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Interactions Access Reading, 4/e

Pamela Hartmann, Los Angeles Unified School District
James Mentel, Los Angeles Unified School District

Food and Nutrition

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Changing Diets

A Consider these facts: Each year, the average American eats 23 pounds of pizza and drinks 486 cans of soda. In fact, 80% of Americans admit they eat junk food or fast food at least once a week. Foods with little nutritional value are often called junk food. Junk food is usually high in sodium, fat, or sugar. Foods like hamburgers, pizza, French fries, and tacos are also called fast food. Fast food usually contains a lot of fat and salt. With Americans' busy lifestyles, fast food has become a convenient but unhealthy way to eat. People often grab a bite to eat before, during, or after work, or they eat at their desks to save time. Eating a leisurely meal at home is also becoming less common as people try to fit more into their busy lives. These lifestyles and eating habits, however, can often lead to health problems later in life, such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or heart disease. The United States has more obese (extremely fat) people than any other country in the world.

B The habit of eating fast food on the street, at your desk, or in your car is typical of Americans. This unhealthy habit has reached other countries. Many inhabitants of these countries are unhappy with the trend. For instance, researchers have noticed that the diets of countries such as Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Greece are quickly changing. Traditionally, these countries have prided themselves on their healthy diets and good cooking. Mediterranean cuisine has typically included lots of olive oil, garlic, fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as red wine. As the quality of life increases—as southern Europeans earn more money—they eat more meat and fewer fruits and vegetables; they drink more whiskey and less wine; they consume more fatty American dressings and less olive oil. Consequently, obesity and heart disease are growing quickly in Mediterranean Europe. Greek men now suffer from the highest rate of obesity in Europe.

C But the food is not the only thing that is changing. Southern Europeans' everyday habits have changed as well. They spend less time sitting down to a good meal with their families and more time eating on the run. As they begin to work longer hours, they consume more fast food in order to save time. One newspaper of the Italian Catholic Church thinks that fast food has a negative influence on traditional Catholic family customs. It prevents families from spending time together eating the traditional foods of which they are so proud.

D Is fast food changing lifestyles, or do changing lifestyles cause people to eat more fast food? Does the world in which we live give us bad habits? Today, people have to work long hours at the office so their companies can compete economically with companies in other countries. Consequently, people have less free time and their dietary habits change. Whatever the answer is, fast food is here to stay. McDonald’s has served over one billion hamburgers, and many of them have ended up in European stomachs.

Finding the Main Idea


1	Choose the main idea of "Changing Diets."
		A)	Americans eat a lot of fast food and junk food.
		B)	Europeans are becoming more obese and suffering from more health problems.
		C)	Southern Europeans have increased their consumption of American-style fast food, changing their traditional diet and habits.
		D)	The Catholic Church has proclaimed that fast food has a negative influence on the traditional lifestyle of Mediterranean cultures.

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