BBC 英语学习 News Review 快餐对大脑有害

Can ultra processed food affect your mental abilities?

This is news reviews from BBC Learning English.

I'm Neil, and I'm back And stick with us till the end of the program, and you'll learn some vocabulary about junk food.

Yep. You will. And don't forget.

Subscribe to our channel, like this video and try the quiz on our website.

Now, today's story

ultra processed food affects people's mental abilities.

That's according to a new study in Australia, which found that older people were negatively affected buy things like junk food and fizzy drinks.

Meanwhile, research in the UK found that almost 75% of calories in school lunches come from ultra processed food.

Health experts have called for that to be a limit on this type of food for school children.

You've been looking at the headlines, beth, what is the vocabulary?

We have ultra cap and Escape the cycle.

This is news review from BBC Learning English.

Let's have a look at our 1st headline.

This one comes from The New Telegraph.

In Nigeria, study ties ultra processed foods to poor cognitive function, so 1st of all cognitive function.

That's an expression that refers to a broad range of mental abilities.

But we're looking at ultra in the word ultra processed process, though, beth, I think most people know yet, it's food that has had some kind of industrial process done to it, often to make the food last longer or look better.

And here, by putting ultra at the beginning of the word, it means extremely.

So ultra processed food has had a lot of things done to it, even before we put it in our mouths.

Yeah. And this prefix ultra, we can add to different adjectives, and it just means more extreme.

Yeah, exactly. So a really modern building is ultra modern.

A very strict teacher could be ultrastrict, and someone like you, neil, who is really cool, could be ultra cool.

Yeah, thanks, death, you're welcome. Ultra is added to adjectives using a hyphen, but not always no.

And you'll see in the headline and in lots of other places that it can be written as one word or two words, with or without a hyphen.

Ultra also exists as a noun, and it is a type of person exactly yet.

So an ultra is a person with extreme views on something.

So they have opinions, e.g. that are much more extreme than the other members of their political party.

Or they might be extreme supporters of a football team.

OK, let's take another look at that.

Let's have a look at our next headline.

This one comes from the Times.

Junk Food Cap Demanded for school Lunches.

And we are looking at the word cap.

Nice and easy. Beth, A cap is something you put on your head.

Yeah, well, that's actually quite a useful way of thinking about it.

So, yeah, you put a cap on top of your head, and as long as you're standing up, that cap is the upper limit of your body.

There's nothing beyond that. Yes? And cap in this headline is used just like that.

In that way, cap is a limit, something you cannot go above, exactly.

And we can also use it as a verb to cap something.

And that just means to put a cap on or put a limit on something.

Yeah, it's quite official sounding. Yes, it is.

And we mainly use it for serious things, and also official measures taken to limit things.

So, e.g. at work, they might put a cap on your spending.

Yeah, but you probably wouldn't say, I put a cap on my kids' mobile phone use.

No, probably not. It sounds a bit strange, so you might say that you'd restrict their time or put a limit.

OK, let's have a look at that again.

Our next headline, please. This one comes from the house Escaping the junk food cycle.

Is it possible we have escaping the cycle?

There's an expression with two main parts Escaping and cycle.

Exactly. So escaping is about getting away from somewhere that you don't

like. We often hear about people escaping from prison.

And the 2nd part is cycle.

Neil, what can you tell us about cycle?

Well, a cycle is something that goes around.

So think of a

bicycle. Your legs go around, the wheels go around a washing machine.

Cycle. The clothes go round and round and round.

Yeah. So escaping

a cycle is to try and get away from a situation that just keeps repeating itself.

And we do tend to use this for bad negative situations, yeah?

And you can put the bad thing in the middle of this expression escaping the cycle.

So escaping the junk food cycle.

People don't have enough time or money to buy healthy food.

They buy unhealthy, ultra, processed junk food, but then they become unhealthy themselves.

And it's a cycle that goes around.

Yeah? And we can use this with other dangerous situations.

So we hear about people escaping the cycle of addiction or violence.

Let's take another look. We ve had ultra added to an adjective, and it means more extreme cap a limit and escape the cycle.

Get away from a situation which keeps getting worse, and you don't want your English to get worse.

So don't forget, there's a quiz on our website.

Thank you for joining us. Goodbye.

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