Heffley J D, Williams R J
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1974 Oct;71(10):4164-8. doi: 10.1073/pnas.71.10.4164.
no nutrient by itself should be expected to prevent or cure any disease; nutrients as such always work cooperatively in metabolism as a team.By feeding galactose-containing diets to young rats, cataracts are regularly produced. When, however, we furnished galactose-fed animals with what may be considered a well balanced, full team of nutrients, cataract prevention was accomplished. On four galactose-containing diets supplied with a full team of nutrients, not a single cataract developed in 24 rats (48 eyes). On four diets using the same dietary galactose challenge, accompanied with inadequate nutritional teams, 47 out of 48 eyes developed cataracts. Diets of intermediate quality induced the development of intermediate numbers of cataracts. Cataracts once formed were regressed slowly and incompletely by shifting the animals to a diet similar to that which had previously been found to protect against cataract formation. The significance of these findings for nutritional research and for attacks on the problems of human cataracts and other ailments is discussed.
不应期望任何一种营养素本身就能预防或治愈任何疾病；营养素在新陈代谢中总是协同发挥作用，就像一个团队。通过给幼鼠喂食含半乳糖的饮食，通常会引发白内障。然而，当我们为食用半乳糖的动物提供一组可被认为是营养均衡的完整营养素时，白内障得到了预防。在四组提供完整营养素的含半乳糖饮食中，24只大鼠（48只眼睛）没有一只出现白内障。在四组使用相同饮食半乳糖挑战但营养组合不充足的饮食中，48只眼睛中有47只出现了白内障。中等质量的饮食导致中等数量的白内障形成。一旦形成白内障，通过将动物转移到一种类似于先前发现可预防白内障形成的饮食中，白内障会缓慢且不完全地消退。本文讨论了这些发现对营养研究以及解决人类白内障和其他疾病问题的意义。
