Conscious解神志清醒的，例如︰The patient was still conscious when he was admitted to the hospital.(病人入院時仍然清醒。)名詞是consciousness，例如︰He never regains consciousness after the surgery.(他在手術後一直昏迷。)
      Conscious亦解意識到的、察覺到的，例如︰The public has become more safety-conscious.(公眾的安全意識越來越高。)Health-conscious則是健康的意識。
      社會富庶進步，就會越來越health-conscious。對吃的食物、喝的水、呼吸的空氣、生活方式的要求便相應提高。食物供應商也因應這股健康潮，推出各式迎合需求的產品，而推廣、包裝所用的方法和字眼，亦是凸顯大眾喜歡的、追捧的健康概念。
      一時間，低糖、低鹽、低膽固醇、低卡路里、低脂、高纖維、高Omega 3、不含人造色素、天然、有機等字眼充斥超市貨架上林林總總的產品。但這些claims(聲稱)，背後對健康的真正意義是什麼呢？

      Reduced salt ≠ 鹽份低
      有專家便為這些流行健康食物形容詞解碼。例如鹽份，除了用salt，食物包裝上也會用sodium來代表鹽。看到"reduced salt"或"reduced sodium"(鹽份減低)是否便可以呢？專家說，reduced salt或reduced sodium原則上是好的，但須留意：
      It is still important to check the actual(實際的) sodium content on the Nutrition Facts label(標籤). If the original product contains 800 milligrams(毫克) of sodium per serving, the "reduced salt" version could still contain as much as 600 milligrams of salt. In this instance, the "low in salt" product would be the healthier choice, assuming(假定) serving sizes were the same.
      Reduced salt，鹽份減低，不一定等於鹽份低。鹽份有多低，要看這產品的普通裝含鹽量若干。若原本含八百毫克，減低鹽份版本就會低於八百毫克，可能是五百、六百，又或七百毫克。故最終要看包裝上成分列表上的實際含鹽量才準確。不過若你一向都是買原裝產品，改買reduced salt的版本就一定可以幫你減低鹽的攝取量。

      “有機、天然”必健康？
      目前食物廣告流行的另一個字是organic。Organic解有機，而organic的意思是：
      A way of farming that avoids the use of synthetic fertilizers(合成的肥料) or pesticides(殺蟲劑), growth regulators(調控劑) (substance used to modify the natural growth of a plant) and livestock feed addictives(添加劑) such as antibiotics(抗生素).
      吃organic food令人心理上較舒服。因為它標榜在種植瓜菜或飼養牲畜的過程中不用化學劑。化學劑給人的感覺是毒物，吃進肚裏自然覺得有問題。但organic food是否健康卻有不同意見，包括：
      As with the "natural"(自然) claim, "organic" doesn't necessarily mean "healthy." Studies have failed to show significant(重大的) health benefits can be derived(來自) from the consumption of organic food.
      與natural和organic一樣，這派的學說認為"no artificial flavors"(不含味精)，也不一定代表食物較健康。無論你信哪一派專家，being health-conscious，意食物的成分，始終比掉以輕心優勝。若你也留意食物和健康，或會被George Mateljan的The World's Healthiest Foods, Essential Guide for the Healthiest Way of Eating 這本書的標題吸引。文︰子慧