お酢の想い出/TIME誌（酢の健康効果）を読んで

授業では、主にTIME誌等からの記事読んでもらい、英語でお話しをして頂いていますが、今回は、健康に関する記事で、「酢の効用」というものを読んで頂いています。

ネイティブ向けの記事ですので、内容は、おなじみの酢に関してですが、英語は、やはり、なかなかの歯ごたえですが、想像力も駆使しながら、頑張って読んで頂いています。

以前にご友人の勧めで酢を飲んでいたという、生徒様とのやりとりなどを、英語でエッセイ風に書きましたので、お読み頂ければと思います。英文の後に、日本語でも書いておりますので、どんな感じかが、お分かり頂けると思います。

We read news articles and discuss various topics in English in our lessons. We found an interesting article about vinegar in the TIME magazine. Vinegar is a condiment (seasoning) that has surprising health benefits.

Is vinegar good for high blood pressure?（お酢の想い出。酢は高血圧に効く？）

By Toshihiro Kimura

One student said in the lesson that he often drank vinegar when he was younger, because one of his friends told him vinegar was good for health, especially for high blood pressure. The friend said vinegar was good for lowering blood pressure. He didn't know if it was really good or not, but kept drinking it anyway. He later stopped drinking vinegar, not because it was too sour, but because of its high price. The vinegar recommended by his friend was a very special vinegar and it was a little too expensive. He thought he didn't want to waste money, so he stopped that habit of drinking it. Did the vinegar help? He was not very sure. His blood pressure got better, but he was also taking medications for high blood pressure, so he was not sure which of them worked. He doesn't drink vinegar for health anymore, but he likes to put vinegar on hard fried noodles served at a restaurant. He says vinegar goes very well with hard fried noodles.

Did vinegar make my father flexible? （体が硬い父が、開脚？）

His story made me think about my parents, who liked drinking vinegar for health. They often put vinegar into a glass and drank it. I could never do that as a little kid then, because it was too sour for me. They enjoyed drinking vinegar. They believed that it's good for health, and that vinegar can make us flexible physically. Can we really have a soft, flexible body by drinking vinegar? I wondered. That's what many people believed before. Not now anymore, perhaps. That belief is not probably based on science. But it's interesting to see what happened to my parents after drinking vinegar. Nothing seemed to have happned to my mother. But what about my father? Look at how flexible he got! He was able to do "the splits", which means he could spread his legs widely, bend over forward and put his head on the floor. How did he get so flexible? Was it a power of vinegar? True, he loved to drink vinegar. But he never missed doing some stretching every day. He was not a flexible man at all. Rather, he was a very inflexible type, physically. Streching made him a flexible man. Practice makes perfect. Did vinegar help? Probaly not. Or it did a little, perhaps.

Various health benefits （こんなにある酢の効用）

Anyway, vinegar is good for health. It has many health benefits, as the magazine shows. Followings are health benefits of vinegar.

・Vinegar can support our gut health, which means you will have a lot of good bacteria in your intestestines. You will have healthy intestines. It's very important to have good and healthy intestines for your overall health.

・Vinegar can improve your immunity. It means your body becomes stronger and the immunity protects your body from getting sick. Your immune system works to fight off infections and diseases. The article shows an interesting example of using vinegar. A woman (she is a resercher) in London carries a small bottle of vinegar. When she gets on the subway (tube), and if someone is coughing or sneezing, she quickly takes our the bottle and drinks vinegar. Why? That way she thinks she can protect herself from getting a cold. She thinks vinegar can keep germs away. I don't know if it really works, but if works for her, anyway.

Other health benefits include heart health, and surprisingly, vinegar can help with our mental health. If you have depression, vinegar can ease the depression and take the depression away. Vinegar can also help with your digestion, which means it's good for your stomach. Vinegar can help to digest food well.

There are a lot of health benefits of drinking or eating vinegar. But we should not consume too much of it. Remember, vinegar is an acid. Things melt with acid. Too much of it is not good. As for vinegar, the more the better is not true. We must know the right amout of vinegar for us. That depends on the person. Too much is not good. Too little is not good, either. Anyway, with all the health benefits shown in the magazine, drinking vinegar seems worth a try, even if it won't make you physically flexible!

お酢の想い出と健康効果（日本語）

ある生徒さんは、高血圧に効くと聞き、以前に友人の勧めで、酢を飲んでいたのですが、ちょっと特殊な酢で、高いので飲むのをやめたそうですが、薬も飲んでいたので、血圧が下がっても、酢か薬の効果がわからなかった、と笑っておられました。

私個人の酢の想い出は、両親で、父も母も、酢をよくコップに入れて、グイっと飲んでいました。とても酸っぱくて、私には真似できませんでしたが、健康にいいと思って、親は飲んでいました。迷信でしょうが、当時は酢で、体が柔軟になる、とよく言われており、体の固い父は、それもあって酢を好んでいたのかもしれません。熱心に柔軟体操に励んだ後、後年、体の固い父は、何と、１８０度開脚（do the splits) できるようになりました。酢の効用では、ないとは思いますが。

TIME誌に、様々な酢の効能が紹介されています。腸内環境を整えたり、免疫力を高めるそうで、ある研究者は、酢の健康効果を信じており、ロンドンで地下鉄に乗る際、近くの人が風邪を引いて咳などをしていると、すぐに持参している酢を口に含むと、記事にありました。そんなので効くかなと思いますが、まあコミカルで面白い例ですね。

他にも、効能として、メンタル面でも酢は効くそうで、ウツにも効果があったり、心臓（血圧降下）にも良く、食べ物の消化を促進するなど、様々な効能があるようです。

とはいえ、酢は酸なので、過ぎたるは及ばざるがごとし。やはり適量というものがあり、バランスが大切です。酢には様々な健康効果があるようですので、試す価値がありそうですね、体が柔らかくなる効果は、ないでしょうが。

酢の効用について書かれた記事のリンクです。ご興味ありましたら、読んでみて下さい。(Give it a try!)　↓

Why vinegar is so good for you? （TIME magazine)