Unit 3 Body and Mind
G. READING
GLOBAL DIET CHOICE
Most words in the English language have more than one simple, or basic, meaning. One example is the word diet. The most general definition of the noun is “a person's or a group's usual food choices and habits.” In a more specific definition, diet means “an eating plan with only certain kinds or amounts of food.” For instance, a diet is often a plan to lose weight. And as a verb, diet means “to lose weight.”
People can “go on a diet,” meaning they are starting a program to lose weight.
All over the world, the global diet includes fast food—
prepared items from inexpensive restaurants, snack bars, or food stands. Some examples of typical American fast food are hamburgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, and fried chicken.
Some common international fast foods might be German sausage and schnitzel, Italian pizza and pasta, Mexican, tacos and burritos, Middle Eastern shish, kebab and falafel, Japanese sushi and tempura, and Chinese egg rolls and noodles. Why is this kind of food becoming even more universal, or worldwide? First, fast-food restaurants usually prepare and serve the items quickly. Second, many fast-food restaurants are part of fast-food chains (eating places with the same name and company owner). For instance, the biggest and most famous American fast-food chain serves hamburgers in every continent on the planet except Antarctica. Its menu items may not be exactly alike in all cultures, but its 25,000 restaurants all have the same look and style. The atmosphere seems comfortable and familiar.
Third, the items at fast-food places usually cost less than meals in formal restaurants or special dishes made at home.
And finally, people usually enjoy the taste of the food, even if it is not very nutritious (healthy).
How do most people make their diet decisions? Individual choices are often based on former habits, cost and convenience, beliefs about health and nutrition, and ideas about physical beauty. Some people learn to like certain foods in childhood, and they don’t change later in life. Many people have busy lives, so they buy or prepare food and eat it as quickly as possible. Some meal-planners think only fresh and “natural” food is nutritious, so they buy vegetables, fruits, and foods without additives (chemical substances) and prepare it in healthy ways. People with health problems—like high-blood pressure or diabetes (a blood-sugar disorder)—may be on special non-salt, or non- sugar diets. The nutritional requirements of very young or very old people may be different from the needs of others.
Some cultures prefer a slim body to a well-rounded one, so people are always trying to lose weight. They may follow popular diets, such as a low-carb diet—an eating system high in protein but low in refined carbohydrates.
Unlike individual food plans, the diets of whole cultures and regions come from location, history, and tradition. For example, the typical Mexican diet is a combination of foods from pre-Columbian, Spanish, and French cultures. It is rich in complex carbohydrates (com, beans, rice, breads) and protein (beans, eggs, fish, meat). Fish and fish products from the seas around Japan are one of the most important parts of the traditional Japanese diet. Rich in vitamins and minerals, seafood is served grilled, baked, raw, dried, pickled, hot, and cold. Soy products (miso, tofu, and bean paste), fermented vegetables, and rice are also important in the typical Japanese diet. Religious practices may also greatly affect diet. For instance, some Jewish people keep kosher (follow
the requirements of Jewish food preparation and eating).
These laws prohibit eating pork or bacon or other meat from pigs, shellfish, snake, or insects. In addition, people should not eat meat and dairy (milk products) at the same meal. In a similar way, Muslims follow the laws of eating halal, an Islamic system of eating only permitted foods.
Some foods, such as pork or insects, are not permitted.
Though people can eat some meat such as beef from cows, the animals must be killed in a special way, according to ritual. Also, for religious reasons, some Christians eat fish instead of meat on Fridays. They also limit their food choices during Lent (the 40 days before Easter) in the spring.
Universally, more and more meals include basic necessary food elements—protein, carbohydrates, and fats. Almost everywhere, some kind of meat, fish, dairy product, or another food with protein is part of a good breakfast, lunch, or dinner. There are also grains, breads, vegetables, fruit, and the like. Many dishes contain the necessary vitamins and minerals. A few families grow their own food, but most people buy food from eating places and markets in their communities. Food may be fresh, prepared, canned, frozen, or packaged. “Fast food” is very popular, and maybe it is becoming healthier. In some ways, diet choices are becoming more and more similar around the world. Even so, the variety of food choices is large now and is probably going to increase. Are cooking customs, eating habits, and food preferences all over the world becoming more or less healthy? Are they better or worse for human beings? These questions are interesting topics of research and discussion.
Read the five main-idea questions below from text above.
Which three details answer each question? Circle those and cross out the unrelated sentence.
1. What are some definitions of the word diet?
a. It means “ideas or information to think about.
b. It’s a person’s or a group's usual food choices or habits.
c. A diet can be an eating plan with only certain kinds or amounts of food.
d. It can be a way to lose weight.
2. In what ways are fast-food places now international?
a. You can find some of the same fast-food chains in different parts of the world
b. Quick and convenient items from America, Germany, Italy, Mexico, the Middle East, Japan, China, and other cultures are available.
c. Formal restaurant meals can be expensive or cheap, natural or prepared, non-fat or non-salt, low-carb and high-fat, and so on.
d. Fast-food chains often have a similar look and atmosphere in every country.
3. How do most individuals make decisions about food and diet?
a. Some adults still choose food from their childhoods because that food seems comfortable and familiar.
b. People with busy lives may choose fast convenience foods, and people with
c. health problems may choose “natural” foods or special diets.
d. Age and ideas about physical beauty can influence diet decisions, A well-rounded figure is healthier than a slim body image, so Americans prohibit popular diet plans.
4. What are some diets based on location, history, tradition, or religion?
a. The typical Mexican diet contains a combination of foods from its pre-Columbian, Spanish, and French history and traditions
b. Some people don't eat sugar because they are diabetic.
c. Because of the location of the country, fish and other seafood plays a major role in the Japanese diet—along with soy products, fermented vegetables, and rice, Religious Jews may “keep kosher,” Muslims may follow the laws of “halal,”
d. and devout Christians may make diet decisions for religious reasons.
5. How are diet choices becoming more similar around the world?
a. Typical meals in many cultures are healthy because they contain the necessary food elements—
protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, and minerals.
b. Fast-food restaurants are more common.
c. Most people can buy basic, natural, fresh, prepared, canned, frozen, or packaged foods from local markets and restaurants.
d. Health disorders like heart disease, strokes, and cancer are no longer elated to food and eating, H. WRITING
Discuss the Reading Text above with your classmate, talk about your answers to the following questions
1. What are your opinions of fast food and of fast-food restaurants? Give reasons for your answers!
2. What are your eating habits like? When and where do you eat? What kinds of food do you usually buy from machines, food stands, snack bars, restaurants, stores, and markets?
How do you prepare your food?
3. What are some reasons for your individual diet choices?
Are they based on habit, your culture, religion, convenience, beliefs about health and nutrition, ideas about body image, health problems, age, popular diet plans, or something else?
4. In general, do you think eating customs and habits in various places of the world are becoming more similar or more varied? Is the global diet changing? In good ways or bad? Give reasons for your opinions.