Feed your brain ⏲️ 6 Minute English

Hello.

This is Six Minute

English from BBC

Learning English. I'm Phil. And I'm Georgie.

  Has this ever happened to you?

You eat a doughnut and get a sugar rush. A strong feeling of excitement

and energy, only to collapse

an hour later with a headache? Food affects us more than we realise.

That's because what we eat alters our brain chemistry, changing our mood

and emotions. Our brain is working 24 hours a day,

even while we sleep.

So it needs more fuel than other body parts.

So can we eat our way to feeling happy? In this programme,

we'll be discussing the relationship between food and the brain and,

as usual, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.

Sounds great, Georgie. But first

I have a question for you. Humans, with an average brain weighing

one and a half kilos, are one of the cleverest animals,

but which mammal has the biggest brain? Is it:

A) an African elephant, B) a dolphin or C) a sperm whale.

I think it's an African elephant.

OK, Georgie. I'll reveal the answer later in the programme.

Now, did you know that, despite making up

only 2% of our total weight,

our brain uses 20%

of the body's energy. Nutritionist Dr Reeta Achari

does. She thinks we should be specifically eating for our brains,

as she explained to BBC

World Service Programme, The Food Chain: Eating every day,

right? And eating a balanced diet

so you get the full complement of vitamins and minerals

is critical. If you go low in something and one day

if you just, you know, don't eat any protein for

a day or - for me in my situation,

if I don't eat any vegetables - I know the next day

I'm not as sharp. Number one on

Dr Achari’s list of brain foods is a regular and balanced diet,

a diet containing the proper types and amounts of food needed to stay healthy.

Remember the ‘Rainbow Rule’ – eat foods of many different colours

with lots of leafy greens. A balanced diet also includes

different types of nutrients – vitamins, fibre, protein and so on.

But including these isn't always possible.

You might go low on,

meaning have very little of, one food type.

Dr Achari says when this happens to her,

she’s not as sharp – as intelligent and quick to notice things, as usual.

Dr Achari names

lots of different foods which help boost our brains,

from wild caught Alaskan salmon and avocado to berries and walnuts.

But hang on, Georgie!

Wild caught Alaskan salmon?!

Very nice, and very... expensive!

It sounds like these superfoods are just for the super-rich!

Well, not according to blogger Michelle Munt.

Here she is telling BBC

World Service’s, The Food Chain, how eating well needn’t cost a fortune:

It's not expensive and everyone's got a freezer

these days so, yes,

you can batch cook things, freeze them, and then use them in like a week's time

or something... so I think the problem is again

it's about our lifestyles, it's

about the fact that we feel like we've got limited time,

and therefore people are trying to cut the time down in the kitchen

by cooking things that are pre-made or even worse

we're just chucking it in the microwave but actually

you can do fresh food in 20 minutes flat...

Michelle's idea for brain food on a budget

involves batch cooking. Batch cooking means cooking a lot of food

at one time, then

saving some to eat later,

usually by freezing it.

Although microwave ready meals are convenient,

they lack many nutrients needed by the brain.

Luckily, adding some fresh vegetables to batch cooked food

means anyone can make a brain-healthy meal quickly, or in 20 minutes flat

as Michelle says, using the word flat to mean

'exactly' and to emphasise that it can be done quickly.

OK, so we need a balanced diets, and batch cooking for big brains!

Now, let's test your brain,

Georgie, with my question. Right.

You asked which mammal has the biggest brain,

and I guessed it was an African elephant... Which was... the wrong answer,

I'm afraid! In fact, the biggest brain belongs to the sperm whale,

weighing about eight kilos. And the sperm whale's main food? Fish!

OK, let's recap the vocabulary

we've learned in this programme

starting with sugar rush, suddenly feeling

excited and full of energy after eating food

which contains a lot of sugar. A balanced diet

includes the correct combinations of food needed to stay healthy.

If you go low on something, you have very little of it.

If you describe someone as sharp,

you mean they're intelligent and quick to react to things.

Batch cooking means cooking a lot of food at the same time

and saving some for later.

And finally, doing something in 20 minutes flat means 20 minutes

exactly, and is used to emphasise that it's done very quickly.

Once again our

six minutes are up!

Have fun cooking up your own brain boosting breakfasts

and remember to join us again next time, here at 6 Minute

English. Goodbye

for now! Bye!