. Imported Thai rice in Shanghai, at $3 per kilogram, is almost 50% more expensive than the price in Hong Kong.

大米也是另一種大量消費的食品。最近廣州近一半的大米被發現有毒，這也觸動了中國人的神經。消費者最好還是買進口大米，雖然在上海賣的進口泰國大米要18元左右一斤，比它們在香港的售價要高出近50%。

Buy a water purifier. They range from simple attach-to-the-faucet models to more-elaborate filtering systems. But even the expensive models are far cheaper than bottled water and are effective in removing much of the pollutants from the water.

買水淨化器。從一個簡單套上水龍頭的磨具，到一些高級的過濾系統都可以。就算那些最豪華的濾水系統，還是要比買瓶裝水划算，並且能夠有效地去除水中的很多雜質與污染物。

Find a number of brands that you trust, and rotate among them. Don't buy all your eggs from the same basket, even if it is a well-trusted Western brand. In 2011, some Wal-Mart stores in China were accused by officials in Chongqing of mislabeling regular pork as 'organic.' The incident led to the temporary closure of 13 stores and a fine of 3.65 million yuan ($596, 000). Since then, Wal-Mart has overhauled management at its stores in Chongqing and implemented a food-safety compliance system in the company's stores across the nation.

經常更換供應商。消費者最好找到他們相信的幾個品牌，然後在它們之間輪換。不要把所有的雞蛋都放在同一個籃子裏面，就算它們是讓人普遍信任的西方品牌，也難保沒有問題。比如沃爾瑪在中國的某些超市，也發生過把普通的豬肉標成有機豬肉出售的情況。

Big brands aren't necessarily better. 'You may want to drink cow milk for 11 months and buffalo milk for a month, and have some quail eggs instead of just chicken eggs, ' said Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research.

大品牌未必就是更好的。中國市場研究（China Market Research）董事總經理Shaun Rein說，你可以一年中有11個月喝牛奶，然後有一個月喝水牛奶，或者是把雞蛋和鵪鶉蛋搭配着吃。水牛奶因爲是個新的行業，希望它還沒有染上一些舊毛病。

Shuanghui's big pig deal wasn't an accident. Some of the worst problems with food in China from dead pigs floating in a river in Shanghai to fox and rat meat disguised as beef and lamb occur in meat. While vegetables aren't immune to problems like toxic soil and pesticides, they are less likely to carry large amounts of antibiotics and hormones.

少吃肉。中國海外大購豬肉並非是偶然的。中國很多糟糕的食品安全事件，從黃浦江裏的死豬到被扮成牛肉或者羊肉的狐狸和老鼠肉，都和肉有關。雖然蔬菜也難逃有毒土壤和危險殺蟲劑的污染，但它們起碼不太可能有大劑量的抗生素和荷爾蒙。

Not surprisingly, vegetarianism is gaining traction among health-conscious urbanites in China, though it is still uncommon in much of the country. 'Vegetable is the lesser of two evils, ' said Sandy Chen, research director of consumer consultancy TNS. Even former Premier Wen Jiabao proposed a nationwide campaign of 'one vegetarian day every week.'

不讓人意外的是，原來在中國稀罕的素食主義，目前在注重健康的城裏人中開始流行了。消費調查研究公司TNS的中國研究主管Sandy Chen說，這是兩害相權取其輕。就連前國務院總理溫家寶也曾經在全國範圍內提倡一週一天吃素。

It's hard to be completely safe when living in China. But if shoppers spend wisely, they can dramatically improve their food safety while staying within a budget.

當然，在中國想要吃得絕對安全是很難的。但如果消費者聰明選擇，還是有機會大大提高食品安全的可能性，同時又不超出預算。