BBC 6 Minute English | THE BITTER TASTE OF SUGAR | English Subtitle

source: Daily Listening    2016年9月3日
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BBC 6 Minute English | THE BITTER TASTE OF SUGAR | English Subtitle

0:00 Hello I'm Rob.
0:01 Welcome to 6 Minute English.
0:02 I'm joined today by Neil.
0:04 Hello.
0:05 Neil here.
0:06 Excuse me I'm enjoying a bar of chocolate…
0:10 Where did you get that from?
0:13 In the vending machine upstairs – that's the automatic machine with drinks and sweets
0:17 – you put coins in it to release whatever you paid for.
0:21 Now, if it was up to some health professionals, you wouldn't see many of those machines around
0:27 anymore.
0:28 What?
0:29 No more machines which offer you as many sweets as you like, no questions asked?
0:33 Exactly.
0:34 The World Health Organisation has recently proposed a cut in its recommendation for how
0:39 much sugar we should have.
0:41 They now say that it should be less than 5% of our calorie intake.
0:46 A calorie is a unit that measures how much energy you get from food, and calorie intake
0:52 is how many calories we eat in a period of time – say a day, for example.
0:56 Yes.
0:57 So this might be it for sugar for you today, Neil.
1:01 Well, let me see… this bar of chocolate contains 215 calories!
1:06 That's quite a lot, isn't it?
1:08 But life can be sweet even with less sugar, Neil.
1:11 So today, we're going to talk about what should be done to help us eat less sugar and you'll
1:16 learn words about food.
1:18 But I like my sugar!
1:21 Many people do.
1:22 So let me ask you about how much they like it.
1:26 Which country has the highest sugar consumption?
1:29 Is it: a) China
1:30 b) India c) The United States
1:34 I think it's the United States.
1:37 Okay.
1:38 Well, we'll have the answer at the end of the programme!
1:41 Right, so let's talk about sugar.
1:44 Health experts are looking for ways to make us eat less of it.
1:48 We all know that too much sugar can cause not only obesity and diabetes but also tooth
1:53 decay – this destroys the hard surface of your teeth and exposes more sensitive parts.
1:58 Ouch!
1:59 Yes, it can be very painful.
2:02 You might enjoy eating sweets but nobody likes toothache – that's what we call the pain
2:07 in your teeth.
2:08 Experts say we should always brush our teeth after eating sugary food.
2:11 Yes.
2:12 Aubrey Sheiham, Professor of Dental Public Health at University College London, goes
2:16 even further.
2:17 He is part of a team which is suggesting the authorities in England reduce the number of
2:22 vending machines in public places.
2:25 Listen to what he says.
2:26 Which word does he use to describe Neil's chocolate bar and other kinds of wrapped sweets?
2:32 We shouldn't have vending machines with confectionery and soft drinks in any publicly-funded institutions
2:42 – no schools, nurseries, hospitals etc. – and also limit the amount of sugar in
2:52 school meals, nurseries' meals.
2:55 That again would be a first step that one would take.
2:59 He mentions 'confectionery', meaning chocolate and sweet snacks, which can be bought from
3:03 vending machines, along with soft drinks – which are cold sweet drinks that are not alcoholic.
3:09 The professor doesn't want these machines in state schools or hospitals.
3:13 And he also wants meals served to children in schools to have less sugar.
3:17 He's got a point there.
3:18 We get used to sugar in childhood.
3:20 And it seems that the more sugar we eat, the more we want.
3:23 But if we get used to eating things which are less sweet, after a while when we eat
3:28 something very sweet, it doesn't taste so good.
3:31 Do you understand what I mean?
3:32 Yes, I do.
3:33 It's a matter of habit.
3:35 We don't need so much sugar to enjoy the sweet taste.
3:39 But the professor says there's another way of encouraging us to eat less sugar.
3:43 Aubrey Sheiham talks about tax on sugar.
3:47 France has already adopted a sugar tax.
3:50 Where's the money being spent?
3:51 Let's listen.
3:52 You've got a lot of public support in France where the consumption of sugar has gone down
4:01 considerably.
4:02 And, what is good about what the French have done is that tax that has gone on sugar is
4:09 being spent in the health service.
4:11 This is a way that you could actually use that money from the sugar tax and spend it
4:19 on improving health care and dental care.
4:23 He says it's being spent on the health service.
4:26 This is the doctors' surgeries and hospitals financed with public money – money paid
4:30 to a government in the form of taxes.
4:32 Oh, so chocolate might become more expensive!
4:35 Not so good for me because I have a sweet tooth…
4:38 Ah a sweet tooth, yeah, like me – a strong preference for sweet food.
4:43 Well, people with a sweet tooth should be careful or they might end up with toothache.
4:48 I care a lot about my teeth.
4:50 Good on you.
4:51 You've got a fine set of gnashers there.
4:53 Okay, let's go back to our quiz.
4:54 I asked you which country has the highest sugar consumption.
4:58 The options were: China, India and the United States.
5:01 And I said the United States.
5:04 And Neil, you are wrong.
5:05 The correct answer is actually India.
5:08 According to a report issued by the US Department of Agriculture in 2012, India was the country
5:14 with the highest consumption of sugar.
5:16 Then we had China and the country in this list which ate the least amount of sugar is
5:20 the United States.
5:22 These countries are also amongst the largest producers of sugar.
5:26 Okay.
5:27 Well, now our time is up.
5:28 Let's remember some of the words we explained today.
5:31 Yes.
5:32 They were: vending machine
5:35 calorie intake, calorie
5:38 tooth decay, toothache
5:42 confectionery, soft drinks
5:47 health service, to have a sweet tooth
5:50 Thanks, Neil.
5:51 That is it for today.
5:52 Why not go to bbclearningenglish.com to hear more 6 Minute English.
5:56 Bye for now!
5:57 Bye!