INSTRUCTIONS TO WORK ON THE VIDEO :

Picture warm, gooey cookies, crunchy candies, velvety cakes, waffle cones piled high with ice cream. Is your mouth watering? Are you craving dessert? Why? What happens in the brain that makes sugary foods so hard to resist? 

Sugar is a general term used to describe a class of molecules called carbohydrates, and it's found in a wide variety of food and drink. Just check the labels on sweet products you buy. Glucose, fructose, sucrose, maltose, lactose, dextrose, and starch are all forms of sugar. So are high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice, raw sugar, and honey. And sugar isn't just in candies and desserts, it's also added to tomato sauce, yoghurt, dried fruit, flavour waters, or granola bars.

Since sugar is everywhere, it's important to understand how it affects the brain. What happens when sugar hits your tongue? And does eating a little bit of sugar make you crave more? 

You take a bite of cereal. The sugars it contains activate the sweet-taste receptors, part of the taste buds on the tongue. These receptors send a signal up to the brain stem, and from there, it forks off into many areas of the forebrain, one of which is the cerebral cortex. Different sections of the cerebral cortex process different tastes: bitter, salty, umami, and, in our case, sweet. From here, the signal activates the brain's reward system. This reward system is a series of electrical and chemical pathways across several different regions of the brain. It's a complicated network, but it helps answer a single, subconscious question: should I do that again? That warm, fuzzy feeling you get when you taste Grandma's chocolate cake? That's your reward system saying, "Mmm, yes!" And it's not just activated by food. Socializing, sexual behaviour, and drugs are just a few examples of things and experiences that also activate the reward system. But over-activating this reward system kick-starts a series of unfortunate events: loss of control, craving, and increased tolerance to sugar. 

Let's get back to our bite of cereal. It travels down into your stomach and eventually into your gut. And guess what? There are sugar receptors here, too. They are not taste buds, but they do send signals telling your brain that you're full or that your body should produce more insulin to deal with the extra sugar you're eating. 

The major currency of our reward system is dopamine, an important chemical or neurotransmitter. There are many dopamine receptors in the forebrain, but they're not evenly distributed. Certain areas contain dense clusters of receptors, and these dopamine hot spots are a part of our reward system. Drugs like alcohol, nicotine, or heroin send dopamine into overdrive, leading some people to constantly seek that high, in other words, to be addicted. Sugar also causes dopamine to be released, though not as violently as drugs. And sugar is rare among dopamine-inducing foods. Broccoli, for example, has no effect, which probably explains why it's so hard to get kids to eat their veggies. 

Speaking of healthy foods, let's say you're hungry and decide to eat a balanced meal. You do, and dopamine levels spike in the reward system hot spots. But if you eat that same dish many days in a row, dopamine levels will spike less and less, eventually leveling out. That's because when it comes to food, the brain evolved to pay special attention to new or different tastes. Why? Two reasons: first, to detect food that's gone bad. And second, because the more variety we have in our diet, the more likely we are to get all the nutrients we need. To keep that variety up, we need to be able to recognize a new food, and more importantly, we need to want to keep eating new foods. And that's why the dopamine levels off when a food becomes boring. 

Now, back to that meal. What happens if in place of the healthy, balanced dish, you eat sugar-rich food instead? If you rarely eat sugar or don't eat much at a time, the effect is similar to that of the balanced meal. But if you eat too much, the dopamine response does not level out. In other words, eating lots of sugar will continue to feel rewarding. In this way, sugar behaves a little bit like a drug. It's one reason people seem to be hooked on sugary foods. 

So, think back to all those different kinds of sugar. Each one is unique, but every time any sugar is consumed, it kick-starts a domino effect in the brain that sparks a rewarding feeling. Too much, too often, and things can go into overdrive. So, yes, overconsumption of sugar can have addictive effects on the brain, but a wedge of cake once in a while won't hurt you.

According to the video, are these statements true or false?

1. We find sugar most of all in candies and desserts.
2. Sugar is a synonym of carbohydrates.
3. Sugar deactivates the reward system of our brain.
4. The reward system can be deregulated by eating a lot of sugar.
5. The brain is the only place where there are receptors.
6. The brain can get tired of food.
7. Sugar always produces a rewarding feeling, however that doesn’t mean that it is addictive.

1. F
2. T
3. F
4. T
5. F
6. T
7. F

I) Here are two recipe without any added sugar. Unfortunately the papers containing the ingredients have been cut in half and mixed. Can you put them together ?

Stuffed pepper

Arroz con pollo

2) lb. tsp. c. oz. All of these are measurement for cooking in imperial units.

Can you match the imperial units to their International Systeme counterpart (hint : look at what is used fo liquid and what is used for solid and which are big and which are small

1 lb.                                   A 20 25 cl

1 tsp.                                 B 15 ml

1 c.                                   C 30 grams

1 oz.                                 D 450 grams

1)

Stuffed pepper

 A D

Arroz con pollo

B C

2)

1 lb. (pound)                           D 450 grams

1 tsp. (tablespoon)                 B 15 ml

1 c. (cup)                                A 20 25 cl

1 oz. (once)                            C 30 grams

Traduire les phrases suivantes en anglais, issues du texte, puis retrouver ces phrases dans les deux premiers paragraphes du texte en anglais:

1. Pourquoi ? Que se passe t'il dans le cerveau pour que nous ne puissions que si difficilement resister à l"'appel des aliments sucrés?

2. Mais sur-soliciter ce mechanisme de recompense lance toute une serie d'evenement facheux : perte de controle, manque, et tolerance accrue au sucre.

Essential Grammar in use p 155-156

unit 74 One/ones

Complete the sentences. use a/an .... one. Use the words on the list.

better  big  clean  different  new  old

1. This cup is dirtty. Can I have ..... ?
2. I'm going to sell my car and buy ....
3. That's not a very good photograph but this is .....
4. I want today' newspaper. This is ....
5. This box is too small I need ...
6. Why do we always go to the same restaurant?  Let's go to .....

1. a clean one
2. a new one
3. a better one
4. an old one
5. a big one
6. a different one

(please note that this definitions are according to the context)

Watering (-ing form of the verb to water) - produce saliva, typically in response to the sight or smell of appetizing food.

Crave (verb, to crave) - feel a powerful desire for (something).

Taste buds - any of the clusters of bulbous nerve endings on the tongue and in the lining of the mouth which provide the sense of taste.

Brain stem - the central trunk of the brain.

Forks off (3^rd person singular of the phasal verb to fork off) - to diverge into two or more separate paths.

Gut (noun) - the stomach or belly.

Kick-start (verb, to kick-start) - to make something start to happen

Clusters (noun, plural of cluster) - a group of similar things or people positioned or occurring closely together.

Overdrive (verb, to overdrive) - work to exhaustion.

Spike (verb, to spike) - to rise to a higher amount (usually before going down again)

Peseshet is a doctor and a teacher. The video describes a typical day of her life.

Now it is you turn. Write a text :

- Present yourself.

- Describe your profession.

- Tell what you did to get this job.

- Describe a typical day of your life : what usually happens when you are at work?

You can book a one to one class with a teacher who will correct your writing exercise.  One to one classes can be online, with a video call, anytime of the day. 

This gives you full flexibility for your timetable.

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