新加坡研發(fā)出益生菌啤酒 可改善腸道健康

酷熱的夏天來一杯冰爽的啤酒可謂人生一大樂事，現(xiàn)在科學(xué)家研發(fā)出了一種益生菌啤酒，可以改善你的免疫系統(tǒng)，消滅體內(nèi)的病原體和毒素，讓你喝喝更健康。

If you needed yet another reason to drink beer, science just gave it to you. Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) just developed a new type of probiotic beer which could improve your immune system and neutralize pathogens and toxins.

如果喝啤酒還需要理由的話，科學(xué)家可以給你個(gè)理由。新加坡國立大學(xué)研究人員剛剛研發(fā)了一種新型的益生菌啤酒，這種啤酒可以改善你的免疫系統(tǒng)，消除體內(nèi)的病原體和毒素。

The idea of developing a healthy, probiotic beer, came from Miss Chan Mei Zhi Alcine, a fourth-year student from the Food Science and Technology Programme at the NUS Faculty of Science. Chan realized that while the market abounds with dairy-based probiotics, there’s another huge untapped market for probiotics: beer. Due to its nature, beer is a fertile ground for probiotics, and the craft beer phenomenon has been growing at a staggering rate in many parts of the world — so why not blend the two?

研發(fā)健康的益生菌啤酒這一靈感來源于新加坡國立大學(xué)理學(xué)院食品科學(xué)技術(shù)系大四應(yīng)屆生陳美芝(音譯)。她意識到，盡管市場中有多種益生菌乳制品，但還有一塊巨大的益生菌市場尚未被開發(fā)，那就是啤酒。由于性質(zhì)使然，啤酒是益生菌的沃土。此外，在世界各地，精釀啤酒現(xiàn)象正以驚人速度增長著。那么，為何不將兩者合二為一呢?

“The health benefits of probiotics are well known. While good bacteria are often present in food that have been fermented, there are currently no beers in the market that contain probiotics. Developing sufficient counts of live probiotics in beer is a challenging feat as beers contain hop acids that prevent the growth and survival of probiotics. As a believer of achieving a healthy diet through consuming probiotics, this is a natural choice for me when I picked a topic for my final-year project,” said Miss Chan, who will be graduating in July 2017.

陳美芝在2017年7月份就要畢業(yè)了，她說：“益生菌的健康益處眾人皆知。雖然益生菌通常存在于已發(fā)酵的食物中，但在啤酒中培養(yǎng)足量活性益生菌非常具有挑戰(zhàn)性，因?yàn)槠【苹ㄋ釙?huì)殺死益生菌，因此目前市面上含有益生菌的啤酒相當(dāng)罕見。我相信人們可以通過食用益生菌來達(dá)到健康飲食，所以我自然而然地選擇這個(gè)主題來作為我最后一年的課題。”

Working with Associate Professor Liu Shao Quan, she used a strain of Lactobacillus paracasei called L26, which seems to be particularly promising. The probiotic gives a strong taste with pleasant aromas, and the beer itself is quite light — with only 3.5% alcohol.

她與教授劉紹泉(音譯)一起，選取了一種市場前景良好的微生物，名為L26的副干酪乳桿菌。因?yàn)樗鼤?huì)利用麥芽汁里的糖分，產(chǎn)生乳酸，使啤酒具有刺激性味道、并散發(fā)出芬芳。并且啤酒本身濃度較低，酒精濃度僅為3.5%。

“For this beer, we used a lactic acid bacterium as a probiotic microorganism,” explains Chan Mei Zhi Alcine, who developed the beer, in a statement. “It will utilise sugars present in the wort to produce sour-tasting lactic acid, resulting in a beer with sharp and tart flavors. The final product, which takes around a month to brew, has an alcohol content of about 3.5 percent.”

開發(fā)出這種啤酒的陳美芝在一份聲明中說：“對于這種啤酒，我們使用一種乳酸菌作為益生菌。它會(huì)利用麥芽汁的糖來產(chǎn)生酸味的乳酸，最后生產(chǎn)出帶有尖銳酸味的啤酒。釀造該產(chǎn)品需耗時(shí)一個(gè)月，其酒精含量約為3.5%。”

Now, we’ll be the first to breathe in a healthy dose of skepticism when it comes to probiotics. Studies have often been contradictory or inconclusive when it comes to probiotics, and they’re certainly given much more credit than they deserve on the market. However, Lactobacillus paracasei L26 was documented as having immune-boosting properties in mice — though this has yet to be confirmed in humans. They’ve already taken out a patent for the recipe to sell it commercially, which means we won’t be seeing a peer-reviewed study on the beer and a decisive verdict on its positive properties. Still, Liu is confident that the bacterium strain, which was isolated from the human gut, will make for a delicious and healthy beer, which he expects people to enjoy.

目前，就益生菌而言，我們提出的一些懷疑是合理的。因?yàn)殛P(guān)于益生菌的研究通常是矛盾或沒有確切結(jié)論的。在市場上，益生菌的作用被人們過分抬高了。不過副干酪乳桿菌L26的確能夠提高老鼠的免疫力——雖然這種效果在人類身上并沒有得到證實(shí)。陳美芝與劉紹泉教授已經(jīng)獲得了配方專利，以便進(jìn)行商業(yè)銷售。這意味著，我們不會(huì)看到同行有關(guān)該啤酒的評議研究，以及有關(guān)其益處的裁定書。但劉紹泉對這種從人體腸道中分離的菌株很有信心，他認(rèn)為這種益生菌將會(huì)釀造出深受人們喜愛的、美味而健康的啤酒。

“The general health benefits associated with consuming food and beverages with probiotic strains have driven demand dramatically. In recent years, consumption of craft or specialty beers has gained popularity too. Alcine’s invention is placed in a unique position that caters to these two trends. I am confident that the probiotic gut-friendly beer will be well-received by beer drinkers, as they can now enjoy their beers and be healthy.”

“攝入含益生菌的食品飲料所帶來的健康益處急劇推動(dòng)著市場需求。近幾年，精釀啤酒或特色啤酒也備受歡迎。陳美芝發(fā)明的益生菌啤酒其獨(dú)特之處在于它同時(shí)迎合了兩種潮流。我相信益生菌啤酒會(huì)大獲好評，因?yàn)槿藗冊谙碛闷【频耐瑫r(shí)也滿足了自身對健康的需要。”

It’s not the first attempt to create a beer with secondary healthy effects. In 2008, Rice University researchers brewed an “anti-cancer beer” though we haven’t heard much of it since. While not really the same approach, another cool project was delivered by a small brewery in Scandinavia — PangPang Brewery developed what they call the perfect shower beer. People have brewed beer for millennia, I’m really happy to see this type of innovations finally kicking in.

這并非首次有人試著釀造具有從屬健康功效的啤酒。2008年，萊斯大學(xué)的研究人員釀造出了一款“抗癌啤酒”，但后來，它就杳無音訊了。盡管采用的方法不同，但是斯堪的納維亞小型啤酒廠又開發(fā)出了另一個(gè)很酷的項(xiàng)目——PangPang啤酒廠研發(fā)出淋浴啤酒，這是一種專門為滿足人們洗澡時(shí)喝酒的欲望而研發(fā)的啤酒。人們釀造啤酒的歷史已有千年了，我很開心看到這種創(chuàng)新終于投入實(shí)踐。