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Nearly three decades ago, when I was an overweight teenager, I sometimes ate six pieces of sliced white toast in a row, each one slathered in butter or jam.
将近三十年前，我那时还是一个身材肥胖的青少年，我有时会连吃六片白吐司切片，每片都厚涂黄油或果酱。
I remember the spongy texture of the bread as I took it from its plastic bag.
当我把面包从塑料袋里取出时，我还记得面包那松软的口感。
No matter how much of this supermarket toast I ate, I hardly felt sated. It was like eating without really eating.
不管我吃了多少超市的烤面包，我都不觉得食欲被满足了。吃了就像没有吃一样。
Other days, I would buy a box of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes or a tube of Pringles: sour cream and onion flavour stackable snack chips, which were an exciting novelty at the time, having only arrived in the UK in 1991.
其他时候，我会买一盒脆坚果玉米片或一管品客薯片: 酸奶油味和洋葱味可堆叠的零食薯片，这在当时是一种令人兴奋的新奇事物，1991年才进入英国。
Although the carton was big enough to feed a crowd, I could demolish most of it by myself in a sitting.
虽然包装盒大到可以喂饱一群人，但我每次吃就能炫一大半。
Each chip, with its salty and powdery sour cream coating, sent me back for another one.
每一片薯片都裹着一层咸味粉状的酸奶油，让我回来又吃了一片。
I loved the way the chips – curved like roof tiles – would dissolve slightly on my tongue.
我喜欢薯片——如屋顶瓦片般弯曲——在我的舌头上微微融化的样子。
After one of these binges – because that is what they were – I would speak to myself with self-loathing.
在一次这样的大吃大喝后——因为以往就是如此——我厌恶地对自己说。
“What is wrong with you?” I would say to the tear-stained face in the mirror. I blamed myself for my lack of self-control.
“你是怎么了?” 我会对着镜子里那张泪痕斑斑的脸说。我责备自己缺乏自控力。
But now, all these years later, having mostly lost my taste for sliced bread, sugary cereals and snack chips, I feel I was asking myself the wrong question.
但现在，这么多年后，我对切片面包、含糖麦片和零食薯片已经基本上没了胃口，我觉得自己问错了问题。
It shouldn’t have been “What is wrong with you?” but “What is wrong with this food?”
不应该是“你是怎么了?”而是“这吃的是怎么了?”
Back in the 90s, there was no word to cover all the items I used to binge on.
早在90年代，没有一个词能涵盖我曾狂吃的所有品类。
Some of the things I over-ate – crisps or chocolate or fast-food burgers – could be classified as junk food, but others, such as bread and cereal, were more like household staples.
我猛吃的一些食物——薯片、巧克力、快餐汉堡——可以被归类为垃圾食品，但其他的，比如面包和麦片，则更像是家庭必需品。
These various foods seemed to have nothing in common except for the fact that I found them very easy to eat a lot of, especially when sad.
这些不同的食物似乎没有什么共同点，除了我发现它们很容易吃很多，尤其是在悲伤的时候。
As I ate my Pringles and my white bread, I felt like a failure for not being able to stop.
我一边吃品客薯片和白面包，一边觉得停不下来吃，自己是个失败者。
I had no idea that there would one day be a technical explanation for why I found them so hard to resist.
我不知道有一天会有一个科学说明来解释为什么我发现它们如此难以抗拒。
The word is “ultra-processed” and it refers to foods that tend to be low in essential nutrients, high in sugar, oil and salt and liable to be overconsumed.
这个词是“超加工食品”，它指的是那些基本营养素含量低，高糖、高油、高盐，容易被过量食用的食物。
