Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 423, Reading Food Labels.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 423.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Go there to download a learning guide for this episode.
You can also take a look at our ESL podcast store at.
This episode is a dialogue between Wendy and Ichiro.
They are going to be talking about something that you will find in most American grocery stores, food stores, and that is food labels.
The government requires that many or most kinds of food have a label on them that gives you information about what is inside the food and other what we would call nutritional information.
Let's get started.
I never read food labels until I started going out with Wendy.
She's studying to be a nutritionist.
When we go grocery shopping, she reads every label.
Well, I was thinking about it.
Why?
Each serving size has 30 grams of fat and 10 of those are trans fat.
The sodium level is through the roof and it's full of carbohydrates.
Do you really want to put that in your body?
Um, I guess not.
What are these cookies doing in the basket?
Those are my favorite.
I always get them.
I got the low-fat kind, see?
Even so, they're full of calories.
They may be reduced fat, but they're not low-fat.
You don't eat this kind of cereal, do you?
Yeah, I do.
Look at the percent daily values.
You get nearly no nutrients and no dietary fiber, and it's full of sugar.
I really like Wendy, but I'm not sure how long I can take this.
She has the best of intentions.
But will my stomach ever forgive me if I keep going out with her?
That's the question.
Our dialogue begins with Ichiru saying I never read food labels until I started going out with Wendy.
A food label is a piece of paper that has written information about it on a piece of packaging for food.
So it's on the outside of the food package where you will find the food label.
He says he never read food labels until he started going out with, until he started dating Wendy.
Wendy's been studying to be a nutritionist.
A nutritionist is a person whose job it is to help people eat better.
So they get better food, perhaps because they need to lose weight or for some medical reason.
He says, when we go grocery shopping, when we go shopping for food, Wendy reads every food label.
And then we go into the dialogue.
Wendy says, you're not buying that, are you?
Obviously, Wendy doesn't like what Ichiru is going to buy.
He says, well, I was thinking about it, meaning yes, I was planning on it.
Why?
Wendy says, each serving size has 30 grams of fat.
The serving size is the amount of a particular food that should be eaten by one person.
Many foods are sold in large containers, so there's more than one serving.
There's more than enough needed for one person.
There could be two or three or five or six servings in that package, meaning five or six people would have enough food to eat from that package.
Each serving size Wendy says has 30 grams of fat.
A gram is a unit of measurement for weight.
Fat is the oily part of foods.
Fat is a kind of food.
Food has protein and carbohydrates, and it also can have fat.
Certain kinds of fat are considered bad for your health, especially saturated fats and trans fats.
Wendy says that there are 10 grams of trans fat in that particular package.
Trans fat is now considered the most unhealthy kind of fat because it can increase or raise your risk of having a heart attack.
Wendy says the sodium level is through the roof.
Sodium is another word for salt.
It's the chemical element Na.
Through the roof is an expression that means very high or a very large number.
The price of gasoline in the U.S. went through the roof last year.
It became very expensive, very high in price.
So the sodium level is very high in this piece of food, and it's full of carbohydrates.
Remember we talked about food having different elements, different parts.
One element is carbohydrates.
Carbohydrate is the part of a food that is used to make energy, that the body uses to make energy.
Well, Wendy says to Ichiro, do you really want to put that in your body?
Of course, he probably does, but...
Because she is his girlfriend.
He wants to keep her happy.
So he says um, I guess not meaning no, I don't.
Wendy says, what are these cookies doing in the basket?
Meaning, why did you put cookies in their shopping basket?
A shopping basket is a container you use to put your food in in a store before you pay for it.
It helps you move the food around the store.
Ichiru says those are my favorite, my favorite cookies.
I always get them.
I got the low-fat kind, see?
When a food is called low fat, it means it has only a small amount of fat in it.
Some people try to buy food that is low fat because they think it is better for them.
However, Wendy points out, the cookies are still full of calories.
A calorie is a measurement of technically of the amount of energy in food.
If you eat more calories, you will gain more weight.
If you eat too many calories, I should say.
If you don't eat enough calories, then you will lose weight.
So when Wendy says the food is full of calories, she means they have a lot of calories, too many calories.
Wendy says, they may be reduced fat, but they're not low fat.
Food that is low fat has very little fat in it.
Food that is reduced fat has less fat than normal, but more fat than low fat.
So it's somewhere in between normal and low fat.
Wendy says, you don't eat this kind of cereal, do you?
Cereal is a food often eaten at breakfast.
Usually it's small dry pieces of food made from grains and you put them in a bowl with milk and you eat them with a spoon.
I have cereal every day for breakfast.
Wendy obviously doesn't like the cereal that Ichiru eats.
He says, yeah, I do, meaning I do eat that kind of cereal.
Wendy says, look at the percent daily values.
The percent daily value is the...
That is in that particular food.
So it might say, for example...
This bread has a percent daily value of 20 for vitamin A.
That means this food has about 20 of the vitamin A that you will need in any given day.
A single serving typically has that percentage.
Wendy says, you get nearly no nutrients.
You get nearly no means you get almost no nutrients.
A nutrient is a vitamin, a mineral or another part of the food that you eat that helps you become strong and keeps you healthy.
So nutrients are good things.
The food also has no dietary fiber.
Dietary fiber, or simply fiber, is a kind of food or part of food that you eat, but it cannot be used by the body.
The fiber but it helps keep the food moving through your body and that is dietary fiber's purpose.
Salads, whole grains...
These have typically a lot of dietary fiber.
She says the cereal is full of sugar.
Sugar, sometimes called sucrose or glucose, is the sweet-tasting part of food.
Sugar has a couple of different meanings in English, as does the word fat.
Take a look at our learning guide for additional explanations of both of these terms.
Ichiru is not sure he wants to continue dating Wendy.
He says, I really like Wendy.
When we say we can take something, we mean we are able to continue doing this, listening to this, without becoming angry or upset.
It means to tolerate something, to take something.
I can't take this music.
I can't tolerate this music.
I cannot listen to this music anymore.
He says Wendy has the best of intentions, but will my stomach ever forgive me if I keep going out with her?
The expression the best of intentions means that the person wants to do something well.
They want to do something that is good, but that's not actually what they do.
Your intention is your desire, what you want to happen, but sometimes our intentions are not the same as what we actually do.
Wendy has the best of intentions.
She means well, we would also say.
But poor Ichiru doesn't think he can continue going out with her because she keeps criticizing the kind of food that he eats.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I never read food labels until I started going out with Wendy.
She's studying to be a nutritionist.
When we go grocery shopping, she reads every label.
You're not buying that, are you?
Well, I was thinking about it.
Why?
Each serving size has 30 grams of fat, and 10 of those are trans fat.
The sodium level is through the roof, and it's full of carbohydrates.
Do you really want to put that in your body?
Um, I guess not.
What are these cookies doing in the basket?
Those are my favorite.
I always get them.
I got the low-fat kind, see?
Even so, they're full of calories.
They may be reduced fat, but they're not low-fat.
You don't eat this kind of cereal, do you?
Yeah, I do.
Look at the percent daily values.
You get nearly no nutrients and no dietary fiber, and it's full of sugar.
That's the question.
The script for this episode was written by someone who gives you 100 of your daily recommended English Dr Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Please come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
This podcast is copyright 2008.
