2 . That artificial food dyes (染料) are unhealthy is not news. Some are known to cause hyperactivity (多动症) in some children, affecting their ability to learn. But regulatory agencies (监管机构) around the world don’t necessarily agree on which food dyes are a problem, or why. That may soon change. A 2021 peer-reviewed report by California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment concluded that artificial food dyes “cause or worsen neurobehavioral (神经行为的) problems in some children” and that the current levels that are regarded safe for consumption by the federal government are too high.

California is now considering requiring warning labels on food products and dietary supplements containing the seven most commonly used artificial dyes. The warning label requirement would put California on par with the European Union, which since 2010 has required food products containing certain artificial food dyes to carry warning labels about their negative effect on activity and attention in children.

Artificial dyes are used in foods for one reason: to make products look prettier. Bright colors make candies appealing, especially to kids. But dyes are also in chocolate cake mixes, salad dressings and other products that don’t seem to cry out for a color boost.

In Europe, it was the 2010 label lawmaking that triggered (引发) companies’ decisions to reformulate. “If you’re a company, you do not want to put a warning label on your product.” says Lefferts, an environmental health consultant. Warning labels are why European Starburst Fruit Chews are now colored with natural products, not the artificial dyes that brighten their North American counterparts (同类商品).

Given that artificial food dyes are used far more than needed, we need to be more cautious. After all, we don’t dye fresh fruits and vegetables, but we do dye candy and sprinkles, points out Joe Schwarcz, a chemistry professor at McGill University in Montreal. “The foods in which you find food dyes are foods that are poor in nutrition,” he says. “If you limit foods that contain food dyes, you automatically make your diet better.”

We all know that water is the source of life on Earth. No plant, insect, animal    1    human can survive without it. A new study from the National Institutes of Health highlights how important it is to our health. Researchers find that people    2    drink a lot of water everyday tend to stay     3    (fit) and live longer than those who don’t. The research team say drinking enough water is helpful to people     4    (affect) by illnesses related to ages, like heart and lung diseases. They add that it is more likely for adults    5    (poor) hydrated(补充水分) to show signs of ageing and even die at a younger age.

The researchers look at the health data from about 12, 000 adults over a 30-year period. They studied the information of patients who    6    (visit) a hospital five times in the past ten years. The first three times were when the patients were in    7    (they) 50s, and the last two times were when they were between 70 and 90. Dr. Natalia Dmitrieva, lead researcher of the study, said, “The    8    (result) suggest that proper hydration may slowdown ageing and make a disease-free life longer,” She calls    9    consuming more water, juice, fruit and vegetables with high water content. She said that half of the people worldwide didn’t drink enough in their daily life. According to her     10    (recommend), the average adult needs to drink at least 1.5 liters of water every day.

6 . I used to overeat. I’ve never been significantly overweight, so people are surprised to hear this. When you think of overeating, you think of someone who is above their natural weight range, right? Well, I used to purposefully undereat as well. I was able to keep my weight within some control, but only through a lot of physical and mental pain.

Here’s a glimpse(一瞥)into my life as a first-year university student:

Friday: Go to a party and eat a lot of chips. Feel guilty and regretful. Vow(发誓)to wake up and run an extra mile.

Saturday: Run 6 miles, come home and only eat a tiny breakfast. Eat like a bird for the rest of the day. Feel proud of myself.

Sunday: Study and snack on chocolate chips all day. Feel sick.

Monday: Head to class with no snack and no money so that I can’t buy any food. Feel hungry but full of willpower. Go home and overeat at dinner. Feel out of control.

My feelings were changing regularly. I was proud and in control one moment, and then full of regret and out of control the next. It was exhausting.

As I studied nutrition and human anatomy(人体解剖学)in university, I started to learn just how amazing the human body is! The human body is an amazing, self-regulatory system. It knows exactly how much food it needs. When I learned this, my whole world changed. I stopped trying to manage my eating with willpower. Instead of trying to power through my hunger, I would provide my body with healthy foods, so I would feel hungry less often.

This process definitely took some work and reflection, but after a while it became second nature. Eating has become a joyful experience, instead of a source of stress and worry in my life. All my eating is now guilt-free! I shamelessly eat unhealthy snacks without regret. Of course, the majority of my food intake does come from whole, healthy foods that are close to nature.

8 . People who frequently eat fruit are more likely to report greater positive mental health and are less likely to report symptoms of depression than those who do not, according to new research from the College of Health and Life Sciences, Aston University. The team also found that people who eat savoury (咸味的) snacks such as crisps (薯片), which are low in nutrients (营养) , are more likely to report greater levels of anxiety.

Published in the British Journal of Nutrition, the study surveyed 428 adults from across the UK and looked at the relationship between their consumption of fruit, vegetables, sweet and savoury snacks, and their psychological(心理的) health. The research found that both nutrient-rich fruit and nutrient-poor savoury snacks appeared to be linked to psychological health. They also found that there was no direct association between eating vegetables and psychological health. Based on the survey, the more often people ate fruit, the lower they scored for depression and the higher for mental health, independent of the overall quantity of fruit intake. By contrast, there was no link between these everyday memory lapses (差错) and fruit and vegetables intake or sweet snacks, suggesting a unique relationship between these nutrient-poor savoury snacks, everyday mental lapses, and psychological health.

Lead author, PhD student Nicola-Jayne Tuck commented, “Very little is known about how diet may affect mental health, and while we did not directly examine causality here, our findings could suggest that frequently snacking on nutrient-poor savoury foods may increase everyday mental loss, which in turn reduces psychological health.”

“It is possible that changing what we snack on could be a really simple way to improve our mental health. It is also possible that the future limit of processed (特殊处理的) snacks at checkouts, could not only improve the country’s physical health, but mental health too.”

“Overall, it’s definitely worth trying to get into the habit of reaching for the fruit bowl.”

10 . Eating chips, chocolates and cakes may damage a child’s intelligence, according to researchers at Bristol University. Their study suggests a link between diet high in processed(加工的) food and a slightly lower IQ. Writing in the journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, they suggest poor nutrition may affect brain development.

The eating habits of 3,966 children taking part in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children were recorded at the ages of three, four, seven and eight and a half. The researchers said three types of diet appeared: processed diet which was high in fat and sugar and fast food, traditional diet of meat, potatoes and vegetables, and healthy diet of salads, fruit and fish. The children all took IQ tests when they were eight and a half.

The researchers found a link between IQ and diet, even after taking into consideration other factors such as the mother’s level of education and the social class. Diet high in processed food at the age of three was related to a slightly lower IQ at the age of eight and a half, suggesting early eating habits had a long-term influence. Dr Pauline Emmett, who carried out the study at Bristol University, said, “Brain development is much faster in early life, and it’s when it does most of its growing.”

Although the relationship between diet and IQ was very strong, the influence was quite small. Processed food was linked with IQs only a few points lower. Experts in the field said the results had shown common sense was right. Fiona Ford, spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association, said, “It’s well worth looking at the long-term influence of diet, for everyone’s familiar with the short term. The research agrees with the type of advice we already know, but that’s not always enough. Sometimes a society has to help a person change; we need to educate more young parents about healthy eating.”