Unit 3 Food and Culture 衡水体书写字帖-2025-2026学年高中英语人教版选择性必修第二册

CULTURE AND CUISINE The French author Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin once wrote,"Telt me what you eat,and will telt you what you are.Put more simply,this means "You are what you eat."Most peopte today retate this saying to heatthy eating.However,Briltat-Sravarin was actually referring to our personality,character,and culture. Certainty,in many ways this seems to be true.Chinese cuisine is a case in point. Prior to coming to China,my onty experience with Chinese cooking was in America,with Chinese food that had been changed to suit American tastes.For example,America's most poputar Chinese dish is General Tso's chicken,which consists of fried chicken covered in a sweet sauce, flavoured with hot red peppers.This is probabty not an authentic Chinese recipe,however,so it cannot telt us much about the Chinese.On the other hand,it does telt us a lot about Americans,It tetts us,for exampte,that Americans love bold,simpte flavours.And,since the dish was also invented recently,it tetts us that Americans are not afraid to try new foods. Later,I had a chance to experience authentic Chinese food by coming to China.When my family and t had just arrived in China,we went tooking for a good place to eat in Beijing.A Sichuan restaurant had been recommended to us by a friend,and finalty,we found it.Tired,hungry, and not knowing a word of Chinese,we had no idea how to order,so the 2 chef just began filling our table with the best food we had ever eaten. With this,we had the pleasure of experiencing an entirely new taste: Sichuan peppercorns.The food was wonderfut and different,but what was even more important was the friendship offered us. We soon moved to Shandong Province in the eastern part of North China. My favourite dish there was boited dumplings served with vinegar.I observed that family is important to the people there.It has become a favourite traditional dish of the peopte in North China,where making dumptings has always been a famity affair with everyone-from the youngest to the otdest-joining in to help.Later,I learnt that the most famous food in Shandong is pancake rotts stuffed with sticed Chinese green onions. 3 Then we moved to northern Xinjiang.Some of our friends were Kazak and Inner Mongolian.These groups traditionatly wandered the open range on horses.As a result,their traditionat foods are what you can cook over an open fire-usually boiled or roasted meat,such as tamb kebab. Our travels then took us to South China,and then on to centrat China.In each place we went,we experienced wonderful tocal dishes,from Guangdong's etegant dim sum-smalt servings of food in bamboo steamers-to the exceptionat stewed noodtes in Henan.Everywhere,the food was as varied as the peopte.However,one thing is always true: Through food,Chinese peopte everywhere show friendship and kindness. At a minimum,the kinds of food local people consume tell us what they grow in their region,what kinds of tives they lead,and what they like and do not like.Coutd we atso say,for example,that those who like bold flayours are botd themsetves?Or,that those who tike spicy food tend to have a hot temper?Maybe.Maybe not.What we can say,however,is that culture and cuisine go hand in hand,and if you do not experience one, you can never really know the other. HEALTHY EATING There is much debate nowadays as to what makes up a healthy diet.For example,scientists have insisted for years that a big enemy of health is fatty food.However,there is increasing evidence that the real driver of poor heatth is not so much fatty food,as it is sugar.Heart disease is the 5 number one kilter of Americans.And in America,people who receive 25% of their daily calories or more through sugar are twice as tikely to die from heart disease than peopte who receive less than 10%a day (Journat of the American Medicat Association,2014).This is true regardless of how heatthy the rest of their diet might be.Put more simply,while people continue to argue over whether or not fatty food is dangerous,we already know that sugar is a killer Much of this extra sugar comes from sweets and sweet drinks.The average American gets 1/3 of his or her sugar through sweet drinks alone.The American Heart Association recommends that we limit ourselves to tess than 100-150 calories a day from sugar,which is tess 6 than what is usuatly contained in one can of sweet drink or in a singlte candy bar.In other words,if you want to be healthy,you have to cut down on desserts,and cut out sweet drinks altogether. Beyond this,you can keep heatthy by consuming different categories of fresh foods,especialty fruit and vegetables,which are futt of vitamins and fibre,rather than processed foods.Processed foods often contain less nutrition,and have higher quantities of sugar,salt,and fat than fresh ingredients.Besides this,it is also important to have some meat,beans, or dairy products in your diet,as they provide the necessary protein for strong bones and muscle growth.As with everything in life,moderation is key.The ideat diet is a batanced one,without too much or too littte of any one thing. Finally,a fundamentat key to healthy eating is to eat stowly.It takes about twenty minutes from the time you start eating for your brain to tell your body that you are full.What this means is that people who chew too quickly end up eating too much food because they still feet hungry. Fating slowly atso atlows your body to digest your food better,and wilt allow you to enjoy your food more.In addition,studies show that consistent eating habits,for example,taking three meats a day at the same time each day,are better for our health.It is atso better to eat a modest amount of food each time,rather than to eat a tot in one meal and then a tittle in the next. There is no one trick to healthy eating.Rather,heatthy eating starts with 8 having a healthy attitude towards food.One question you can ask yourself is,"Do teat to tive,or live to eat?"If you are using food mostly for nutrition,then you are on the right track with your diet.However,if food has become the centre of your life,you might be on the road to bad heatth.It is up to you to decide how you want to live,and to make the right decisions about your diet. 9