Speaker A
From BBC Learning English. This is Learning English from the News, our podcast about the news headlines.
Explore the benefits of coffee and tea on brain health, happiness, and dementia risk with BBC Learning English.
Key Takeaways
- Moderate coffee and tea consumption supports brain health and happiness.
- Caffeine stimulates dopamine release, improving mood and alertness.
- Coffee may reduce risks of stroke and dementia by preserving cognitive function.
- Understanding vocabulary like 'key' and 'associated' helps grasp health news headlines.
- BBC Learning English provides educational content linking language learning with current health topics.
Summary
- Drinking coffee or tea daily can help keep the brain healthy and improve cognitive function.
- Caffeine acts as a stimulant by blocking chemicals that cause tiredness and releasing dopamine, the 'happy hormone'.
- A UK study suggests coffee consumption shortly after waking can increase happiness.
- Coffee consumption may help prevent strokes and reduce the risk of dementia.
- Two to three cups of coffee daily are linked to slower cognitive decline and better brain function.
- The term 'key' is explained as an adjective meaning very important, used in headlines about coffee benefits.
- The word 'associated' is defined as being linked or connected, used to describe coffee's relation to brain health.
- Preserving brain function means maintaining mental abilities like memory, reasoning, and thinking.
- Recommended caffeine intake is up to 400mg per day, roughly three to four cups of coffee.
- Additional learning resources and worksheets are available on the BBC Learning English website.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction to Coffee and Brain Health
- 00:43Coffee and Happiness: UK Study Insights
- 01:47Understanding Caffeine and Dopamine
- 02:06Recommended Caffeine Intake and Headlines
- 02:38Explaining the Word 'Key' in Headlines
- 03:18Coffee and Dementia Risk Reduction
- 05:38Meaning of 'Associated' in Health Context
- 08:40Preserving Brain Function and Dementia Risk
- 11:57Closing Remarks and Additional Resources
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
In this programme, how drinking a few cups of coffee or tea each day can help keep your brain healthy and working well.
Speaker A
Hello, I'm Becca. And I'm Neil. In this programme, we look at one big story and the vocabulary in the headlines that will help you understand it.
Speaker A
You can find all the vocabulary and headlines from this episode, as well as a worksheet on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.
Speaker A
A UK study suggests that drinking coffee within a few hours of waking up can make you happier.
Speaker A
The Head of the Happiness, Culture and Personality Research Group at the University of Warwick, Professor Anu Realo, explains that this may be because caffeine, the stimulant found in tea and coffee, blocks a chemical that makes us feel tired.
Speaker A
Yes, and a stimulant is something that causes an effect or stimulates an effect. At the same time, caffeine encourages, or stimulates, the release of dopamine, which some people know as the happy hormone.
Speaker A
The European Food Safety Authority recommends that adults should not drink more than 400mg of caffeine per day.
Speaker A
That's generally equivalent to three to four cups. Let's have our first headline. This is from The Standard, a British newspaper.
Speaker A
Coffee brings happiness and may prevent stroke - 7 key points for healthy coffee consumption.
Speaker A
That headline, again from The Standard. Coffee brings happiness and may prevent stroke - 7 key points for healthy coffee consumption.
Speaker A
This headline draws attention to how drinking coffee can prevent stroke, a medical emergency where blood stops flowing to a part of your brain.
Speaker A
We're going to focus on the word key. Now, what can you tell us about this word key, Becca?
Speaker A
Well, you may be familiar with the object key, which can be used to open a door.
Speaker A
But when we use key as an adjective, we're saying that something is really important, in the same way that a key is crucial for unlocking a door.
Speaker A
Yes. So, it might be useful to think of key as a metaphor for something that gives you access, perhaps to knowledge or an idea.
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So, when we look at the language in the headline, it describes key points. These are the important points.
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Yes, and you might hear the expression key witness in a court case, for example.
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And the key witness is the person with really important knowledge. Yes. Or, in a sports team, you might have a key player.
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This is the player who performs the most important role. We've had key, describes something important.
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For example, friendship plays a key role in building social skills. This is Learning English from the News, our podcast about the news headlines.
Speaker A
Today we're talking about coffee and how new research says it's good for your brain.
Speaker A
Another headline tells us that two to three cups of coffee each day can help lower the risk of memory loss diseases, such as dementia.
Speaker A
Yes. So, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that those who drank tea and coffee showed a slower rate of cognitive decline compared to those who didn't.
Speaker A
Cognitive describes the mental processes involved in learning and understanding things. This includes thinking, memory, and reasoning.
Speaker A
So, cognitive decline is how your brain loses those abilities over time. Let's look at this headline.
Speaker A
This headline is from Medicalxpress, a medical research group. Consuming two to three cups of coffee daily associated with lower dementia risk, better cognitive function.
Speaker A
That headline, again from Medicalxpress. Consuming two to three cups of coffee daily associated with lower dementia risk, better cognitive function.
Speaker A
This headline mentions how drinking coffee is associated with better cognitive or brain function. Yes, and we're looking at this word associated.
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What does it mean if something is associated with something? Well, it means that something is linked to something else.
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We associate things with other things. Perhaps these things are related or connected. Yes. And if you're going to mention all the things that are connected, we use the preposition with.
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Yes. For example, knowing many languages is associated with better memory. It is. And we can use the noun form association to talk about these things as well.
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We could say there's an association between knowing many languages and better memory. We've had associated, linked or connected with something else.
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For example, doing daily exercise is associated with living longer. This is Learning English from the News from BBC Learning English.
Speaker A
We're talking about the benefits of drinking coffee and tea. Very similar to our previous headline, this next one highlights how drinking tea and coffee helps reduce damage and diseases of the brain that happen naturally over time.
Speaker A
Yes, it talks about brain function. A function is a specific purpose or role. When we say brain function, we're talking about what the brain does in relation to how it works to complete its purpose.
Speaker A
Exactly. We previously mentioned the cognitive processes such as thinking, memory, and reasoning. These are examples of brain functions.
Speaker A
Let's have our next headline. This next headline is from Sky News, a British news organisation.
Speaker A
Drinking tea and coffee may help preserve brain function and reduce risk of dementia, study suggests that.
Speaker A
Headline, again from Sky News. Drinking tea and coffee may help preserve brain function and reduce risk of dementia, study suggests.
Speaker A
This headline includes information about how drinking tea and coffee helps reduce the risk of dementia.
Speaker A
It also says that drinking tea and coffee can help preserve brain function. What does the word preserve mean, Neil?
Speaker A
Well, we now know that brain function is things that our brain does for us, and what we want to do is keep our brains doing them.
Speaker A
This is what preserve means, to keep or maintain something, usually in its original state.
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So, we often hear about preserving food or art or buildings. It means keeping them as much as possible in their original state.
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Yes, and the noun preservation is the act of keeping something that way. We've had preserve, to keep or maintain something, usually in its original state.
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For example, there are lots of different ways to preserve food - pickling, salting or drying.
Speaker A
That's it for this episode of Learning English from the News. We'll be back next week with another news story.
Speaker A
Don't forget to come to our website to find a free worksheet that's at bbclearningenglish.com.
Speaker A
And if, like us, you drink a lot of coffee at work, why not try our series Office English to learn language from the workplace.
Speaker A
You can also find the episodes at bbclearningenglish.com. And don't forget to check us out on social media @bbclearningenglish.
Speaker A
Bye for now. Goodbye.
Topics:coffee benefitscaffeinebrain healthdementia preventioncognitive functionBBC Learning Englishhappinessstroke preventionEnglish vocabularyhealth news
