BBC News Review 食物苦，身体好

6 min English from

BBC learning english dot com. Hello.

This is six minute English from BBC Learning English.

I'm Phil, and I'm back Phil.

I'm going to start this episode with grapefruits.

I've got

some here. Do you want some?

Um, I'm not like Heenal grapefruit, they're too bitter for me.

Oh, that's a shame, because this episode is all about better food.

It has actually been linked to a number of health benefits.

So maybe you should take my grapefruits.

I might not like it that much.

But in this program, we'll be finding out how bitter foods can benefit our health.

And of course, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary that should give you a taste of what's coming up.

But before that, if you want to learn vocabulary to talk about world events, search for our news review podcast.

We look at vocabulary about a major news story every week.

But back to this episode. I have a question for you Phil.

How many different basic flavors can humans taste?

Is it A four? B, five or C?

Six? Hmm. I can think of bitter, sweet, salty and sour, so I'm gonna go with four.

I think we can taste four basic flavors.

OK, phil, I'll reveal the correct answer later.

Layla Cuisine presents the food program on BBC radio.

Here she is talking about some of the possible benefits of bitter food.

New research has found a remarkable link between bitter foods and our health.

It seems they have an incredible ability to interact with our gut microbiome suppress feelings of hunger, control glucose release and even counterconic inflammation in the body.

Could better be the answer at the tip of our taste buds.

Bitter foods can interact with our gut microbiome.

A microbiome is a collection of microorganisms that can be found in a particular part of the body.

It includes fungi, bacteria and viruses.

Microorganisms in our gut play an important role in the digestive process.

They are our gut microbiome. If we suppress something, then we stop it from happening or operating.

We heard that bitter foods can suppress hunger feelings.

This means that they stop people feeling hungry.

If we try to suppress a feeling, we're trying to stop it.

Layla asks if better foods are the answer.

At the tip of our taste beds, normally we'd say that something we can't quite remember is on the tip of our tongue.

Here we have taste buds, which are the receptors on our tongue and inside our mouths that can detect flavors like bitterness.

So it seems that bitter food could be very beneficial, but they're not always the easiest food to love.

In BBC radio falls the food program presenter Leila Casim spoke to chef Alexina Anatole, who points out that we might be consuming more bitter food than we realize.

I think it's a real perception issue.

I think people are exposed to bitter as way more than they think they are.

But there's this perception of bitter and negativity, both in terms of emotions and food, right?

Bitterness is generally an undesirable trait, but there are so many very, very mainstream bitter things, such as chocolate, coffee.

You know, alcohol, any alcohol has a degree of bitterness to it.

Alexina says that many people see bitterness as an undesirable trait.

Trait is a characteristic. So an undesirable trait is a characteristic that people don't want.

We often see bitterness as a bad thing.

We also often use undesirable traits to refer to negative aspects of peoples personalities.

Alexina points out that there are a number of mainstream things that have a bit of flavor.

If something is mainstream, then it means it's ordinary, and part of what most people consume.

She listed chocolate and coffee as mainstream things.

The other mainstream thing mentioned was alcohol.

We heard that it has a degree of bitterness.

If something has a degree of something, then it has at least a small but noticeable amount of it.

Okay, now I think it's time to hear the answer to your question, right?

I asked how many basic flavors humans can taste, and I guessed it was four, which unfortunately

was not the right answer. The answer is, in fact, five.

The flavor that you missed is umami, which comes from a Japanese word and refers to a savory flavor often found in grilled meats or broths.

OK, let's recapt

the vocabulary we've learned, starting with microbiome, the collection of microorganisms found in a specific part of the body, suppress means prevent from operating or happening.

Taste buds are the receptors found on the tongue and in the mouth That sends flavors.

An undesirable trait is a negative characteristic that we don't want.

If something is mainstream, then it's something that most people would use.

It's not unusual. And finally, a degree of something is a small but noticeable amount of something.

Once again, our 6 min are up.

Remember to join us again next time for more topical discussion and useful vocabulary here at Six Minute English.

Goodbye for now. Borrow 6 min English from BBC learning english dot com.

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