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  • Hello.

  • This is 6 Minute English from

  • BBC Learning English.

  • I'm Sam.

  • And I'm Neil.

  • In recent years new diets with names

  • like 'vegan', 'keto' and 'paleo' have

  • become very popular.

  • Are you a

  • vegetarian, Neil?

  • Do you follow

  • any particular diet?

  • Well, I eat lots of fresh fruit

  • and vegetables and only a little

  • meat from time to time.

  • Well, while many diets claim to

  • improve health or help you

  • lose weight, recent research

  • shows that what counts is not

  • what you eat but how

  • your body reacts.

  • Yes, and that reaction doesn't

  • happen where you might think - not

  • in the brain, or tongue, or even

  • the stomach, but in the gut - another

  • name for the intestines - the

  • long tube inside your body

  • which digests food.

  • Inside everyone's gut are millions

  • of microbes - tiny living organisms,

  • too small to see without a

  • microscope.

  • Some of them are good

  • for us, some bad.

  • Microbes help digest food, but

  • they influence our bodies more

  • than we know.

  • Think of them as

  • chemical factories that cause our

  • individual reaction to

  • the food we eat.

  • This mix of gut microbes is

  • unique and different for everyone,

  • even identical twins.

  • And it's the reason why some

  • doctors now recommend a

  • personalised diet, one that

  • perfectly fits your own unique

  • combination of microbes.

  • We'll hear more soon, but first

  • I have a question for you, Neil,

  • and it's about the gut - the

  • tube which includes the large and

  • small intestine.

  • It's very

  • long - but how long exactly is

  • the average adult's gut?

  • Is it:

  • a) 3 and a half metres?

  • b) 5 and a half metres?

  • or,

  • c) 7 and a half metres?

  • Well, everybody is different

  • of course, but I'll say on average

  • the gut is b) 5 and

  • a half metres long.

  • OK, Neil, I'll reveal the answer

  • later in the programme.

  • Among the first to investigate gut

  • microbes was Dr Tim Spector, author

  • of bestselling book, The Diet Myth.

  • He wanted to check whether the

  • dietary advice he had heard and

  • believed, advice like 'eat little

  • and often' or 'avoid fat',

  • was really true.

  • Listen as Dr Spector explains

  • how he started to doubt some of

  • this advice - 'food myths', he

  • calls them - to BBC Radio 4

  • programme, The Life Scientific:

  • All these so-called myths that

  • I'd believed, whether it was

  • about calories, about fats,

  • when to eat, how to eat, were

  • based on flimsy or no evidence,

  • very old, very poor quality,

  • and had been repeated so much

  • that people didn't

  • think to question them.

  • One of the food myths Dr Spector

  • questioned was counting calories - the

  • units which measure the amount

  • of energy food provides.

  • He discovered that much of

  • the dietary advice he had

  • heard was either incorrect or

  • based on flimsy evidence.

  • If

  • evidence is flimsy, it's

  • weak and unconvincing.

  • As Dr Spector questioned these

  • food myths, he remembered an

  • earlier study involving

  • identical twins, pairs of brothers

  • or sisters with the same genes.

  • It was the surprising differences

  • in weight between one twin and

  • another that made Dr Spector

  • realise that no two people

  • have the same gut - even

  • identical twins' guts are different.

  • But, as he told BBC Radio 4's,

  • The Life Scientific, the discovery

  • came in a very smelly way - by

  • asking his volunteers to send

  • samples of their poo in the post!

  • We collected lots of these

  • samples, sequenced them,

  • and looked at twins where

  • one was overweight and one

  • was skinny... and we found

  • in every case, the skinnier

  • twin had a more diverse

  • microbiome, greater numbers

  • of different species and

  • they also nearly always had

  • high numbers of a couple

  • of microbes that just

  • stuck out of the crowd - and

  • one was called christensenella

  • and the other was

  • called akkermansia.

  • Although genetically identical,

  • one twin was overweight, while

  • the other twin was skinny,

  • or very thin.

  • Because the weight difference

  • could not be explained

  • genetically, Dr Spector

  • suspected the microbes in

  • the skinnier twin's gut

  • held the answer: the more

  • diverse someone's microbes,

  • the better their gut was at

  • digesting food, regulating

  • fat and maintaining health.

  • Two microbes, christensenella

  • and akkermansia, were especially

  • effective.

  • Dr Spector says these

  • microbes stuck out of the crowd,

  • meaning they were easy to notice

  • for their positive effect.

  • And since everyone's microbes are

  • different, it follows that a

  • personalised diet which selects

  • the friendliest food for

  • your gut, is best.

  • Right,

  • and all this talk of eating

  • is making me hungry, so tell me,

  • Sam, was my answer

  • to your question, right?

  • Ah yes, I asked about the

  • length of the gut in

  • the average adult.

  • I said it was 5 and

  • a half metres.

  • Which was... the correct answer!

  • Well done, Neil - that took 'guts',

  • which is the second meaning

  • of the word: courage.

  • OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've

  • learned starting with gut - an

  • informal word for the intestines,

  • the tube which digests

  • food from the stomach.

  • Microbes are microscopic organisms

  • living inside the body.

  • A calorie is a unit measuring

  • how much energy food provides.

  • If an argument or evidence is

  • flimsy, it's weak

  • and hard to believe.

  • A skinny person is very thin.

  • And finally, if something

  • sticks out of the crowd,

  • it's noticeable in a good way.

  • Unfortunately, our six minutes

  • are up, but remember:

  • look after your gut, and

  • your gut will look after you!

  • Goodbye!

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A1 初級

Personalised diets - 6 Minute English

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    林宜悉 發佈於 2021 年 12 月 20 日
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