English lesson 'Food and Drinks' (discussing)

Task 1. Read the paragraph. When you finish reading, discuss what you have read and explain reasons why people eat. Look at the highlighted words/phrases and explain the meaning of the words/phrases before telling the reasons. Use a dictionary if necessary.

Jigsaw reading.

Put the learners in groups of 3 people. Give each learner a paragraph to read. When they finish reading they share their information with the other group mates. While listening to the speech, other learners should fill in the table. Before starting reading the paragraphs, explain the learners that they need to fill in the table while they are listening to their group mate.

Eat to Live, Don’t Live to Eat

The title sounds easy right? Eat to live, don’t live to eat. Simple enough. So why do I go to the park and half of the people I see are overweight or severely obese? Why are their kids fat? Why do my coworkers have fat rolls that hang off the back of their chairs? It’s a question I have asked myself over and over again. There have been many theories as to why people are fatter today than they were 100 years ago. Now you can choose to believe the BS about good calories and bad calories or that we are fatter because we don’t eat like our ancestors.

Answer the questions: Why are people fatter today than they were 100 years ago? What are the reasons?

We are Emotional Eaters

Many of us are emotional eaters. We sometimes eat to relieve stress and find comfort in eatingcertain foods. While I have not looked at statistics, I am willing to bet those of us at high stress jobs are more likely to be overweight than those in less stressful positions. I witnessed this at a previous job where over half of the workers there were overweight and some were dangerously obese. The day job was very stressful and the cafeteria served some really calorie dense

food. People would go to lunch and take the edge off by eating a foot long chili cheese dog or go down the road and polish off a few big macs. Then when it was time to head home, I am sure many hit the pint of ice cream for their post dinner indulgence. I have also noticed people working in lower stress environments to be slimmer and more fit. I supposed they had more energy and vigor outside of work to be more active than their stressed out counterparts. Now this could all be coincidence and anecdotal but I have a hunch there is more to it than that.

Lots and Lots of Food

If you live in America, you know how easy food is to come by. We are constantly being told to eat thanks to TV, radio and the internet (I am thinking about ordering a pizza right now because of the Domino’s ad I see on the web page). This seems to screw with our natural cravings. It’s like we only become hungry because food is always in front of our face. So we only think we are hungry.

We eat and then a few hours later are bombarded again with more advertisements of food. Time to go to Wendy’s! No wonder we are a bunch of fatties.

Lack of Balance

This is probably the biggest factor in the obesity epidemic we are facing. The fact is most people are very sedentary. We wake up, go to work, sit for 8 hours and return home to sit some more until we hit the sack. Now this may sound a bit exaggerated but it’s not far from the truth for many. Most of the people living like this are very chunky too. People like to argue and say they have a metabolic disorder. They say “I eat the same amount that my grandparents used to eat and they were always thin.” I wonder if working on a farm and doing manual labor had anything to do with them staying so slim?

If you are sedentary and desire to maintain your weight it’s most definitely a great idea to begin working out a few times per week, burn some calories and move around a bit more than usual. Perhaps you can begin walking on your lunch break. If you don’t have time to do any extra activity, then the only way to manage your weight is by watching what you eat and keep it at your maintenance intake. Now ideally, you will be doing both of these(exercise and watching your diet) for optimal results

Fill in the table.

Answer keys

Task 2 Learners’ may write their answers using their own words or paraphrasing them.

Glossary