3.1.2. Comprehension Questions

1. Into what kind of groups can you divide the above given tips?

2. Which recommendations do you find really useful and which do you find unpractical? Name the best advice.

3. Can you add any tips of your own?

4. Can you fit in these recommendations into your everyday life?

3.2. Skim the text and distinguish the factors influencing the quality of our food described by the author. What Food Is Good For us?

Many of us are certainly aware of the fact, that having the best, freshest, most wholesome food possible is one of the most significant consideration of your life. But unfortunately, food does not receive the attention it deserves. Because of vested commercial interests, greed, convenience, apathy and gross misinformation far too many people have been lulled into believing that anything they can get down their throats is okay to put there. It’s not. And to chose really appropriate food is quite a challenge.

The first biggest problem is that everywhere you turn you come across processed food. A food that was once actually a food created by nature and capable of supplying the needs of your body is processed – it is heated, reheated, pulverized, fragmented, impaired – in short, it’s denatured and devitalized.

The second problem – chemicals are added. There are chemicals for everything and anything you can think of: colorings to either intensify or modify existing colors; dyes to enhance the appearance, preservatives to prevent spoilage – so that three weeks after buying a loaf of white bread it is still soft; conditioners, stabilizers, chemicals to prevent fermentation, chemicals for texture, firmness, flavoring agents by the trainload, chemicals to either increase to decrease moisture content and etc and etc. So natural foods have turned into a conglomeration of high-priced chemicals designed to stimulate food.

And finally – numerous marketing/advertising firms are hired to convince you to buy the product. Enough advertising could get some people to buy and eat tar if it were presented in the right way. Don’t laugh. People are already eating things as bad – or worse. Ads depict happy healthy people enjoying the product. Everything but the actual value of food is being advertised.

Have you ever heard anyone say “I eat all the time, but I’m always hungry!” Or perhaps you found yourself prowling around the kitchen looking for something to eat only an hour after a meal, even though there is simply no reason you should be hungry. The matter is that when you eat food which has had its nutrients destroyed, you fill up, but because the food is “empty”, you feel you still need more food. So if you want to be healthy, full of energy and actually alive (!) you should eat living food! You may ask: what a living food is? The answer is as follows: a living food is any food that has not been altered in any way from the way it was created by nature. However, we don’t want to give you an impression that you must eat exclusively uncooked food from the plant kingdom to experience health and longevity. But what we suggest is that the more unprocessed, living plant foods you do eat, the better. Of course, we must always consider what we call the real versus the ideal. It would be ideal to eat only totally pure living food, but that is simply not a realistic expectation. The reality is that we all like meat, pizza, ice cream etc. But if living foods – like fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts predominate in your diet, then health will predominate in your life. The suggestion is not that you try to turn your life overnight with a total commitment to eating only living food, but that you increase the amount of living food. Such changes will never become an ordeal. Eating should remain a joy. And you will not skip your lunch or breakfast. As you feel better you will automatically become more enthused and will naturally progress at your own pace. And you will notice immediate positive changes take place, both physically and mentally. Because you are supplying your body with what it biologically craves. Like any machine, the better the fuel, the better the performance. You food is the single most important factor in building and preserving your health. Everyday it becomes more and more apparent how crucial food is to health. Now is the time for you to recognize that you can dramatically affect the length and quality of your life. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Do it now. Even if the changes you make in your food consumption are almost imperceptible, you will still see improvement. See for yourself the remarkable difference you can produce in every area of your life by rewarding your body with less processed dead food in favor of more natural living food.

Source: Healthful Living Magazine, 2007, January issue

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