英国《金融时报》艾伦•凯恩(Alan Cane)报道 2008年3月31日 星期一 “红酒抗癌”的观点在上周得到巩固：一项研究报告为这个受到广泛宣传的观点提供了更多科学依据。
By Alan Cane Monday, March 31, 2008
The much publicised idea that red wine can protect against cancer is given a boost this week through research that provides the notion with more scientific underpinning.
罗彻斯特大学(University of Rochester)的研究人员首次证明，在葡萄皮和红酒中发现的天然抗氧化剂白藜芦醇可以破坏胰腺癌细胞的线粒体，从而有助于消灭这种癌细胞。线粒体是一种微小的细胞器官，存在于大多数活细胞中，为这些细胞提供能量。Researchers at the University of Rochester have shown for the first time that resveratrol, a natural antioxidant found in grape skins and red wine, helps to destroy cancerous pancreatic cells by crippling the diseased cells' mitochondia, the minute organelles found in the majority of living cells which provide them with energy.
罗 彻斯特大学的研究人员发现，白藜芦醇可以让肿瘤细胞对杀癌射线更加敏感，同时让健康细胞不那么容易受到影响。他们的研究成果发表在3月份的《实验医学与生 物学进展》(Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology)杂志上。研究表明，红酒与常规放射疗法（即化疗--HC案: 翻譯錯誤）并举，可以破坏癌细胞的线粒体，切断癌细胞的能量供应，从而有效杀死癌细胞。The Rochester researchers found that resveratrol made tumour cells more sensitive to cancer-destroying radiation while rendering healthy cells less susceptible. Published in this month's Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, their work suggests that a combination of red wine and conventional radiation or chemotherapy can be effective in killing cancer cells by crippling their mitochondria and so cutting off the cells' supply of energy.
罗彻斯特大学医学中心放射肿瘤学主任保罗•奥库涅夫(Paul Okunieff)表示，尽管没有对常规治疗期间的红酒饮用量进行过认真研究，但饮用红酒是可以的。他认为，最好的办法是，患者想喝多少红酒或紫葡萄汁， 就让他们喝多少。Paul Okunieff, head of radiation oncology at the university's medical centre, said that although red wine consumption during conventional treatment had not been well studied it was not prohibited. He suggested the best approach was to let the patient drink as much red wine or purple grape juice as he or she wanted.
2008年3月30日 星期日
2008年3月16日 星期日
日本のＮＧＯ品質指導: 東帝文 咖啡豆
| 東ティモール首都ディリで、西部エルメラ県で収穫されたコーヒー豆を手にする「ピースウィンズ・ジャパン」の金丸智昭さん |
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大統領襲撃事件が発生した東ティモールでは、非常事態宣言が延長され、今も政情不安が続く。国内避難民キャンプが広がる首都ディリでは、若者の失 業率が５０％以上といわれる。将来への展望を見いだしにくい中で、日本のＮＧＯが「輸出産品の主力」といわれるコーヒーの生産者支援を続け、時間のかかる 国づくりの一端を担っている。 （ディリで、吉枝道生）
同国が石油・天然ガス以外の輸出産品として力を入れているのが、コーヒーだ。国民の四人に一人がコーヒーにかかわって収入を得ているといわれるほど。
ＮＧＯ「ピースウィンズ・ジャパン」東ティモール事務所では、二〇〇二年からコーヒー生産者の支援を続けている。当初はさまざまな収入向上事業を試みたが、商品を作っても国内に購買力がなく、結局は輸出産品に目を向けたという。
支援しているのは、ディリから車で二時間ほどのエルメラ県レテフォホ郡にある六つの村で、コーヒー生産を手がける二百三十三世帯が対象となっている。
同国のコーヒーは、シェードツリー（日陰樹）と呼ばれる木々に覆われた森の中で育ち、化学肥料や農薬は一切使われていない。完全な有機農産物であり、品種改良も行われていない希少な品種という。
国際競争に勝ち抜くには、品質で勝負するしかない。高品質のコーヒーをつくり、フェアトレード（公正な貿易）商品として輸出する。「専門家にも品 質が評価されるようになった」と、現地事業責任者の金丸智昭さん（４１）は話す。収穫や精製方法などをきめ細かく指導して、品質管理に力を入れてきた成果 だ。最初は年三トンだった輸出量も豊作の年には二十六トンまでになった。日本の大手ファミリーレストランも協力して購入してくれている。
しかし、現地での成果はなかなか目には見えにくい。生産者の約六割は読み書きができず、計算もできない。収入がどのように増えているのかも分かりにくい。それでも「自分たちのコーヒーが遠い国で喜ばれているということが誇りにつながっている」という。
ディリでは、仕事のない地方から若者が流入して失業率をさらに押し上げる。二十年以上にわたってインドネシアに併合されていた同国は、行政執行能力の高い人材が不足しており、国家運営にも苦しんでいる。地方では、教育、医療、インフラなどの整備が遅々として進まない。
金丸さんは「今は国際治安部隊などの圧倒的な武力で抑えているが、火種をずっと抱えたままの状態。課題は山積しているが、長期的に多様なプロジェクトを進めていくしかない」と説明する。そのためにも、地方が力をつけることが大切だという。
昨年は天候の関係で不作だったが、「ことしは豊作が期待できます」と目を細める。コーヒーの収穫が始まるのは、五月からだ。
2008年3月10日 星期一
Vietnam Culture by the Glass
Vietnam Culture by the Glass
Neil Katz for The New York Times
Hanoi's Highway 4, part of a chain that brews more than 20 unique Vietnamese liqueurs.
Many people go to Vietnam for the food, for the beaches, for the history. My wife and I went there to drink.
It was that liquid pilgrimage that found us rumbling down a windy dirt road in Vietnam’s northern mountains on a crystal January day. Our target, Vietnam’s homemade rice wines and Sa Pa, a stunning mountain town less than 200 miles northwest of Hanoi, near Lao Cai. Once a 19th-century retreat for the French elite, today it is home to mostly ethnic minorities like the colorful Black Hmong and Red Dzao, who have been making rice wine in the same simple fashion for generations.
Indeed, rice is the crop of life there. Nearly every inch of available land is used to cultivate it. And for the Black Hmong, according to our guide, a young Hmong woman from the area, accepting rice wine in a buffalo horn is a vital part of their courting ritual.
In Sa Pa’s mountainous environs, steep valley walls are terraced with the crop’s beautiful geometries. Small wooden huts dot the valley floor, revealing a communal life that, despite motorcycles and the occasional satellite TV, still churns at its own pace. In one such village, Ta Van, we found Huong Van Thi tending to a large steaming pot of rice.
Ms. Huong’s family has been making rice wine as far back as anyone can remember. Her neighbors claim it’s some of the best. They should know. They buy 70 liters of it a week.
Inside her wood-slatted shack, the air was thick with yeasty smoke. Ms. Huong threw long sticks into a small fire as she explained her provincial technique.
First, she boils rice in a huge metal pot, then ferments it with yeast and lets it sit for two weeks. The fermented rice is boiled again and alcohol rises from it as steam. A pan of cold water on top of the pot cools the rising steam, condensing it into a warm potent liquid ready for drinking.
Others make it faster, but Ms. Huong claims her slow fermentation “makes the wine taste and smell better, with no side effects, no headaches.”
Our first taste came straight from the pot. It was warm, smelled of flowers and went down easily. Local residents pay 10,000 dong for a liter, about 62 cents at 16,000 dong to the dollar. We gladly paid a little more.
We had gone to Sa Pa by overnight train from the capital of Hanoi, where life moves at breakneck speed.
Vietnam’s economy has almost doubled in the last 10 years, and on Hanoi’s leafy boulevards it shows. The occasional Porsche or Hummer mixes with the swarm of motor bikes. A Louis Vuitton outlet competes with its knock-off neighbors and still has customers.
So it makes sense that while tourists flood the country in search of 50-cent beers — and find them — there is an emerging class of Vietnamese seeking a more refined tipple.
━━ v. （酒を）よく（習慣的に）飲む.
━━ n. 酒.
tip・pler ━━ n. 大酒飲み.
“In our restaurant, a Vietnamese spends so much more money than a foreigner,” said Marcus Madeja, owner of Highway 4, a stylish chain that brews more than 20 unique Vietnamese liqueurs. “Four lads can drink four bottles of liquor while a foreigner is already looking at the card — ‘Oh, that’s $3, I’ll take the French fries for a dollar fifty.’ ”
Highway 4 is the love child of the Swiss-born Mr. Madeja and his Vietnamese wife, Thoa Vu Thi. Their Son Tinh brand of aperitifs claims to blend native rice wines with Swiss engineering. That pitch may sound like a car commercial, but the results are very good.
An apricot liqueur was pleasantly tart with a touch of sweet and a light floral scent. An herbal variety blends more than 20 roots and purports to be a recipe stolen from Emperor Minh Mang’s cellar in Hue. (Mang, a 19th-century monarch who enraged Europe by booting out Christian missionaries, mythically had a 500-woman harem and likely needed a tonic or two to sire his more than 100 children.)
Of course, few Vietnamese have the luxury of making their own love potions. For that, many still turn to traditional elixirs like snake wine or snake blood. According to lore, snake blood delivers an amphetamine-like shock to the heart and snake wine connects jumper cables to the loins. People also believe they clean the blood and soothe lower-back pain.
Snake wine can be purchased in most parts of the country. Blood is a bit harder to find. In the snake-rich Mekong Delta we got our fix of both.
Thuy Van is a dusty canteen in the small, bustling river city of My Tho, about 40 miles southwest of Ho Chi Minh City. Past rows of giant amber liquid-filled jars stuffed with cobras, scorpions and black bird heads, we found the proprietor, Nguyen Yan, tending to a giant blue tub brimming with water snakes.
Mr. Nguyen gave us a toothy smile and stuck his arm deep into the writhing pile of snakes. He is choosy, and he rejected a few sub-par reptiles before finally emerging with a satisfactory specimen. He casually walked to the kitchen, picked up a pair of scissors, snipped the snake’s head clean off and stretched its open neck into a plastic cup. Mr. Nguyen then handed the snake to a young woman, leaving her to finish draining its blood while he snipped fresh ginger into long, thin strips — the sole addition to the glasses of blood.
At our table, the blood was served in a small pitcher with shot glasses. Still warm and slightly thick, it tasted of brine and light smoke. My lips tasted of fire, a flame that would not extinguish for hours. My heart raced, but managed to stay in my chest. My wife wisely sat this one out.
Still reeling from the snake blood, we discovered nothing is wasted.
A steaming metal pot arrived with heaping plates of whole scallions and watercress, then smaller dishes of spicy fish sauce and fresh cut green chilies. In the pot, a fragrant rice porridge, smelling strongly of ginger and lemongrass, showed giant chunks of button mushrooms and our newly departed snake. His bones came separately, deep-fried. Locals eat them like potato chips.
To finish the meal, shots of snake wine were served. The name is a misnomer. The liquor is made from rice and has the horsepower of a whiskey. Snakes or other animals are added later to soak in the brew.
It’s pure firewater, and by Vietnamese standards, it’s not cheap. A quarter liter of the good stuff goes for 70,000 dongs. For real players, a Costco-size jug of King Cobra runs 11,500,000 dongs — over $700. But considering that it has enough firepower to sire a small village, it’s not a bad deal at all.
2008年3月8日 星期六
2008年3月2日 星期日
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