1 . Almost every day, we talk about health. But what is health? Health means eating well, getting enough exercise, and having a right weight (体重). Let’s read the following ways.     1    

    2     Many people only eat our favorite food. Remember that we can only get what we need by eating different kinds of food, especially fruit and vegetables.

Drink water more often.     3     We should try to drink more water and less sugary drinks.

Listen to your body. When you are eating, notice how your body feels. When you feel full, stop eating.

    4     If you do it too often, it can make you unhealthy and fat.

Limit (限制) the time you spend on the computer and TV.     5     You can play basketball, walk or swim.

2 . At the end of year 2022, the Singaporean government announced that all drinks sold locally must use nutritional grade labels (营养等级标签) A, B, C, or D on their packaging, marking the percentage of sugar and saturated fat (饱和脂肪) in the drinks. So recently several Singaporean drink companies have already started to put these labels on every drink. In March, 2024 Shanghai, China did the same. The labels are from A to D. The more sugar and saturated fat a drink has, the less healthy the drink is.

3 . Chips, cookies and ice-cream...Many kinds of food that we like are ultra-processed (超加工). And you may be addicted to (上瘾) them, said a new study in the British Medical Journal.

What are ultra-processed foods (UPFs)? In short, you can’t re-create them in your kitchen. They are usually made in factories. They have long list of additives (添加剂)—some you may never have heard of.

The study looked into 281 other studies from 36 different countries and areas. It found that UPF lovers may strongly crave such food. If they stop eating it, they can feel very sad.

Why are UPFs addictive? Usually, natural foods are either high in carbohydrates (碳水化合物) or high in fat.

UPFs, however, are usually high in both. So, such foods can have more calories than natural foods.

Such foods also bring carbohydrates and fat to the gut (肠道) faster. Our body breaks down the fat from natural foods slowly. However, the body breaks down the fat in UPFs as soon as it reaches the stomach. This makes the brain create more dopamine (多巴胺). It makes you feel happier and want to eat more.

About 14 percent of adults and 12 percent of children are addicted to UPFs, said the study. They cause problems to people’s health around the world. Scientists are now calling for more attention to the UPFs.

4 . One day, you open the fridge and find some moldy (发霉的) food. But before you can throw it away, your mother stops you. She wants to cut off the moldy part and eat the rest. Is it safe to do this?

Mold (霉菌) can grow on almost all kinds of food. Mold is usually green, white, black or grey. Mold makes food soft and changes its color. Moldy food tastes quite bad and it’s not safe to eat. If you find mold in soft food, just throw it away. Soft food, such as bread, tomatoes or hot dogs, usually contains water inside. And the water inside allows mold to easily grow below its surface. Bacteria (细菌) can also grow along with it.

But it’s easy to clean mold from hard food. The mold can’t grow very deeply inside this kind of food. According to the BBC, you should cut about 2.5 cm around and below the mold to clean it. It’s OK to cut the moldy parts out of hard food and eat the rest. But if the food is completely covered with mold, throw it away.

Most kinds of mold are bad for us. But some kinds of mold can be used to make food. For example, penicillium (青霉菌) can be used to make many types of cheeses, such as blue cheese. These cheeses are safe to eat and they’re quite delicious as well.

So, if the food is not the special cheese, stop your mother from eating it!

Many people weigh more than they want to. They eat too much or do not exercise enough. They choose unhealthy food, or snacks too often. Weight gain (增加) happens when people eat more food than their bodies use.     1     Dieting (节食) means taking in less food.

It has been shown that writing down everything you eat and drink—as soon as possible—helps you to lose weight. Writing down what you eat is called keeping a “food diary”.

If you write down everything you eat and drink in a day, you might be surprised! It is easy to forget the food you eat while you are reading, working or watching TV.     2     Each snack might seem small, but they add up.

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    4     Without the diary, you might forget about the biscuits with your coffee, the soft drink at lunch, or the mid-afternoon banana. You might forget having extra pieces of pizza!

Keeping a food diary will also make you aware (意识到) if you are not eating enough different kinds of foods. It will show if you are not eating enough vegetables or fruit, or if you are drinking too many sweet drinks.     5     They can help you write down what you eat and you will lose weight faster.

6 . Chinese people are eating too much salt. On general, people in China eat about 10.5 grams of salt each day, much higher than the 6 grams advised by Chinese Dietary Guidelines (2016). To solve this, China issued (发布) the first salt reduction guide for its food industry on April 18. The government hopes that can help people have salt in a proper way.       

If the guide is followed properly, the salt intake (摄入量) for Chinese people will drop by 20 percent by 2030. The salt we take in mainly comes from processed food. For example, there is about 0.66 grams of salt in a 104-gram can of Lay’s potato chips. That is about 10 percent of the daily salt intake. A 100-gram bag of Kang Shi Fu instant noodles has nearly 2 grams of salt. Therefore, it’s necessary for the companies to reduce salt in their products.

A small amount of salt makes food taste better and is important for good health, but eating too much increases the risk of high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes (中风), the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Less salt leads to better health. And there’s no need to worry that food will be less tasty in the future. A study found that it’s easy for people to reduce their salt intake. Although you may think your food is not salty enough at first, you will get used to the new taste soon.

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8 . One day, you open the fridge and find some moldy (发霉的) food. But before you can throw it away, your mother stops you. She doesn’t want to waste it, so she cuts off the moldy part and eats the rest. Is it safe to do this?

Mold can grow on almost all kinds of food. It is usually green, white, black or gray. Mold makes food soft and changes its color. Moldy food tastes quite bad and it’s not safe to eat.

If you find mold in soft food, just throw it away. Soft food, such as bread, tomatoes or hot dogs, usually contains (含有) water, which allows mold to grow easily below its surface. Bacteria (细菌) can also grow along with it.

But it’s easy to remove mold from hard food because mold can’t grow very deep inside this kind of food. According to BBC news, you should cut about 2.5 cm around and below the mold to remove it. It’s OK to cut the moldy parts out of hard food and eat the rest. But if the food is completely covered with mold, you should, still throw it away.

Most kinds of mold are bad for us. But some kinds of mold can be used to make food. For example, penicillium (青霉菌) can be used to make many types of cheeses, such as blue cheese. These cheeses are safe to eat and they’re quite delicious as well.

9 . Obesity (肥胖症) is becoming a serious problem now. It is said that about 41.1% of Chinese men and 27.7% of Chinese women are overweight or obese (肥胖的).

How do I know whether I am overweight?

Work out your Body Mass Index (BMI) (身体质量指数)

BMI=Weight (kg)/ Height²/(m²)

For kids, mornings can be busy. Sometimes, you do not have breakfast because you do not have time. There are good reasons to make sure you eat a healthy breakfast every day.

    1     After a night’s sleep, your body needs a meal to give you energy (能量) until lunch time. People who do not eat breakfast often have less energy than people who eat a healthy breakfast. If you don’t have breakfast, you will feel tired during the morning.

You need to concentrate on (专注于) the teacher and your schoolwork. If you have trouble concentrating, you will find it harder to learn.     2     This is the most important for students.

    3     This happens because you get hungry before lunch time, and you cannot eat right away. You may lose your patience (耐心) for being hungry.

Every day your body needs nutrients (营养). If you do not have breakfast or any other meal, you might not grow well and stay healthy.

    4     It is a great way to have a good start.