Reading_B1+_Why do we love junk food?
Take a look at the video to practicing listening skills.
Re-watch the video and use the transcript below to follow along while you watch and listen to the speaker in the video. Be sure to highlight and note any new vocabulary words.
Extra Practice: Prepare a 2 minute presentation about the details of the story for the beginning of next class.
“You asked us, "Why do we love junk food?"
junk food - pre-prepared or packaged food that has low nutritional value.
”A lot of money and strategy goes into designing junk food. A lot of effort also goes into designing junk food too.”
strategy - a plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim.
effort - physical or mental activity needed to achieve something.
”The goal is to make it cheap and handy. And despite the fact that it has little to no nutritional value, the goal is to keep you wanting more.”
handy - useful or convenient.
nutritional - the process by which the body takes in and uses food, esp. food that it needs to stay healthy.
”It's typically high in things like salt, sugar and fat. They trigger pleasure centers in our brains, making us feel oh-so-yummy-good and making us want to keep eating.”
trigger - to cause something to start.
”See, our brains are relatively big. They require a lot of energy to do their thing. So we evolved to love high-energy food.”
evolved - having developed or changed over a long period of time.
Beyond the super high calorie count, junk food makers have a million tricks up their sleeves when it comes to making their products tempting.
calorie - energy-producing value in food when put into the body.
trick up your sleeves - you have a secret strategy to use when the time is right.
Like the melt-in-your-mouth quality that tricks us. We think the calories have magically floated away.
melt in your month - to taste delicious and feel soft or become soft when put in one's mouth (for example - chocolate).
float away - to disappear quietly, softly or without much effort.
Or boosting flavor just short of what's called, "sensory specific satiety." It is flavor that's so big, it overwhelms your brain. And you end up not wanting anymore.
Boost - to increase .significantly
So despite knowing it's not good for us -- eating it is linked with things like obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and even cancer -- junk food can be really hard to resist.
Linked - Connected or related to something
Obesity - excessive and large amounts of body fat
Food for thought, for sure.
food for thought - something that makes you think about or consider something new
Bonus exercise - Write about your opinion on food, diet and junk food. Use the following questions to guide your response:
What types of junk food do you enjoy?
How has your taste in food changed overtime?
What diets do you think are the most beneficial? Which ones could be potentially harmful?
What types of melt-in-your-mouth food do you love?
Have you ever counted or tracked the amount of calories you eat?
What advice would you give to someone who is obese and is trying to loose weight?
Adapted from: https://www.tweentribune.com/article/tween56/why-do-we-love-junk-food/
