Unseen Passage: Modern Food

Modern food has become our enemy. We have become so slavish to taste and presentation that we eat food for its entertainment value, not for its nutritional benefit. Even as health awareness is increasing, the variety of junk and nutritionless food is also increasing. Each restaurant boasts of a new cuisine, which is a mixture of refined flour, oil and sugar. Pasta, noodles, white rice, white bread and maida based products like pizzas, burgers, naan and rumali roti are the main options in Italian, Chinese, Indian or Mexican cuisines. The vegetarian dishes are either overcooked or have a lot of corn starch and fat. The non-vegetarian dishes are either white-sauce based or made in rich gravies.

People are trying to lose weight by eating less in the day, so that they can accommodate such foods in the night. They skip breakfast and lunch so that they can satisfy their taste buds in the night with a family dinner. Perfect health, however, cannot be achieved by a process of eating less and not eating. The idea is to nourish the body. You might achieve some weight loss but you will also lose out on your health.

Therefore, whilst embarking upon any weight loss programme, remember that health is much more than just weight loss, at the same time achieving ideal body weight in a healthy way does provide a basis for achieving perfect health.

Our weight is a balancing act, but the equation is simple: If you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight. And if you eat fewer calories than you burn, you lose weight.

All too often, we make weight loss much more difficult than it needs to be with extreme diets that leave us cranky and starving, unhealthy lifestyle choices that undermine our dieting efforts, and emotional eating habits that stop us before we get started. But there’s a better way! You can lose weight without feeling miserable. By making smart choices every day, you can develop new eating habits and preferences that will leave you feeling satisfied—and winning the battle of the bulge.

Q. Answer the following questions:

1. How has modern food become our enemy?
2. How do people try to lose weight?
3. What should you remember while trying to lose weight?
4. What equation is drawn to highlight our weight as a balancing act?

Answer

1. As we have become so slavish to taste and presentation that we eat food for its entertainment value and not for its nutritional benefit, modern food has become our enemy.
2. People try to lose weight by eating less in the day, so that they can accommodate such foods in the night. They skip breakfast and lunch so that they can satisfy their taste buds in the night.
3. One should remember that health is so much more than just weight loss; at the same time achieving ideal body weight in a healthy way does provide a basis for achieving perfect health.
4. The equation drawn to highlight our weight as a balancing act is that if eat more calories than we burn, we gain weight and if we eat fewer calories than we burn, we lose weight.

Q. Choose the correct alternatives:

1. What is meant by ‘nourish’? (Para 2)
   1. feed
   2. grow
   3. improve
   4. love
2. What is meant by ‘undermine’? (Para 5)
   1. better
   2. weaken
   3. underestimate
   4. improve
3. Find the word opposite in meaning to ‘happy’. (Para 5)
   1. unhealthy
   2. satisfied
   3. miserable
   4. cranky
4. Find the word opposite in meaning to ‘neither’. (Para 1)
   1. variety
   2. starch
   3. gravies
   4. either

Answers

1. feed
2. weaken
3. miserable
4. either