1 . People who have a diet rich in flavanols (黄烷醇), which are found in tea, apples and berries, may be less likely to develop age-related memory loss, research suggests. A three-year study of 3,562 people aged about 71 found those with high regular flavanol consumption had better hippocampal (海马的) memory function, which includes short-term memory-making, than those who didn’t.
Lead scientist Scott Small said the findings formed part of a growing body of research that is “starting to reveal that different nutrients are needed to strengthen our ageing minds”.
The scientists randomly assigned healthy adults to receive either a daily 500mg flavanol supplement or an artificial pill for three years. The participants took several memory tests during the study period and filled in surveys that assessed their diet. The researchers said memory scores improved only slightly for the group taking the flavanol pill, but that within that group some people who had poor diet and low flavanol consumption at the beginning of the study, saw their memory scores increase by 16% compared with the start of the study.
Prof Aedin Cassidy, an expert from Queen’s University Belfast, said it was a “really important study”, especially since the amount required for brain health improvement was “readily achievable”. “For example, one cup of tea, six squares of dark chocolate, a couple of servings of berries and apples would together provide about 500mg of flavanols,” he said.
However, David Curtis, an honorary professor at the UCL Genetics Institute, said, “The study fails to provide evidence that increasing flavanol intake is beneficial and there is no need for anybody to consider changing their diet in the light of its findings.”
Carl Hodgetts from University of London, said research into the relationship between nutrition and the brain could help with the fight against dementia (痴呆). He said it was “an interesting study that starts to address such questions” but disagreed with the conclusion that flavanol supplements affect hippocampal function, as MRI scans would be needed to establish this.
1. What can we learn about the flavanol?| A．It can lead to our ageing mind. |
| B．It can be acquired easily in our daily life. |
| C．It hardly affects long-term memory-making. |
| D．It can limit hippocampal memory function. |
| A．People taking artificial pills. |
| B．People controlling their diet. |
| C．People taking more flavanols than others. |
| D．People lacking flavanols before the study. |
| A．Divided. | B．Carefree. | C．Doubtful. | D．Opposed. |
| A．Balanced Diet: Necessary for Old People |
| B．Different Nutrients Affect People’s Memories |
| C．Flavanols: A Way to Reduce Memory Loss of the Elder |
| D．Flavanol Supplements Can Help Prevent Certain Diseases |
2 . If you’re aiming to cut back on meat and you want to build muscle strength, you’re not alone. Now, a new study finds that swapping red and processed meat for plant protein a few times a week leads to better health and lowers carbon emission.
“We found that there was an increase in life expectancy of approximately nine months linked to 50% reduction of red meat consumption,” says Olivia Auclair. “When it comes to diet changes to improve health and climate, we don’t need to go to major extremes or completely wipe out foods from our diet.”
But sudden changes can be jarring. For a long time Kyle Backlund had been in the habit of eating meat at many meals, and when he cut back, he felt a drop in his energy level and experienced some tiredness and weakness. When he realized he needed to increase his protein intake, his wife Stephany Marreel — who does most of the cooking and also eats a plant-based diet — found a solution by adding tofu, vegetables, and grains. Kyle says he is now feeling good on his plant-focused diet.
People can get all the protein and nutrients they need from a plant-based diet as long as they do a little planning, says Dr. Christopher Gardner, a food scientist. “If someone is consuming a reasonable variety, meeting protein needs from plant sources is no problem,” Gardner says.
There’s an environmental argument for shifting diet as well, Gardner says. Livestock (家畜) require lots of land and water. Beef production requires 20 times more land and produces 20 times more greenhouse gas emissions, per gram of protein, compared to beans. If people in the U.S. swapped beef for beans, this one switch alone could get the U.S. about halfway to its greenhouse gas reduction goals.
1. What should you do to improve health and climate according to Olivia Auclair?| A．Change your meat-based diet a little. | B．Give up red meat in your meals. |
| C．Become a devoted plant-protein lover. | D．Take up proper ways of cooking. |
| A．Admirable. | B．Upsetting. | C．Meaningful. | D．Rewarding. |
| A．By exercising more. | B．By consuming less red meat. |
| C．By eating various foods. | D．By having whole grain. |
| A．Cattle are the main source of greenhouse gases. |
| B．Americans are reducing greenhouse gas emission. |
| C．Shifting diet can be beneficial to the planet. |
| D．Bean production requires lots of land and water. |
3 . How much water does the average adult need to drink every day? “Eight 8-ounce glasses” is common advice, but any truly serious answer to the how-much question will begin with some version of it depends.”
Researchers have long known that a region called SFO in the brain monitors the concentration (浓度) of water and salts in blood and triggers the urge to drink. But they failed to fully explain how we experience thirst. For example, when we gulp a drink, we feel almost instantly satisfied, and yet it takes 10 to 15 minutes for a liquid to enter our bloodstream. Recently neuroscientists have gained other remarkable insights into how thirst is monitored in the body and controlled in the brain.
In a series of elegant experiments with mice, Zimmerman, a neuroscientist, and his associates measured the activity of neurons (神经元) in the SFO. “We saw that their activity changed very fast when the mouse drank water or drank saltwater and when it ate food,” he says. The researchers showed that signals gathered at the SFO from several places. “You get a signal from the blood that tells your current state of hydration (水平衡), a signal from the mouth that tells you how much fluid you drank, and a signal from the gut that tells you what was consumed — was it water, was it something else?” The SFO neurons, he explains, “add these signals together” and then transmit the urge to drink or stop drinking.
The big takeaway of Zimmerman’s work is that for the most part you can trust your thirst system to tell you when you need to drink. But there are exceptions. Because the system’s sensitivity may decline with age. People with certain health conditions, including kidney stones and diarrhea, also need extra water.
Other parts of the brain — the ones used in planning — should help with hydration on hot days and when exercising. Thirsty or not, Zimmerman says, he drinks water before going for a run: “My thirst neurons don’t know I’m about to run 10 miles.”
1. What has long been known about thirst?| A．Thirst experience varies among individuals. |
| B．Thirst is controlled by the water-salt balance in blood. |
| C．Thirst satisfaction occurs with water entering bloodstream. |
| D．Thirst response is influenced by the type of liquid consumed. |
| A．Why we feel thirst. |
| B．Where SFO gets signals. |
| C．How we experience thirst. |
| D．When SFO neurons get active. |
| A．Thirst system is generally reliable. |
| B．Illness might affect thirst sensation. |
| C．Brain areas for planning aid in hydration. |
| D．Brain adjusts to age-related thirst sensitivity. |
| A．Drink Your Way to Health |
| B．Application of the Thirst Mechanisms |
| C．Misunderstanding of Daily Water Intake |
| D．Body Detects Daily Water Needs Cleverly |
4 . Sugar was my first choice when I was sad or happy, and the dependency and health consequences made it my abuser even as early as age five. For over twenty years after seven, every weight loss intervention failed me, leaving me feeling hopeless.
I was fourteen when I went to my first weight-loss camp. I knew that I would regain all the weight I’d lost when I went home. A little voice inside me whispered. “You should help people. You should make a program that really works.” That voice got louder with each failed diet. It sparked a need to help others who were struggling like me.
Eventually, I recognized that my issue was sugar. I broke up with sugar and dieting and found a way to heal my relationship with food. I finally created a program that would help people in the way that I had needed desperately all along.
That program took off. My clients discovered that their relationships with food could be loving and sustainable. As a result, I was often encouraged to take my message to a larger platform. But when l finally was committed to sharing my story with the world, I knew that I had to tell it all leaving no stone unturned.
My friend Rumi said, “The wound is the place where the light enters you.” Finally, I was ready to tell my story, shining a big and bright light on all the wounds. With anxiety screaming in my ear, I made progress and wrote Breaking Up with Sugar. Now, I receive daily e-mails from readers telling me that they finally feel heard and understood. They’re hopeful for the first time in their lives. To me, this is the truest meaning of life — to be truly healthy and loving. The greatest lesson I’ve learned on this journey is that. by embracing my truth, loving and sharing it, I am able to become the best version of myself — someone whom I love and cherish.
1. What was the author aware of at her first weight loss camp?| A．She had eating problems. | B．She would be abused there. |
| C．She was badly in need of help. | D．She would gain weight after that. |
| A．To cope with her dependency on sugar. | B．To make weight loss her lifelong career. |
| C．To strengthen the effect gained at camps. | D．To help people having the same problem as her. |
| A．The author’s dependency on sugar. | B．The author’s turning over all stones. |
| C．The mental harm of being overweight. | D．The author’s changing attitude to anxiety. |
| A．Where there’s a will, there’s a way. | B．Accept imperfection as part of life itself. |
| C．Better an egg today than a hen tomorrow. | D．Failures are the stepping-stones to success. |
5 . Make me a chili pepper lover! People who often chow down on chili peppers may live for longer and have a significantly reduced risk of dying from cardiovascular disease (心血管疾病) or cancer, research from Cleveland Clinic’s Heart, Vascular and Thoracic Institute suggests.
Previous studies have found that capsaicin, the compound that gives chili peppers their characteristic kick, can have anti-inflammatory (消炎的), antioxidant, anti-cancer and blood-glucose regulating effects when eaten. To further investigate the effects of consuming chili peppers, the researchers gathered together the health and dietary records of more than 570,000 patients in the US, Italy, China and Iran, published in four previous large-scale scientific studies.
They found that those who ate chili peppers regularly had a 26% reduction in cardiovascular disease (CVD) death, a 23% relative reduction in cancer death, and a 25% relative reduction in all-cause death, compared to those who rarely or never ate them.
“We were surprised to find that in these previously published studies, regular consumption of chili pepper was associated with an overall risk reduction of all-cause, CVD and cancer mortality. It highlights that dietary factors may play an important role in overall health,” said senior author Dr. Bo Xu, a cardiologist at Cleveland Clinic’s Heart, Vascular and Thoracic Institute.
“The exact reasons and mechanisms that might explain our findings, though, are currently unknown,” he added. “Therefore, it is impossible to convincingly say that eating more chili pepper can prolong life and reduce deaths, especially from cardiovascular factors or cancer. More research, especially evidence from randomized controlled studies, is needed to confirm these new findings.”
Additionally, as the precise amount and type of chili pepper consumed varied across the four studies used in the research, it’s tricky to determine exactly how much and what type of chili peppers may provide the health benefits. However, the researchers are continuing to analyze the data in the hope of uncovering more concrete evidence.
1. What does the research reveal?| A．Chili peppers can cure heart diseases. | B．People who love chili peppers live longer. |
| C．Eating hot peppers may be good for the health. | D．Some peppers have been used as medicine. |
| A．To correct misunderstandings. | B．To clarify a concept. |
| C．To prove researchers’ ideas. | D．To provide readers with the truth. |
| A．Tolerant. | B．Doubtful. | C．Objective. | D．Dismissive. |
| A．Go on the study to find more proofs. | B．Conduct a large-scale clinical trials. |
| C．Discover more potential health benefits. | D．Develop new nutrition dietary guidelines. |
6 . While it is known that parents control the dietary choices of their children during early childhood, the increasing independence experienced during adolescence brings with it more freedom when it comes to food choices. This time of life also brings enormous physical and emotional changes in a young person, which is often associated with an increase in comfort eating, or eating as a means to relieve stress. A recent study investigates how various feeding practices used by parents impact the emotional eating behavior of adolescents.
The initial study was conducted in 2017 with 218 families. Additionally, data collected in 2013 were also available. One parent from each family completed the Child Feeding Questionnaire, as well as the Child Feeding Practices Questionnaire, and both adolescent and parent completed the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire. The adolescent’s body weight and height were measured by researchers. The four years between 2013 — 2017 covered the years from late childhood to mid-teens.
The study found that when parents used food as a reward, or restricted and monitored an adolescent’s access to food, this was associated with an increased tendency by the adolescent to use emotional eating as a strategy to deal with their emotions. On the other hand, involving a child in meal preparations had the opposite effect — it was associated with higher levels of emotional regulation and lower levels of emotional eating in the adolescent participants.
Additionally, the researchers found a negative link between the extent to which parents restrained (克制) their own eating behavior and the use of emotional eating by their adolescent children. This means that the more a parent limited his or her own consumption of food for the purpose of health or dietary goals, the less the adolescent child used emotional eating as a means of regulating his or her own emotions.
According to study lead author Joanna Klosowska, restrictive parenting was most damaging, whereas restrained eating by the parent seemed to be the most beneficial. “Additional research is required to understand the way in which restrained eating demonstrated by a parent impacts the emotional eating of a child,” said Klosowska.
1. What does the underlined word “it” in paragraph 1 refer to?| A．Parents’ dietary choice. | B．Parents’ eating behavior. |
| C．Children’s way of relieving stress. | D．Children’s increasing independence. |
| A．They studied parents’ body weight and height. |
| B．They investigated children’s eating behaviors. |
| C．They interviewed parents about their emotional health. |
| D．They assessed parents’ understanding of children’s care needs. |
| A．Restrained eating by parents is bad for their children. |
| B．Emotional eating by teens is influenced by their parents. |
| C．Parents seldom engage their children in family meal preparations. |
| D．Using food as a reward can help children form good eating habits. |
| A．Factors resulting in parents’ and adolescents’ food choices. |
| B．The underlying logic behind parents’ restrictive parenting. |
| C．What effect emotional eating can generate on children’s health. |
| D．How parents’ restrained eating influences children’s emotional eating. |
7 . A diet high in protein is often promoted as part of a healthy lifestyle, and many diets encourage consumers to reduce fats in favor of protein to lose weight and gain lean muscle.
For the study in Nature Metabolism, Bettina Mittendorfer and colleagues found that while increasing the proportion of protein in daily calorie intake is beneficial, consuming protein too much not only doesn’t add to the development of lean muscle but can cause unintended negative health effects.
“Consumers are being led to believe that they can never get too much protein in their diet,” says Mittendorfer. “However, our research shows that specific amino acids (氨基酸), which are the building blocks of protein, can trigger heart disease through a signaling mechanism at the cellular level in the blood.”
An amino acid found in animal-protein foods, such as beef, eggs, and milk, was found to be responsible for signaling activity in cells that typically clear away rubbish in blood vessels. As consumption of dietary protein increases, so does the consumption of leucine (亮氨酸), the specific amino acid responsible for triggering this cellular activity in the blood.
When functioning normally, these cells work to keep blood vessels free from plaque (血小板) buildup. When their production becomes overactive, the resulting accumulation of spent cells in the vascular system can cause the plaque buildup and blockages they are supposed to prevent. The resulting hardening of the arteries (动脉) is a leading risk factor for heart attack and stroke.
“Our hope is to eventually find the Goldilocks approach for maximizing the health benefits of dietary protein, such as building lean muscle, while avoiding the health drawbacks from overconsumption.” says Mittendorfer.
The researchers found that consuming more than 22% of daily calories from protein carries more downside risk than dietary benefit. For a normal adult, 20 to 30 grams of protein per meal, or 60 to 90 grams of protein per day is adequate to support health.
The study combined human trials with experiments in mice and cells.
1. Which of the following is the finding of the research?| A．It is beneficial to take in protein in daily diets. |
| B．A diet high in protein is always considered as a healthy lifestyle. |
| C．Many consumers are in favor of protein to lose weight and gain muscle. |
| D．Consuming protein too much doesn’t do good to the lean muscle development. |
| A．The plaque buildup. | B．Animal-protein foods. |
| C．The hardening of the arteries. | D．Overactive cellular activity in the blood. |
| A．To take in proper amount of protein per meal. |
| B．To exercise everyday in order to build lean muscle. |
| C．To consume more than 22% of daily calories from protein. |
| D．To do more experiments in mice and cells to provide evidence. |
| A．It is conducted in a relatively scientific way. |
| B．It finally finds a proper approach to keep fit. |
| C．It is totally against what people have believed. |
| D．It offers a diet standard for people of all ages all over the world. |
8 . Labels placed on fast food items stressing their high climate impact may influence consumers to make more sustainable (可持续的) choices, new study results show.
Food accounts for around one-third of all human-made greenhouse gas emissions, while animal-based foods like red meat and dairy products make up a large part of these emissions.
Researchers carried out a randomized clinical trial with more than 5,000 participants to determine whether calling attention to red meat’s climate impact could change consumer menu selections.
Individuals were shown a simple online fast food menu and asked to select an item for dinner. A control group received a menu with a quick response code label on all items and no climate labels. Another group received a menu with green low-climate impact labels, positively framing choices like fish, chicken, or vegetarian choices. The third group received a menu with red high-climate labels on items containing red meat, negatively framing the choices.
Results showed 23 percent more participants in the high climate label group ordered a sustainable, non-red meat choice, and 10 percent more in the low-climate group ordered a sustainable choice, compared with controls.
“In the United States, meat consumption, red meat consumption in particular, often exceeds (超过) recommended levels based on national dietary guidelines,” researchers wrote in the study. “Shifting current dietary patterns toward more sustainable diets with lower amounts of red meat consumed could reduce diet-related greenhouse gas emissions by up to 55 percent.”
Extra red meat consumption can also be harmful to human health and has been linked with increased risks of diabetes and certain cancers. Fast food restaurants are a key source of red meat in many Americans’ diets, authors noted, adding more than one-third of U.S. individuals consume fast food on a given day.
“These results suggest that menu labeling, particularly labels warning that an item has high climate impact, can be an effective strategy for encouraging more sustainable food choices in a fast food setting,” said lead study author Julia Wolfson, an associate professor from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
1. What does paragraph 4 mainly talk about?| A．The research objects. | B．The research findings. |
| C．The research purpose. | D．The research process. |
| A．Changing. | B．Removing. | C．Gathering. | D．Searching. |
| A．Consumers prefer labeled menus. | B．Red meat can result in many diseases. |
| C．Menu labeling helps reduce climate impact. | D．Two-thirds of Americans like to eat fast food. |
| A．Fast Food and Climate Change | B．Menu Labeling for Greener Choices |
| C．Increasingly Popular Menu Labeling | D．Red Meat Consumption and Health Risks |
9 . Adding salt to already prepared meals is linked to dying prematurely, according to a new study. Researchers found always adding salt to food knocks 2.3 years off life expectancy for men and 1.5years for women.
The study did not rule out other factors, but researchers said the evidence was compelling enough that people should consider avoiding seasoning their meals. The findings were based on research involving over 500,000 participants, who were followed for an average of 9 years. Compared with those who never added salt, those who always seasoned their food had a 28% increased risk of dying earlier. “To my knowledge, our study is the first to assess the relation between adding salt to foods and earlier death,” said Prof Lu Qi, who led the work. “Even a modest reduction in sodium (钠) intake can result in remarkable health benefits.”
Salt intake is difficult to accurately track because many processed foods contain high levels of salt. Roughly 70% of sodium intake in western populations comes from processed foods, with 8-20% from salt added at the table. However, adding salt is a very good indicator of a person’s preference for salty tasting foods, so the team focused their analysis on this measurement.
Prof Annika Rosengren, a researcher who was not involved with the research, said that there is an ideal level for salt to different people. It’s hard to figure out the best level in terms of health for any given individual. “So far, what the evidence seems to indicate is that healthy people consuming normal levels of salt need not worry too much about their salt intake,” she said. However, those at high risk of heart disease should probably cut down. “Not adding extra salt to already prepared foods is one way of achieving this.”
1. What does the underlined word “compelling” probably mean?| A．Interesting. | B．Convincing. | C．Fascinating. | D．Stimulating. |
| A．Adding salt can suggest a person’s favor. |
| B．Western populations prefer salty foods relatively. |
| C．The study centered on tracking salt intake accurately. |
| D．More than 70% of sodium intake comes from processed foods. |
| A．There is an ideal level for salt to all people. |
| B．It’s appropriate to add more salt while cooking. |
| C．Occasional addition of salt has no effect on health. |
| D．Patients with heart disease should control their salt intake. |
| A．A biology textbook. | B．An official report. | C．A health magazine. | D．A science fiction. |
10 . Sensory-based food education given to 3-5 year-old children in the kindergarten increases their willingness to choose vegetables and fruit, according to a new study from the University of Eastern Finland.
The researchers used the sensory-based food education method Sapere, which makes use of children’s natural way of relying on all of the five senses when learning new things. In the Sapere method, children are given an active role around food, and they are encouraged to share their sensory experiences. For example, kindergartens can introduce different vegetables and fruit to children in hands-on sessions, they can involve children in baking and cooking, and they can offer children opportunities for growing their own vegetables in the kindergarten backyard. Food-related themes can also be included in books and games.
“There are several different ways to do this. However, it always starts from sensory-based learning and child engagement. Doing and experiencing things together is also an important aspect,” says Kaisa Kähkönen, a researcher and nutritionist from the University of Eastern Finland.
The researchers compared children in different kindergarten groups. Some were offered sensory-based food education, while others weren’t. Children were offered a snack buffet containing different vegetables and fruit to choose from, and the researchers took photos of their plates to analyse their willingness to choose and eat these food items.
The findings show that sensory-based food education increased children’s willingness to choose vegetables and fruit, especially among children whose mothers have a lower educational background. On average, children of lower educated parents tend to eat less vegetables and fruit. This is how food education given in the kindergarten can help even out dietary gap between families.
“Another interesting finding is that the Sapere food education method also seems to improve the eating atmosphere in kindergarten groups. This encouraged children who were picky eaters to choose a more diverse selection on their plate,” Kähkönen explains.
Positive and personal food-related experiences gained in the kindergarten can help adjust dietary preferences in a direction that is beneficial for health. Dietary preferences learned in early childhood often stick with a person all the way to adolescence and adulthood.
1. What can we know about the Sapere method?| A．It improves kids’ five senses. |
| B．It enables kids to read more books. |
| C．It supplies various healthy food to kids. |
| D．It involves kids in active food-related activities. |
| A．The research purpose. | B．The research process. |
| C．The research findings. | D．The research evaluation. |
| A．Narrow. | B．Identify. |
| C．Analyze. | D．Examine. |
| A．Benefits of eating fruit and vegetables |
| B．Differences in family dietary preferences |
| C．Necessity for kids to form learning habits |
| D．New method to promote kids’ healthy eating |
