Protein is everywhere. It’s in your morning yoghurt, your mid-afternoon snack bar, your post-gym shake – even in your coffee. Walk down any supermarket aisle and you’ll see it stamped across packaging in bold, confident fonts: high protein, extra protein, 12g per serving. The message is simple, repeated so often it feels like fact: eat more protein and you’ll be healthier, stronger, better.

      蛋白质无处不在。早餐酸奶、午后能量棒、健身后代餐奶昔里都有它，甚至连咖啡里也添加了蛋白质。走过超市任意一条货架通道，你都会看到包装上用醒目加粗的字体印着：高蛋白、额外添加蛋白、每份含12克蛋白质。这套宣传理念简单直白，反复灌输之下几乎成了既定事实：多吃蛋白质，你就会更健康、更强健、状态更好。

But what if that message isn’t quite true?

      但倘若这套说法并不完全靠谱呢？

According to new research, the modern obsession⁽¹⁾ with protein may have far less to do with what our bodies actually need – and far more to do with how we’ve been taught to think about food in the first place.

      与此同时，现代科学愈发认同亚里士多德的观点。大量证据表明，睡眠对认知、情绪调节、免疫、新陈代谢及社会联结等诸多关键机能至关重要。睡眠能清除大脑代谢废物、精简突触连接，并最大化认知处理的效率。

最新研究表明，现代人对蛋白质的痴迷，其实和身体的实际需求关联并不大，更多源于我们从小到大被灌输的饮食观念。

     “Protein has gained an outsized stature,” says Samantha King, who, with Gavin Weedon, is co-author of Protein: The Making of a Nutritional Superstar. “There seems to be no limit to the problems it can be mobilised⁽²⁾ to solve. Want to lose weight? Eat more protein. Want to gain weight? Do exactly the same thing! Protein for dull skin, ageing, energy, satiety⁽³⁾, recovery, cognition⁽⁴⁾, and so on.”

      萨曼莎・金与加文・威登合著了《蛋白质：营养明星的诞生》一书，她表示：“蛋白质被过分神化了。仿佛没有什么问题是蛋白质解决不了的。想减肥？多吃蛋白质。想增重？还是多吃蛋白质！皮肤暗沉、衰老乏力、补充精力、增加饱腹感、身体恢复、提升认知能力等等，全都靠蛋白质。”

     Once associated primarily⁽⁵⁾ with muscle growth and repair, protein is now being marketed as a fix for almost every aspect of modern life. But King and Weedon see protein more as a solution in search of a problem; something that  is presented as a fix in the absence⁽⁶⁾ of a clear existing need.

       蛋白质原本主要和肌肉生长与修复相关，如今却被营销成能解决现代生活方方面面问题的万能良方。但金和威登认为，蛋白质更像是为了找用途而强行凑功效：明明没有明确的刚需，却被包装成必备好物。

      “We don’t need all this additional protein,” says King, a professor at the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies, Queen’s University.

       皇后大学运动机能与健康研究学院教授金直言：“我们根本不需要额外补充这么多蛋白质。”

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