VOA慢速英语 商店提供健康食品选择培训

In-Store Training on Healthy Food Choices 商店提供健康食品选择培训

Processed foods are often among the products with lowest prices in American supermarkets. But processed foods often have high levels of salt, sugar and saturated¹ fat. Too much of those ingredients can cause obesity² -- meaning the person gains too much body fat. People can also become sick with disease if they eat a lot of processed foods with high levels of salt, sugar and fat.

Many poor families buy processed foods because they seem to cost less than fresh vegetables, fruits and whole wheat products.

But a national group is showing families that they can buy healthy foods for about the same amount of money as manufactured foods. The group, called Share Our Strength, was set up to fight hunger and poverty in the United States and worldwide. It offers a number of free programs to help Americans living on a budget eat a much better, healthier diet.

“How many of us like to look at sales when we shop? I want you to ignore the sales…”

Nutrition educator Lindsey Seegers is leading this tour at a store in Silver Spring, Maryland. She says people should make meal plans before they go to a store because it helps them eat healthier meals. She warns that if no plans are made, you might buy something that is not as healthy.

“...but there is the pizza, there is the ice cream on sale. A lot of times, those sales are sometimes going to be driving us to buy things that were (not) on our list, were not on our budget and, most important from my perspective, not the healthiest things. Absolutely, right?”

Lindsey Seegers says the people she teaches at the store do not have a lot of money so they need to spend it wisely.

“So how to come to the store with $10 and be able to get food for more than a day, for more than two days, especially when you have a family?”

The grocery store tour is offered several times a week. The class is part of Cooking Matters, which is a program of Share Our Strength. It begins in the fresh fruit and vegetable area of the store. People learn to compare prices and how to find the best value. And they learn that frozen³ fruits and vegetables can be a good choice. Many people believe that frozen foods do not have as many vitamins as fresh foods, but that is not always true.

“Why? Why do we want whole grains?”

“Fiber?”

“Fiber. Absolutely! Anything else?”

Lindsey Seegers is telling her students about the benefits of whole wheat foods. She then shows them how to find and carefully read information on food packages. The boxes or bags often tell about the product inside, including how much salt, sugar and fat they have. She says people should avoid foods with high amounts of those ingredients. She says it is important to read the nutrition information.

“People are very confused looking at the front of the label. Something that might say ‘multigrain’ or ‘contains whole grain’ is, in fact, an item that’s primarily white flour. For someone who is diabetic, that difference makes a huge difference to their health. And this tour really allows people to look, turn the package over, to look at the ingredients, and see what’s crucial and what’s really in the food and how it impacts their health.”

Tia Taylor says she is happy she signed up for the program.

“This is a free program that’s offered that can help you live better, something that will have a long-term benefit. One of the main things I learned was the unit price, like really paying attention to the unit price on a sticker. So that was really reinforced today and also frozen foods. I use a lot of frozen foods. So I was glad to hear Lindsey talk about that and the nutritional⁴ value in the frozen foods.”

Tina Pawlik said the information she learned helped her change the way she eats.

“I was eating a lot of pasta, but I found that you don’t have to eat pasta to save on a budget. I was eating pasta because it was cheap. I thought it was impossible to get healthy food on a small budget.”

But after learning about how to shop more effectively, she and others learned that it is possible if they make better choices at the grocery store.

Words in This Story

ingredient – n. one of the things that are used to make a food or product

grocery – n. food

tour – n. a trip or visit

perspective – n. a way of thinking about and understanding something

benefit – n. a good or helpful result or effect

label – n. a piece of paper that identifies and describes a product

primarily – adv. mainly

diabetic – adj. relating to or affected⁵ with diabetes⁶

crucial – adj. extremely important

impact – v. to have an effect on (something or someone)

unit price – n. identification⁷ and labeling of items for sale with the cost per unit,

pasta – n. a food made from a mixture of flour, water and sometimes eggs

cheap – adj. not costing a lot of money; low-cost

1 saturated   

a.饱和的，充满的

参考例句：

• The continuous rain had saturated the soil. 连绵不断的雨把土地淋了个透。
• a saturated solution of sodium chloride 氯化钠饱和溶液

2 obesity   

n.肥胖，肥大

参考例句：

• One effect of overeating may be obesity.吃得过多能导致肥胖。
• Sugar and fat can more easily lead to obesity than some other foods.糖和脂肪比其他食物更容易导致肥胖。

3 frozen   

adj.冻结的，冰冻的

参考例句：

• He was frozen to death on a snowing night.在一个风雪的晚上，他被冻死了。
• The weather is cold and the ground is frozen.天寒地冻。

4 nutritional   

adj.营养的，滋养的

参考例句：

• A diet lacking in nutritional value will not keep a person healthy.缺乏营养价值的饮食不能维持人的健康。
• The labels on food products give a lot of information about their nutritional content.食品上的标签提供很多关于营养成分的信息。

5 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

6 diabetes   

n.糖尿病

参考例句：

• In case of diabetes, physicians advise against the use of sugar.对于糖尿病患者，医生告诫他们不要吃糖。
• Diabetes is caused by a fault in the insulin production of the body.糖尿病是由体內胰岛素分泌失调引起的。

7 identification   

n.视为同一，证明同一，确认

参考例句：

• He's made a formal identification of the body.他正式确认了死者身份。
• We should have identification card on the person when we go out.我们外出时应随身携带身份证。