43. Food for thought
Jul 17th 2008 From The Economist print edition

Eat your way to a better brain (by Barry Downard)

43-1-182
CHILDREN have a lot to contend with these days, not least a tendency for their pushy parents to force-feed them omega-3 oils at every opportunity. These are supposed to make children brainier, so they are being added to everything from bread, milk and pasta to baby formula and vitamin tablets. But omega-3 is just the tip of the nutritional iceberg; many nutrients have proven cognitive effects, and do so throughout a person’s life, not merely when he is a child.
Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a fish-loving professor of neurosurgery and physiological science at the University of California, Los Angeles, believes that appropriate changes to a person’s diet can enhance his cognitive abilities, protect his brain from damage and counteract the effects of ageing. Dr Gomez-Pinilla has been studying the effects of food on the brain for years, and has now completed a review, just published in Nature Reviews Neuroscience, that has analysed more than 160 studies of food’s effect on the brain. Some foods, he concludes, are like pharmaceutical compounds; their effects are so profound that the mental health of entire countries may be linked to them.
Last year, for example, the Lancet published research showing that folic-acid supplements--sometimes taken by pregnant women--can help those between 50 and 70 years old ward off the cognitive decline that accompanies ageing. In a study lasting three years, Jane Durga, of Wageningen University in the Netherlands, and her colleagues found that people taking such supplements did better on measures of memory, information-processing speed and verbal fluency. That, plus evidence that folate deficiency is associated with clinical depression, suggests eating spinach, orange juice and Marmite, which are all rich in folic acid.

A. 어휘
contend 싸우다. not least ...와 마찬가지로. tendency 경향. pushy 너무 나서는.
force-feed 강제로 먹이다. brainy 머리가 좋은. add to 첨가하다.
formula 어린이용 流動食(유동식), 法式(법식), 公式(공식). tablet 알약.
nutritional 영양의. iceberg 빙산. nutrient 영양분. cognitive 인식능력의.
cognitive effects 인식능력을 향상시키는 효과. neurosurgery 신경외과학.
physiological 생리학의. appropriate 적절한. enhance 향상시키다.
cognitive ability 인식능력. damage 損傷(손상). counteract 대항하다, 방해하다.
ageing 老化(노화). review 보고서, 槪觀(개관), 비평. pharmaceutical 약물의, 약학의.
compound 화합물. profound 깊은, 深遠(심원)한. the Lancet 세계적인 의학전문잡지.
research 조사, 연구. folic-acid 葉酸(엽산). supplements 보충제. pregnant 임신한.
ward off [위험. 공격 따위를] 피하다, 비키다. cognitive decline 인식능력의 쇠퇴.
accompany 同伴(동반)하다, 隨伴(수반)하다. measure 측정, 척도. verbal 말의.
fluency 유창함. folate 엽산. deficiency 결핍. clinical depression 임상 우울증.
spinach 시금치. Marmite 식품 이름.

B. 구문
- ward→to ward
- lasting→which lasted

43-2-183
Another suggestion from Dr Gomez-Pinilla’s review is that people should eat more antioxidants. That idea is not new. Antioxidants are reckoned by many to protect against the general effects of ageing. Vitamin E, for example, which is found in vegetable oils, nuts and green leafy vegetables, has been linked (in mice) with the retention of memory into old age, and also with longer life.
Dr Gomez-Pinilla, however, gives the antioxidant story a particular twist. The brain, he observes, is peculiarly susceptible to oxidative damage. It consumes a lot of energy, and the reactions that release this energy also generate oxidising chemicals. Moreover, brain tissue contains a great deal of oxidisable material, particularly in the fatty membranes surrounding nerve cells.
That suggests, among other things, the value of a diet rich in berries. These have been shown to have strong antioxidant effects, though only a small number of their constituents have been evaluated in detail. One group that has been evaluated, the polyphenols, has been shown in rodents to reduce oxidative damage and to boost the ability to learn and retain memories. In particular, these chemicals affect changes in response to different types of stimulation in the hippocampus (a part of the brain that is crucial to the formation of long-term memories, and which is the region most affected by Alzheimer’s disease). Another polyphenol, curcumin, has also been shown to have protective effects. It reduces memory deficits in animals with brain damage. It may be no coincidence that in India, where a lot of curcumin is consumed (it is the substance that makes turmeric yellow), Alzheimer’s disease is rarer than elsewhere.

A. 어휘
antioxidant 산화방지제, 老化(노화)방지제. reckon 看做(간주)하다, 평가하다.
retention 보유, 유지, 기억력. twist 新案(신안), 비틀어 꼬기, 밧줄.
susceptible 영향 받기 쉬운(to), 민감한. oxidative 酸化(산화)의. reaction 화학반응.
release 방출하다. generate 生成(생성)하다. oxidize 산화시키다. chemical 화학물질.
tissue 조직. oxidisable material 산화작용물질. membrane 皮膜(피막), 얇은 막.
nerve cell 신경세포. berry 液果(액과)[딸기, 포도 등]. antioxidant effects
산화방지 효력. constituent 성분. evaluate 평가하다. rodent 齧齒類(설치류)의 동물.
reduce 감소시키다. boost 끌어올리다. retain 유지하다. response 반응.
stimulation 자극. hippocampus [뇌의] 海馬狀隆起(해마상융기).
crucial 결정적인, 아주 중대한, 가혹한. formation 형성. region 部位(부위).
curcumin 생강과 식물(curcuma)에 함유되어 있는 성분. deficit 不足額(부족액), 적자.
coincidence [우연의] 일치. substance 물질.
turmeric 심황[ 인도산 생강과 식물의 일종]