General discussion

I. Study the table below and comment on the facts given there.

Popular ways of losing weight

Cut out snacks and desserts	▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ 42%
Cut down on food of all kinds	▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ 37%
Take more exercise	▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ 32%
Cut down on fat	▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ 32%
Don’t eat at night	▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ 29%
Eat more fibre (fruit & vegetables)	▄▄▄▄▄ 20%
Count calories	▄▄▄▄ 19%
Cut down on red meat	▄▄▄▄ 19%
Eat low-calorie foods	▄▄ 12%
Follow a particular diet	■ 1%

Which of the methods mentioned above are most effective in your opinion? Give your reasons.

II. Read the following quotations and comment on them.

1) On the Continent people have good food; in England people have good table manners (George Mikes).

2) If the English can survive their food, they can survive anything (G.B.Shaw).

3) Even today, well-bred English girls are taught to boil all vegetables for at least a month, just in case one of the dinner guests comes without his teeth (C.Trillin).

4) English cooking? You just put things into boiling water and then take them out again after a long while (Anonymous French chef).

5) Britain is no longer totally a white place where people ride horses, wear long frocks and drink tea. The national dish is no longer fish and chips, it’s curry (Marianne Jean-Baptiste, a British actress).

III. Translate the statements below and discuss them.

1) A gourmet is just a glutton with brains (Philip W. Haberman).

2) We are not content with appreciating the good things … Appetite grows with what it feeds on. The good is not enough to satisfy our greedy appreciation; we must swallow the bad as well (A. Huxley).

3) … frozen foods, package foods, TV dinners, fast food, franchises, preservatives and additives – all stem from a culture that made pragmatism, step saving and time saving virtues in themselves (Time Magazine).

4) For some reason over-eating is considered the mark of the beast, and over-drinking the mark of rather a fine fellow (A. Milne).

5) I feel about airplanes the way I feel about diets. It seems to me that they are wonderful things for other people to go on (Jean Kerr).

6) Exercise is bunk. If you are healthy, you don’t need it; it you are sick you shouldn’t take it (H. Ford).

7) The twentieth century will be remembered chiefly, not as an age of political conflicts and technical inventions, but as an age in which human society dared to think of the health of the whole human race as a practical objective (A. Toynbee).

8) The first law of dietetics is: if it tastes good, it’s bad for you (I. Asimov).

IV. Comment on the following proverbs and sayings in connection with the problems under discussion.

The appetite comes with eating.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

A hungry man is an angry man.

One man’s meat is another man’s poison.

As you brew, so you must drink.

Eat at pleasure, drink with measure.

Fasting comes after feasting.

Diet cures more than the lancet.

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