What is flexitarian?

What kind of food do you eat? Are you conscious of the types of food you consume or do you stuff yourself silly with whatever is available? Today, we are constantly bombarded with media reports about research on the right diet to follow to help us maintain a healthy lifestyle or lose weight - but it's hard to know which one to pick and, once chosen, it's harder still to stick to it.  And now there's another choice to get our teeth into.
你吃什么样的食物？你是有意识地选择食物种类，还是有什么吃什么，填饱肚子就行？如今，我们不断被媒体报道的关于正确饮食的研究轰炸，这些研究可以帮助我们保持健康的生活方式或减肥，但我们很难知道该选择哪一种，一旦选择了，坚持下去就更难了。  现在，我们又有了新的选择。

A flexitarian diet involves eating plant-based foods and only occasionally eating meat and fish. You might think this is a halfway house to being a vegetarian by not completely abstaining from meat. But if vegetarianism is hard to swallow and you fancy chomping on the occasional lean steak, then this could be the choice for you.
弹性素食包括吃植物性食物，只偶尔吃肉和鱼。你可能会认为这是成为素食者的折中办法，因为你不能完全戒除肉类。但是，如果素食主义很难接受，而你又想偶尔吃一块瘦牛排，那么这可能是你的选择。

This eating style allows you to supplement some ingredients that you wouldn't get in a stricter vegan diet – another trend growing in popularity. And like veganism, flexitarianism isn't about eating carefully to help you lose a few pounds - it's something people choose for ethical reasons, to help the planet. And a study into the global food system and how it affects the climate, has found that eating mainly plant-based foods is one of three key steps towards a sustainable future for all by 2050.
这种饮食方式可以让你补充一些在严格的纯素食中无法获得的成分——这也是另一种日益流行的趋势。与纯素食主义一样，弹性素食主义并不是为了减肥而精打细算，而是人们出于道德原因，为了帮助地球而选择的一种饮食方式。一项关于全球食品体系及其如何影响气候的研究发现，主要食用植物性食物是到2050年实现人类可持续未来的三个关键步骤之一。

This research found that food waste will need to be halved and farming practices will also have to improve to achieve this. But without a single solution, a combined approach is needed. Dr Marco Springmann from the University of Oxford was one of the lead authors of the report. He told the BBC "We really found that a combination of measures would be needed to stay within environmental limits and those include changes towards healthier more plant-based diets."
这项研究发现，为了实现这一目标，需要将食物浪费减半，而且还必须改进耕作方法。但是如果没有一个单一的解决方案，就需要一个组合的方法。牛津大学的马可 · 斯普林曼博士是该报告的主要作者之一。他告诉 BBC: “我们确实发现，要想保持在环境限制范围内，需要采取综合措施，其中包括改变饮食习惯，使之更健康，更以植物为基础。”

But whereas vegans think it's wrong for animals to be killed for food, flexitarians believe eating meat once in a while is acceptable. And Dr Springmann agrees - as long as we "treat it as a luxury, it's probably OK but you shouldn’t have more than one serving of red meat, which includes beef and pork, per week." And here's another fact to digest: If we moved to this type of diet, the study found that greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture would be cut by more than half.  
但是，素食主义者认为杀死动物作为食物是错误的，而弹性素食者则认为偶尔吃肉是可以接受的。斯普林曼博士对此表示赞同——只要我们“把它当作一种奢侈品，这可能没问题，但你每周不应该吃超过一份红肉，包括牛肉和猪肉。还有另一个需要消化的事实：如果我们转向这种饮食方式，研究发现农业的温室气体排放量将减少一半以上。

词汇表
stuff yourself 大吃大喝
diet 日常饮食
get your teeth into something 专注做某事
flexitarian 弹性素食者
plant-based 植物性的，基于植物的
halfway house 折中办法
vegetarian 素食者
abstain 节制
hard to swallow （双关语）难以下咽，令人难以接受
chomp  大声地咀嚼
lean （肉）瘦的
supplement 补充，增加
ingredient （食品的）成分，食材
vegan 纯素食主义者（不食用、不使用任何动物产品）
veganism 纯素食主义
flexitarianism 弹性素食主义
ethical 道德的
food waste 食品浪费
serving （饭食的）一份
red meat 红肉（由指牛肉、猪肉、羊肉）
digest （双关语）消化，理解
greenhouse gas emissions 温室气体排放

🌟 更多英语听力见公众号【琐简英语】，回复"1"可进【打卡交流群】