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B1+ English Reading Test
Read the text about how your diet can affect your mental health. Then choose the best answer (A, B, C, or D) for each question.
Your mental health starts in your gut
You may think of the brain and the gut — that is, the intestines — as separate, but the connection between them is stronger than it seems. Some ancient Greek physicians, like Hippocrates, believed that many diseases begin in the gut and emphasized the importance of digestion and diet for good health. In the 1600s, in one of his plays, Shakespeare mentioned that what we eat affects our personality. As a hospital manager in London between 1914 and 1930, Dr John Porter-Phillips tried to treat depression with a special kind of milk. He was one of the first to suggest that gut health could have a serious impact on how we feel.
Today, scientists are proving Dr Porter-Phillips was right. They now understand more about how our gut communicates with the brain. The vagus nerve sends signals from the stomach to the brain and can affect mood, stress, and even sleep. Exercise, sleep, fresh air, and social connections all play important roles in our overall well-being, and a healthy diet is just one piece of the puzzle. But what you eat has a direct effect on both your physical and mental health.
One of the biggest problems today is ultra-processed foods. These are foods with many added chemicals, sugars, and artificial ingredients, like chips, soft drinks, ready-made meals, and fast food. Studies show that eating too much of these foods can be harmful to our healthy bacteria – the tiny living things in our gut. If the food we eat regularly is difficult to digest, it can increase our chances of suffering from anxiety and depression.
So what kind of diet could help us look after our body and mind? You probably already know that eating fruits, vegetables, and nuts is good for you. Also, it’s better to replace processed grains, like white bread and pasta, with whole-grain foods, like brown bread and cereal–without added sugar, of course! But nothing supports your gut like fermented foods, such as yogurt, kimchi, and sauerkraut. These foods create a balanced environment for healthy bacteria but where harmful bacteria can’t survive.
In the Western world, communities are already using this knowledge to make a difference. In South London, near a hospital, patients who suffer from anxiety and other disorders run a café. They only cook and serve meals that are good for your gut. But in other parts of the world, like Sub-Saharan Africa, the results are not always the same. Some studies, although based on limited data, have shown that in some countries, a healthy diet improves mental health. In other parts of the region, however, the results are not as positive. This is possibly due to the lack of a strong family or community support system. These differences suggest that further research is needed to have a clearer picture of the situation.
Some argue that a healthy diet of fresh and non-processed foods is not accessible to everyone. For this reason, scientists are looking for a quick and easy alternative to improve people’s mental health. They have been trying to work out which bacteria are useful for this purpose and which aren’t to create a brain-friendly pill. One day, you might take a supplement with special bacteria to boost your mood or reduce stress and anxiety. But until then, the best advice is still the same: eat healthy food, do some exercise, sleep well, and drink plenty of water.
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