Unit 5 Eating Habits
Section 1. Warming-up
1.1. It’s common knowledge that healthy eating is an integral part of a healthy life- style. A proper diet helps people feel their best and have plenty of energy. It's never too late to change – establish good eating habits, get rid of harmful ones and you start to reap the benefits.
But do you differentiate between healthy and unhealthy eating habits? Have a look at the eating habits given below and arrange them into 2 columns: column A - healthy habits, B – unhealthy ones.
1.2. Can you enlarge upon the lists of habits you’ve made?
Section 2. Reading
2.1. Before reading the text answer these questions then read the text and compare your ideas with the specialists’ opinion. Don’t forget to do the vocabulary work suggested below the text.
Questions
What nutrients are essential for healthy living?
Is counting calories enviable if you want to keep a well-balanced diet and watch your waist-line?
What is better: to change your diet drastically or make changes in it gradually? Why?
What does moderation in eating mean?
Is it a good idea to eliminate certain product from the diet?
What can help you to choose the right portion size?
Why is it desirable to eat with other people?
Do people sometimes take thirst for hunger?
What are the main nutritious benefits of vegetables and fruit?
Healthy Eating
Healthy eating means eating a variety of foods that give you the nutrients you need to maintain your health, feel good, and have energy. These nutrients include protein, carbohydrates, fat, water, vitamins, and minerals.
Nutrition is important for everyone. When combined with being physically active and maintaining a healthy weight, eating well is an excellent way to help your body stay strong and healthy. What you eat can affect your immune system, your mood, and your energy level.
Healthy eating tip 1: Set yourself up for success
To set yourself up for success, think about planning a healthy diet as a number of small, manageable steps rather than one big drastic change. If you approach the changes gradually and with commitment, you will have a healthy diet sooner than you think.
Simplify. Instead of being overly concerned with counting calories or measuring portion sizes, think of your diet in terms of colour, variety and freshness - then it should be easier to make healthy choices. Focus on finding foods you love and easy recipes that incorporate a few fresh ingredients. Gradually, your diet will become healthier and more delicious.
Start slow and make changes to your eating habits over time. Trying to make your diet healthy overnight isn’t realistic or smart. Changing everything at once usually leads to cheating or giving up on your new eating plan. Make small steps, like adding a salad (full of different colour vegetables) to your diet once a day or switching from butter to olive oil when cooking. As your small changes become a habit, you can continue to add more healthy choices to your diet.
Every change you make to improve your diet matters. You don’t have to be perfect and you don’t have to completely eliminate foods you enjoy to have a healthy diet. The long term goal is to feel good, have more energy and reduce the risk of diseases. Don’t let your missteps derail you - every healthy food choice you make counts.
Healthy eating tip 2: Moderation is key
A key foundation for any healthy diet is moderation. We all need a balance of all necessary elements - carbohydrates, protein, fat, fiber, vitamins, and minerals - to sustain a healthy body.
Try not to think of certain foods as “off limits.” When you ban certain foods or food groups, it is natural to want those foods more, and then feel like a failure if you give in to temptation. If you are drawn towards sweet, salty or unhealthy foods, start by reducing portion sizes and not eating them as often. Later you may find yourself craving them less or thinking of them as only occasional indulgences.
Think smaller portions. Serving sizes have ballooned recently, particularly in restaurants. When dining out, choose a starter instead of an entrée, split a dish with a friend, and don’t order supersized anything. At home, use smaller plates, think about serving sizes in realistic terms and start small. Visual cues can help with portion sizes - your serving of meat, fish or chicken should be the size of a deck of cards. A teaspoon of oil or salad dressing is about the size of a machbook and your slice of bread should be the size of a CD case.
Healthy eating tip 3: It's not just what you eat, it's how you eat
Healthy eating is about more than the food on your plate - it is also about how you think about food. Healthy eating habits can be learned and it is important to slow down and think about food as nourishment rather than just something to gulp down in between meetings or on the way to pick up the kids.
Eat with others whenever possible. Eating with other people has numerous social and emotional benefits - particularly for children - and allows you to model healthy eating habits. Eating in front of the TV or computer often leads to mindless overeating.
Take time to chew your food and enjoy mealtimes. Chew your food slowly, savoring every bite. We tend to rush though our meals, forgetting to actually taste the flavors and feel the textures of what is in our mouths. Reconnect with the joy of eating.
Listen to your body. Ask yourself if you are really hungry, or have a glass of water to see if you are thirsty instead of hungry. During a meal, stop eating before you feel full. It actually takes a few minutes for your brain to tell your body that it has had enough food, so eat slowly.
Eat breakfast, and eat smaller meals throughout the day. A healthy breakfast can jumpstart your metabolism, and eating small, healthy meals throughout the day (rather than the standard three large meals) keeps your energy up and your metabolism going.
Healthy eating tip 4: Fill up on colorful fruits and vegetables
The bright, deep coloured fruits and vegetables are low in calories and contain higher concentrations of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fibre - and different colors provide different benefits. Some great choices are:
Greens: Greens are packed with calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, zinc, vitamins A, C, E and K, and they help strengthen the blood and respiratory systems. Be adventurous with your greens and branch out beyond bright and dark green lettuce - kale, mustard greens, broccoli, Chinese cabbage are just a few of the options.
Sweet vegetables: Naturally sweet vegetables add healthy sweetness to your meals and reduce your cravings for other sweets. Some examples of sweet vegetables are corn, carrots, beets, sweet potatoes or yams, winter squash, and onions.
Fruit: A wide variety of fruit is also vital to a healthy diet. Fruit provides fiber, vitamins and antioxidants. Berries are cancer-fighting, apples provide fiber, oranges and mangos offer vitamin C, and so on.
Vocabulary work
Find in the text words matching the definitions.
extreme or forceful; severe
in or as if in the course of one night; suddenly
to remove or take out; to get rid of
to maintain or prolong
an intense desire or longing
a pleasure, habit, caprice
to increase or expand significantly and rapidly
a dish served before a main course
to taste or smell, esp. appreciatively
Insert prepositions into the gaps where necessary.
to affect … one’s immune system
to be concerned … counting calories
to switch ….butter …olive oil
a foundation …a healthy diet
to give in …temptation
to choose a start ... …an entrée
to gulp down … …meetings
to rush … meals
to eat healthy meals … the day
to be low … calories
to be packed … calcium
to focus … finding easy recipes
3. Provide English equivalents for the following Russian words and word combinations.
Питательные вещества, белки, жиры, углеводы, витамины, минералы, размер порций, подсчитывать калории, простые рецепты, умеренность, привычки питания, неосознаваемое переедание, почувствовать насыщение, метаболизм, антиоксиданты, клетчатка.
Section 3. Listening
3.1. Study the lexical units you are going to hear in the recording.
Recording 1
lard – сало
to reveal – раскрывать
fiber – клетчатка
beans – бобы
lentils –чечевица
bran - отруби
raw – сырой
carnivore – плотоядный
calcium – кальций
joint – сустав
rheumatism – ревматизм
palatable – аппетитный, вкусный
cholesterol -холестерин
Guinness – «Гиннесс» (ирландское крепкое темное пиво)
3. 2. Listen to the monologue in which Vivien describes her eating habits. Mark the statements below as true or false.
Vivien agrees with the proverb “You are what you eat”.
She believes that in Greece people eat healthy food.
Vivien is a confirmed vegetarian and she never eats meat.
Vivien is sure that eating fish does more good to men than women.
Coffee has a powerful negative effect on Vivien’s nervous system.
Vivien suffers from insomnia if she drinks tea late in the evening.
She finds beer and wine tasty.