5 . In the fevered world of diet and nutrition, the past year has been dominated by heated arguments about the evils (or not) of ultra-processed foods (UPFs). So are they as bad for health as many claim?

The processing of food is as ancient as humankind. But the modern-time UPFs are different—they are the products of industrial processing methods that allow cost-effective mass production. More than half of the calories an average person in the UK consumes today come from UPFs. That’s not surprising as these foods can be convenient and inexpensive.

There is more than ample evidence that consumption of too much UPSs is linked to poorer health outcomes. They often contain high levels of fat, salt and sugar and when we eat them, we leave less room for more nutritious foods. It’s also believed that the additives in these foods could be responsible for negative health effects.

But the way we currently talk about UPFs strikes me as unhelpful. The term covers such a broad range of different foods, from those that have been almost completely reconstructed from their base constituents (成分) like packaged snacks, to otherwise minimally processed foods with a few industrial additives, such as a natural yogurt, with a small amount of UPF jam.

I can absolutely understand how eating too much of the former can lead to poorer health outcomes. The latter, however, includes mass-produced supermarket bread, where a large proportion of consumed UPF calories come from. Sure, you can go to a quality bakery and purchase an organic product that will cost much more than a supermarket loaf. But ultimately, bread is made from flour, salt, water and yeast. Taste aside, supermarket bread is no worse for you than fancy bread.

I fear that the UPF concept is too imprecise to be an arbiter (权威) of how healthy or unhealthy a particular food might be, and even worse, that it is currently being used as another cudgel (棍棒) to food—shame others.

6 . The Planting Hope Company Inc. has introduced a new kind of sesame (芝麻) milk to the market. The company has termed its new product as the world’s most planet-friendly and nutritious plant-based milk.

The milk is produced from sesame seeds, a development that has been made possible by the company. For over five years, Planting Hope has invested in the development of the product, which is now taking the vegan milk market by storm.

“Planting Hope has brought important breakthrough innovation to plant-based milk, opening a whole new category, sesame milk, that unlocks the good nutrition of the extremely sustainable and planet-friendly sesame seed,” said Julia Stamberger, CEO and cofounder of Planting Hope. “We’re very excited to bring our innovative sesame milk line, in our eye-grabbing, colorful new packaging, to Canadian consumers.”

Sesame milk is not the first plant-based milk product in the world. The plant-based milk market is currently worth $38.9 billion globally. According to Data Bridge, plant-based milk’s market value is 7.7 times larger than that of plant-based meat.

One of the main factors driving demand for plant-based milk is intolerance to dairy milk (牛奶). Almost 70% of the world’s population is intolerant to dairy proteins. Besides the concern about allergic (过敏的) proteins, there is concern about greenhouse pollution. Raising livestock (牲畜) contributes heavily to greenhouse gases like methane and CO₂. This has seen more people shifting to plant-based alternatives.

On the other hand, the journey to plant-based milk is not all plain sailing. Some types of plant-based milk such as almond (杏仁) milk have been found to be equally stressful to the planet. Almond farming uses plenty of water and harms bee populations. However, more friendly milk options such as sesame are now popping up.

With rising consumer awareness about climate change, the growth of the sesame milk market is unlikely to desist. In addition, it is important that the globe finds the type of plant-based milk that offers value without serious disadvantages.

8 . This is going to sound weird, but I want you to look closely for a moment at your thumbs. See how they bend flexibly forwards as well as back. The human thumb is not just a device for giving the thumbs-up sign or for picking up dropped keys. It is also one of the most efficient and sensitive tools in existence for determining the ripeness of fruit.

However, most of us don’t use them that way anymore. One of the most striking things about eating in the modern world is that we act as if we were sense-blind. Our noses can distinguish fresh milk from sour milk, and yet we prefer to look at the use-by date rather than sniffing. Senses, wrote the late anthropologist Jack Goody, are “our windows on the world” —the main tools through which humans acquire information about our environments.

But today, we have yielded many of the functions of our own senses to the modern food industry — which suits that industry just fine. A survey of 7,000 young people in 2011 found that most of them would be hypothetically (假设地) prepared to give up their sense of smell if it meant that they could keep their laptop or phone.

In reality, it is not easy to live without a sense of smell. According to the survey data produced by Fifth Sense, more than half of the respondents having smell loss said that cooking had become a source of stress and anxiety because they could no longer experience the joy of trying new recipes, and could not easily tell when something was burned, which even increases feelings of loneliness and depression and leads to the breakdown of relationships.

No human activity is more multi-sensory than eating, but to eat in the modern world is often to eat in a state of profound sensory disengagement. We order groceries on a computer, or takeaways on a phone, and they arrive wrapped in plastic, so that we can neither smell them nor see them before we take the first mouthful.

For many centuries, tea     1     (be) an essential part of Chinese culture, with the country being one of the world’s largest producers and     2     (consume) of tea. However, in recent years, a new trend has emerged—the rise of the coffee culture. China has become one of the fastest-growing coffee markets globally,     3     an increasing number of coffee shops and cafes opening up in major cities.

When I first came to Shanghai in 2019,I had no idea that Shanghai has the title of the “capital of coffee” in China,     4     was a pleasant surprise for me. Moreover, Shanghai has the potential to become the global capital for coffee admirers, boasting over 8000 coffee shops. People in Shanghai visit coffee shops to     5     (genuine) enjoy a cup of coffee, even when they are having business meetings, dates or work sessions. You can see     6     (they) savoring their brew, creating a small moment, which is     7     personal treat that you can enjoy even during a hectic (繁忙的) day in Shanghai. Coffee unites us as we greet newcomers and get acquainted with other local students. I feel this is     8     the coffee culture works here—to make people a little bit happier and to warm you up when you feel cold or lonely. People come to coffee shops     9     (share) their own happy moments or to get cheered up. You can always see them smiling in a relaxed mood or peacefully scrolling (滚屏) on their phones while     10     (sip) their coffee. Even with coffee-to-go, you take that little piece of the warm atmosphere with you.