Pre-reading questions:
- What unhealthy food do you love to eat?
- What’s the best food to eat in spring?
- What foreign cuisine do you like the most?
A part of a series of studies on brain health found that a Mediterranean diet of vegetables, fruits and occasional drinking could help maintain a healthy brain as we grow old. The study also found that adding fish to the diet doesn’t make any difference. What the study is certain about is, people who eat more fresh salad and fruits, beans and pasta, and olive oil than junk food lose less brain mass as they get older compared to people who don’t.
The study was published in the journal Neurology. The research team’s subjects were Edinburgh residents aged 70 to 76 years old. For the study, the subjects were asked to keep a food diary where they documented everything they ate. The volunteers had a couple of MRIs – one at the beginning of the study, and another, three years later. The final MRI showed that participants who ate more fruits and vegetables lost less brain mass than those who didn’t.
Vocabulary:
doesn’t make any difference – doesn’t matter
certain – sure; confident about something
resident – someone who lives in a place
document – to record information about something by writing about it or taking photographs of it
MRI – (magnetic resonance imaging) a system that produces electronic pictures of the organs inside a person’s body
Comprehension Questions:
- What type of diet can help preserve one maintain a healthy brain?
- What does the study say about adding fish to one’s diet?
- What journal published the study?
- What did the researchers ask their volunteers to do for the study?
- What technology was used to measure the participants’ brain mass before and after the study?
Express Your Opinion:
- It is possible for someone who eats a lot of junk foods to live a healthy and long life.
- Eating out is generally always unhealthy.
- Even if one eats unhealthy food, as long as s/he has a lot of brain exercises, s/he will definitely maintain a healthy brain.