1 . Many of us love July because it’s the month when nature’s berries and stone fruits are in abundance. These colourful and sweet jewels form British Columbia’s fields are little powerhouses of nutritional protection.

Of the common berries, strawberries are highest in vitamin C, although, because of their seeds, raspberries contain a little more protein (蛋白质), iron and zinc (not that fruits have much protein). Blueberries are particularly high in antioxidants (抗氧化物质). The yellow and orange stone fruits such as peaches are high in the carotenoids we turn into vitamin A and which are antioxidants. As for cherries (樱桃), they are so delicious who cares? However, they are rich in vitamin C.

When combined with berries of slices of other fruits, frozen bananas make an excellent base for thick, cooling fruit shakes and low fat “ice cream”. For this purpose, select ripe bananas for freezing as they are much sweeter. Remove the skin and place them in plastic bags or containers and freeze. If you like, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice on the bananas will prevent them turning brown. Frozen bananas will last several weeks, depending on their ripeness and the temperature of the freezer.

If you have a juicer, you can simply feed in frozen bananas and some berries or sliced fruit. Out comes a “soft-serve” creamy dessert, to be eaten right away. This makes a fun activity for a children’s party; they love feeding the fruit and frozen bananas into the top of the machine and watching the ice cream come out below.

Few people I know seem to have much desire or time to cook. Making Chinese     1    (dish) is seen as especially troublesome. Many westerners     2     come to China cook much less than in their own countries once they realize how cheap     3     can be to eat out. I still remember     4     (visit) a friend who’d lived here for five years and I     5    (shock) when I learnt she hadn’t cooked once in all that time.

While regularly eating out seems to     6    (become) common for many young people in recent years, it’s not without a cost. The obvious one is money; eating out once or twice a week may be     7    (afford) but doing this most days adds up. There could be an even     8     (high) cost on your health. Researchers have found that there is a direct link between the increase in food eaten outside the home and the rise in     9    (weigh) problems.

If you are not going to suffer this problem, then I suggest that the next time you go to your mum’s home     10     dinner, get a few cooking tips from her. Cooking food can be fun. You might also begin to notice the effects not only on your health but in your pocket.

3 . By now, most people know they should be eating more vegetables. But are there ways to get more from the vegetables you already eat? A research shows that when it comes to vegetables, it’s not only how much we eat, but also how we prepare them, that decides the vitamins and other nutrients that enter our body.

Many studies show that people who eat lots of vegetables have less heart disease, and eye problems and even cancer. But raw vegetables are not always best. The researchers found that 198 Germans who eat raw food were short of lycopene, the matter found in tomatoes and other red vegetables. “There is an idea that raw foods are always going to be better,” says Steven K. Clinton, a professor at Ohi o State University. “For fruits and vegetables, sometimes a little bit of cooking can be helpful.”

A number of factors decide how the vegetables do good to people’s health before they reach the table, including where and how they were grown and stored before being bought. No single cooking way is best. Some nutrients are easily lost in cooking if they are cooked in different ways.

Vitamins C and B are often lost. In January, another report said that boiling was better for carrots than frying or serving them raw. Frying was the worst way to cook.

What cooked with the vegetables can also be important? When the vegetables were cooked with fat, the diners can get more nutrients. Fat can also make the taste of vegetables better, meaning that people will eat more of them. Putting on some other things that make it taste better—a little salt—can make the food taste better.

5 . It happens from time to time that after a whole morning of studying, you are tired in the afternoon. It is then that you may want to eat something sweet, perhaps a sweet drink or a chocolate bar to lift your mood.     1    

But a study suggests that sugar can make you feel worse rather than lift your mood. The German and UK researchers collected data from 31 studies involving nearly 1,300 adults.     2     Those emotions include anger, alertness, depression and tiredness. They found that people who have too much sugar become more tired and less alert within an hour, and that these feelings become more intense over time.

According to researchers, when people take in sugar, their blood sugar levels rise rapidly, leading to a burst of energy and a short “feel good” period. However, as they begin to digest the sugar, their blood sugar levels decrease quickly, leading to a bad feeling.     3     As with caffeine, this prevents the body from relaxing, leaving people being tired and less alert.

    4     According to WHO, it is healthy to have the sugars found naturally in fruit, vegetables and milk, so long as they make up less than 5 percent of our daily total energy intake.

So the next time you feel tired and can’t concentrate on study and work, perhaps you should think twice before you bite into a chocolate bar. There are still other ways to relieve tiredness.     5    

9 . A strong coffee after a poor night's sleep is the kick-start many people need in the morning but new research suggests that it might be best to have a bite to eat first.

A study has found that drinking coffee first can have a negative effect on blood sugar control - a risk factor for diabetes （糖尿病）and heart disease.

“We know that nearly half of us will wake in the morning and, before doing anything else, drink coffee --- subjectively the more tired we feel, the stronger the coffee,“ said Professor James Betts, at the University of Bath in the UK.

For their study, researchers at the University of Bath got 29 healthy men and women to take part in three different overnight experiments, with at least a week between them.

In one, the participants had a normal night's sleep, roughly from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., and were asked to consume a sugary drink on waking in the morning. They then experienced an interrupted night's sleep, where the researchers woke them every hour for five minutes by sending them text messages to which they had to respond — and upon waking were given the same sugary drink.

On another night, participants experienced the same sleep interruption, but this time were first given a strong black coffee 30 minutes before consuming the sugary drink.

They found that one night of interrupted sleep did not worsen the participants' blood sugar and insulin （胰 岛素）responses when compared to the normal night's sleep-- although previous research suggested that losing many hours of sleep or many nights of poor sleep could have a negative effect. However, strong black coffee consumed before breakfast actually increased the blood sugar response by around 50% — suggesting that relying on coffee after a bad night to stop feeling sleepy could limit your body's ability to tolerate the sugar in your breakfast.

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.”