Vitamins 维他命
Helen: Hello. Welcome to Ask About Britain from BBC Learning English. I’m Helen.
Feifei: 大家好，我是菲菲。欢迎收听BBC的《英国问答》节目。
Helen: Any questions you have about British life and culture, we’ll try to answer them in this programme.
Feifei: 今天来自云南音乐广播电台的一位听友提出了这么一个问题。他问有些中国人有每天吃一粒复合维生素的习惯，英国人也是这样吗？这个复合维生素在英语里就是multivitamin tablets, 对不对Helen?
Helen: Correct. Multivitamin tablets. You can buy them very easily in supermarkets or pharmacies. And the question from our listener is whether British people take multivitamins every day?
Feifei: Do you take them every day?
Helen: No, I don’t take them every day. But I can’t speak for everyone, so let’s meet someone who can tell us more.
Insert
My name is Louis Brassy. I’m a so-called general practitioner doctor in the centre of London. I’m one of two doctors working in our clinic and between us we have, let’s say, 3,500 patients.
Feifei: Dr. Brassy 是一位家庭医生，他和另一个家庭医生在伦敦市中心开了一家诊所，大概有3,500 名登记的病人。
Helen: It’s a very busy clinic and Dr. Brassy is an experienced family doctor. So let’s hear what he thinks about taking multivitamin tablets.
Feifei: 好的，让我们来听听英国的家庭医生对每天服用维生素的这个问题有什么看法。
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Is it common? It’s certainly not as common as the Americans. Most American patients that I know would religiously take vitamins every day.
Feifei: Dr. Brassy 用美国人做了一个比较，英国人不像美国人那么普遍，每天都会服用维生素。他所认识的美国病人几乎每人每天都吃维生素。
Helen: The American patients would religiously take vitamins every day. They rarely forget to take them.
Feifei: 但是Dr. Brassy 并不认为吃维生素就能解决问题。
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We always make the point that, outside overt vitamin deficiencies for specific vitamins, which is kind of rare, just taking multivitamins there’s no evidence they will provide any benefits to your healthcare. And in fact lots of the studies which have been done have actually shown there’s a slight increase in cancers for taking multivitamins.
Helen: Overt vitamin deficiencies for specific vitamins are rare.
Feifei: Overt 就是明显的， deficiency 不足，缺乏。Dr. Brassy 说明显的缺少某种维他命的情况是很少的。
Helen: There’s no evidence to say that taking multivitamins will provide benefits to people’s health.
Feifei: Evidence 证据，目前没有证据显示单单靠吃复合维生素对健康有益。他说根据一些调查研究，复合维生素还有可能增加患癌症cancer 的几率。那怎么办啊？
Helen: So what does Dr. Brassy tell his patients?
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In the absence of any evidence, we do supply them if people really insist, but we certainly don’t offer them on a routine basis and we don’t really recommend them.
Feifei: 在西方医学界里讲的就是证据，在没有证据的情况下in the absence of any evidence, Dr. Brassy 不赞成服用复合维生素。
Helen: No, he and the other doctor at the clinic don’t recommend patients taking multivitamins. They are not offered on a routine basis.
Feifei: Routine basis 一般情况下， 医生不推荐服用维生素。
Helen: However if people really insist, then he’ll let them have it.
Feifei: Insist 坚持意见，如果有病人坚决要吃维生素，那么Dr. Brassy 还是会批给病人的。
Helen: So what can we do, how can we make sure we get all the vitamins we need to stay healthy?
Insert
Lots of studies have shown over and over again, that a balanced diet will provide all the vitamins that a human needs under normal circumstances, and really it's only in certain kind of very specific medical conditions that people do need to take vitamin supplements, from our point of view.
Feifei: 这么说，关键是均衡的饮食。
Helen: Yes, a balanced diet will provide all the vitamins that we need under normal circumstances.
Feifei: 一般情况下normal circumstances, 在饮食上注意合理的搭配，就不会缺少任何维生素了。
Helen: And a balanced diet means a bit of everything.
Feifei: 好了，希望今天我们回答了英国人对每天服用复合维生素的看法。至于是不是应该吃复合维生素，那就看大家自己的决定了。
Helen: Well, if you enjoyed our programme, there’s more Ask About Britain questions on our website.
Feifei: 我们的网址是www.bbcchina.com.cn 然后点击英语教学。谢谢收听，我们下次节目再见。
Helen: Join us next time. Bye bye.
英语单词小笔记：
1. clinic诊所
2. General Practitioner 家庭医生
3. overt 明显的
4. deficiency 缺少
5. in the absence of any evidence 缺乏证明
6. recommend 推荐
7. over and over again 一次又一次的
8. supplements 辅助品，附加品