BOX SET: 6 Minute English - 'Food and health' English mega-class! 30 minutes of new vocab!

0:00 6 Minute English.

0:02 From BBC Learning English.

0:05 Hello.

0:06 This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English.

0:09 I'm Neil.

0:10 And I'm Beth.

0:11 What's up, Beth?

0:12 You look a little sad.

0:13 Well, recently I've been spending lots of time with my cat and house plants,

0:19 if you know what I mean.

0:20 I'm feeling a bit lonely.

0:21 It might help to know that you're not the only one feeling lonely.

0:26 Loneliness has been called the modern epidemic.

0:29 Although millions of us live together in towns and cities,

0:32 more and more people report feeling lonely

0:35 and unconnected to those they live close to.

0:38 Beth Loneliness can affect anyone.

0:40 And while everyone's experience of loneliness is different,

0:44 its effects can be serious.

0:46 Research has shown that loneliness puts people

0:49 at greater risk of many health issues, including dementia and heart disease.

0:54 So, how can loneliness be fixed?

0:56 In this programme, we'll be hearing about one

0:59 project in the Netherlands aiming to do just that.

1:02 And, as usual, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.

1:06 But first, I have a question for you, Beth.

1:09 Here in the UK, an organisation called the Campaign

1:12 to End Loneliness has been offering advice and support since 2011.

1:17 So according to the Campaign, what proportion of British adults report feeling

1:22 lonely at least some of the time?

1:25 Is it a) 29%?

1:28 b) 39%?

1:29 Or c) 49%?

1:31 I will guess it's 39%.

1:35 OK, Beth, I'll reveal the answer later in the programme.

1:39 Feeling lonely is not necessarily the same as being alone.

1:43 Some people can happily spend lots of time on their own,

1:47 while others may be surrounded by people but still feel disconnected.

1:51 So, what do we mean when we say we feel lonely?

1:55 Here's Myra Anubi, presenter of BBC

1:58 World Service programme People Fixing The World,

2:01 explaining what loneliness means to her.

2:04 It's that feeling when you crave people's

2:05 company and you find it hard to connect.

2:08 Or maybe you just feel left out, with no-one to turn to.

2:11 Now, feeling lonely isn't just uncomfortable.

2:14 When it's experienced over time, it's been associated with health issues,

2:18 like a higher risk of having depression, dementia, or even heart disease.

2:24 When we're lonely, we 'crave' people's company— we 'want' their company a lot.

2:28 We might also feel 'left out'— 'unhappy because

2:31 we're not included in what others are doing'.

2:34 And maybe we have no-one to 'turn to'— no-one

2:37 we can 'go to and ask for support and help'.

2:40 Someone who suffered all these feelings was Bep de Bruin.

2:44 In 2013, Bep, aged 74,

2:46 was found dead at her home in Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

2:51 Her death wasn't suspicious, but it shocked the whole country,

2:55 because it turned out she'd been dead for ten years!

2:59 Bep had lost contact with her only child and kept to herself in her apartment.

3:04 So when she died sometime in 2003, no-one realised.

3:09 Bep's tragic story inspired a national campaign to combat loneliness,

3:14 including one project called Oma's Soep,

3:17 a kitchen bringing lonely elderly people together

3:21 with schoolchildren and students to make soup.

3:24 'Oma' means 'grandma' in Dutch and the project encourages

3:29 young people to spend time with their grandparents' generation.

3:32 Here, Claire Bates, reporter for BBC

3:35 World Service programme People Fixing The World,

3:38 explains how the project got started.

3:40 Well, it's run by two young guys called Max Kranendijk and Martijn Canters.

3:45 And now they were concerned their grandparents'

3:48 generation were becoming isolated and lonely.

3:51 And meanwhile they had lots of student friends who had free time,

3:54 so they thought why not try to bring these two generations together,

3:57 through making soup?

3:58 Oma's Soep was started by Max and Martijn, two local 'guys', or 'men'.

4:03 They wanted to involve their student friends because they had lots

4:07 of 'free time'— 'time when they do not have to work or study,

4:11 and can do what they want'.

4:12 Max and Martijn found the perfect way to help elderly

4:16 people who felt lonely by bringing them together with students.

4:20 If you 'bring someone together',

4:21 you help people or groups to become friendly or to do something together,

4:26 especially something they wouldn't usually do, like make soup.

4:30 Oma's Soep has been a big success

4:32 and has spread to other cities across the Netherlands, including Rotterdam,

4:36 the hometown of Bep de Bruin,

4:39 making her tragic death the spark for something much more hopeful.

4:44 I think it's time to reveal the answer to your question, Neil.

4:47 Right.

4:47 I asked you what proportion of British adults

4:50 report feeling lonely at least some of the time.

4:54 And I said it was 39%.

4:57 Which was the wrong answer I'm afraid, Beth.

4:59 Sadly, the correct answer is even higher— 49% of adults,

5:04 that's around 26 million people in the UK,

5:07 making it even more important to reach out and connect with others.

5:12 OK, it's time to recap the vocabulary we've learned in this programme starting

5:16 with the verb 'crave'— 'to have a strong wish or desire for something'.

5:21 If you feel 'left out',

5:23 you're 'unhappy because you've been excluded from something'.

5:26 To 'turn to someone' means 'to go to someone and ask them for help or support'.

5:31 A 'guy' is an informal way of saying a 'man'.

5:34 'Free time', also called 'leisure time',

5:37 is 'time when you do not have to work or study and can do what you want'.

5:41 And finally, the phrasal verb to 'bring someone together' means

5:46 'to help people or groups become friendly or do something together,

5:50 'especially if they usually don't'.

5:52 Once again our six minutes are up,

5:54 but if you're feeling lonely, remember you're not alone.

5:57 So reach out by joining us again next time, here at 6 Minute English.

6:02 Goodbye for now!

6:03 Bye!

6:04 6 Minute English.

6:06 From BBC Learning English.

6:10 Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English.

6:14 I'm Neil.

6:15 And I'm Alice.

6:16 Neil, what are you eating?

6:18 Peanuts.

6:19 Hmm.

6:20 Did you know that one of the producers here has an allergy to peanuts?

6:25 No, I didn't, but they're not in the studio with us,

6:27 so it doesn't matter, does it?

6:29 It only takes a tiny piece of peanut

6:31 to cause a big allergic reaction in some people.

6:34 An 'allergy', by the way, is 'a condition that makes you feel ill 'after eating,

6:39 touching or breathing in a particular substance'.

6:42 And food allergies are the subject of today's show.

6:46 All right, put your peanuts down, Neil, and answer today's quiz question.

6:51 What substance is used to treat a severe allergic reaction?

6:55 Is it a) Penicillin?

6:57 b) Adrenalin?

6:59 Or c) Aspirin?

7:01 OK, well, I'm going to go for a) Penicillin.

7:05 Well, we'll find out if that's the right answer later on.

7:08 Now, let's listen to Dr Marianne Williams talking about

7:11 why being too clean may not be a good thing.

7:15 She is a dietitian here in the UK.

7:19 For roughly the first month of life, the immune system is switched off,

7:23 in essence, and everything they get exposed

7:25 to in that first month in life— dogs,

7:27 cats, aunts, uncles, grannies, grandpas, family, dirt,

7:30 everything— that is where they build up all the bacteria

7:34 that are then going to colonise their gut in the future.

7:37 Now, if you're born into a very sterile environment,

7:41 as is increasingly the case in the western world,

7:44 everything's kept terribly clean,

7:45 and one of the theories is that we just are not

7:49 getting enough exposure to a variety of bacteria at that very,

7:53 very early stage in that first month of life.

7:58 Dr Marianne Williams.

7:59 The 'immune system' is 'our body's defence against infection'.

8:04 And it's 'switched off', or 'not working', for the first month of a baby's life.

8:08 And through exposure to lots of things in our environment— that's family, pets,

8:12 dirt and so on— young babies meet different bacteria for the first time,

8:17 which 'colonise'— or 'live and grow'— in their guts.

8:21 Yes, but in a sterile environment, babies don't 'get exposed to'— or don't

8:26 'meet'— a wide enough variety of bacteria.

8:29 'Sterile' means 'completely clean and free of bacteria'.

8:33 And there's a theory that being too clean and bacteria-free— now we have soap,

8:39 antibiotics and better sanitation— has led to an increase in allergies.

8:43 So dirty play for babies is good— mud, pets,

8:46 picking stuff up off the floor and eating it.

8:48 Did you use to eat food off the floor when you were little, Neil?

8:51 Used to?

8:52 I still do.

8:53 I enjoy food from the floor!

8:55 Well, Neil, what can I say?

8:57 We're both lucky to be allergy-free.

9:00 I have a friend who has an allergy

9:01 to 'gluten'— 'a protein found in wheat and some

9:04 other grains'— and she has to be very careful

9:07 about what she eats so she doesn't get ill.

9:09 The supermarkets are quite helpful, though, aren't they,

9:11 with products 'free from this' and 'free from that'?

9:14 This is helpful, yes.

9:16 But the food industry is now marketing their products

9:18 to attract consumers who don't have a 'proven'— or 'tested'— allergy.

9:23 Why would you buy free-from foods if you don't have a food allergy?

9:27 Well, people have started to believe that certain

9:29 foods— like gluten or dairy— are bad for us,

9:33 though there isn't any medical evidence to support this.

9:36 Let's hear about how 'rickets'— 'a disease caused by a lack

9:39 of Vitamin D in the diet'— is affecting some children in the UK.

9:44 This is BBC reporter Mike Williams.

9:49 Rickets is common in the developing world,

9:51 but this is London in the 21st century.

9:54 These children aren't malnourished because they're too

9:56 poor to eat well, it's the opposite.

9:58 Their often middle-class parents are spending money

10:01 to give them foods with ingredients taken out.

10:04 It's as if some of us have become unnecessarily frightened of our food.

10:10 Rickets usually affects 'malnourished' children from poor countries,

10:14 'children who don't have enough to eat', and it makes their bones weak.

10:18 But here in London, some parents are

10:20 buying their children expensive free-from foods— for example,

10:23 to avoid dairy— and are sometimes making them very ill.

10:27 It sounds crazy, doesn't it?

10:29 Yeah, it's nuts!

10:30 Get it?

10:32 Nuts.

10:33 Very good.

10:34 Yes.

10:34 'Nuts', that means 'crazy'.

10:35 Now I think it's time for the answer to today's quiz question.

10:39 OK, then.

10:40 So earlier in the show I asked what

10:43 substance is used to treat a severe allergic reaction?

10:47 Is it a) Penicillin?

10:50 b) Adrenalin?

10:52 Or c) Aspirin?

10:54 I said a) Penicillin.

10:56 And you were wrong, Neil!

10:58 The correct answer is b) Adrenalin.

11:01 An injection of adrenalin can be used to treat

11:04 'anaphylaxis'— or 'severe allergic reactions'— to insect stings,

11:09 foods, drugs, and other allergens.

11:12 Antibiotics such as penicillin treat bacterial infections and aspirin

11:16 is a painkiller you might take for a headache.

11:19 OK, can you tell us the words we heard today again please, Alice?

11:23 Sure.

11:24 They are allergy, immune system, switched off, colonise,

11:35 get exposed to, sterile, gluten,

11:42 proven, rickets, malnourished, nuts, anaphylaxis.

11:53 Well, that's the end of today's 6 Minute English.

11:55 Don't be afraid to join us again soon.

11:57 You know where to find us, don't you?

11:59 Go to BBC Learning English dot com where you'll find grammar points,

12:03 vocabulary and more editions of 6 Minute English.

12:07 Bye!

12:08 Goodbye!

12:08 6 Minute English.

12:10 From BBC Learning English.

12:13 Hello.

12:14 This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English.

12:17 I'm Phil.

12:18 And I'm Georgie.

12:19 Has this ever happened to you— you eat a doughnut and get a 'sugar rush',

12:24 'a strong feeling of excitement and energy',

12:27 only to collapse an hour later, with a headache?

12:30 Food affects us more than we realise,

12:33 and that's because what we eat alters our brain chemistry,

12:37 changing our mood and emotions.

12:39 Our brain is working 24 hours a day, even while we sleep,

12:43 so it needs more fuel than other body parts.

12:47 So can we eat our way to feeling happy?

12:51 In this programme, we'll be discussing

12:53 the relationship between food and the brain,

12:56 and, as usual, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.

13:01 Sounds great, Georgie, but first I have a question for you.

13:05 Humans, with an average brain weighing one-and-a-half kilos,

13:09 are one of the cleverest animals, but which mammal has the biggest brain?

13:15 Is it a) An African elephant?

13:18 b) A dolphin?

13:20 Or c) A sperm whale?

13:23 I think it's an African elephant.

13:25 OK, Georgie, I'll reveal the answer later in the programme.

13:30 Now, did you know that despite making up only 2% of our total weight,

13:35 our brain uses 20% of the body's energy?

13:39 Nutritionist Dr Reeta Achari does.

13:42 She thinks we should be specifically eating for our brains,

13:46 as she explained to BBC World Service programme The Food Chain.

13:51 Eating every day, right, and eating a balanced diet,

13:57 so you get the full complement of vitamins and minerals is critical.

14:03 If you go low in something and one day if you just, you know,

14:07 don't eat any protein for a day or— for me in my situation,

14:13 if I don't eat any vegetables— I know the next day I'm not as sharp.

14:17 Number one on Dr Achari's list of brain foods is a regular and balanced diet,

14:23 a diet containing the proper types and amounts of food needed to stay healthy.

14:28 Remember the rainbow rule— eat foods of many

14:32 different colours with lots of leafy greens.

14:34 A 'balanced diet' also includes different types of nutrients— vitamins,

14:38 fibre, protein and so on.

14:41 But including these isn't always possible.

14:44 You might 'go low' on, meaning 'have very little' of, one food type.

14:49 Dr Achari says when this happens to her, she's not

14:53 as 'sharp'— as 'intelligent and quick to notice things', as usual.

14:57 Dr Achari names lots of different foods which help boost our brains,

15:02 from wild-caught Alaskan salmon, and avocado, to berries and walnuts.

15:07 But hang on, Georgie!

15:10 Wild-caught Alaskan salmon?!

15:12 Very nice, and very expensive!

15:14 It sounds like these superfoods are just for the super-rich!

15:19 Well, not according to blogger Michelle Munt.

15:22 Here she is telling BBC World Service's The Food

15:25 Chain how eating well needn't cost a fortune.

15:30 It's not expensive and everyone's got a freezer these days,

15:35 so, yes, you can batch cook things,

15:38 freeze them, and then use them in like a week's time or something.

15:42 So I think the problem is again it's about our lifestyles,

15:47 it's about the fact that we feel like we've got limited time,

15:50 and therefore people are trying to cut the time down

15:53 in the kitchen by cooking things that are pre-made or even worse,

15:58 we're just chucking it in the microwave,

16:00 but actually you can do fresh food in 20 minutes flat.

16:08 Michelle's idea for brain food on a budget involves batch cooking.

16:13 'Batch cooking' means 'cooking a lot of food at one time,

16:17 'then saving some to eat later, usually by freezing it'.

16:21 Although microwave ready meals are convenient,

16:25 they lack many nutrients needed by the brain.

16:28 Luckily, adding some fresh vegetables to batch-cooked food

16:32 means anyone can make a brain-healthy meal quickly, or in '20 minutes flat',

16:37 as Michelle says, using the word 'flat' to mean

16:41 'exactly' and to emphasise that it can be done quickly.

16:44 OK, so we need balanced diets, and batch cooking for big brains!

16:49 Now let's test your brain, Georgie, with my question.

16:53 Right.

16:53 You asked which mammal has the biggest brain,

16:57 and I guessed it was an African elephant.

17:00 Which was the wrong answer, I'm afraid!

17:04 In fact, the biggest brain belongs to the sperm whale,

17:08 weighing about eight kilos.

17:10 And the sperm whale's main food?

17:12 Fish!

17:14 OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned in this programme,

17:18 starting with 'sugar rush', 'suddenly feeling excited and full of energy 'after

17:23 eating food which contains a lot of sugar'.

17:26 A 'balanced diet' includes 'the correct

17:29 combinations of food needed to stay healthy'.

17:32 If you 'go low' on something, you 'have very little of it'.

17:36 If you describe someone as 'sharp',

17:38 you mean they're 'intelligent and quick to react to things'.

17:42 'Batch cooking' means 'cooking a lot of food

17:44 at the same time 'and saving some for later'.

17:48 And finally, doing something in '20 minutes flat', means '20 minutes exactly',

17:54 and is used to emphasise that it's done very quickly.

17:58 Once again our six minutes are up!

18:00 Have fun cooking up your own brain boosting

18:03 breakfasts and remember to join us again next time, here at 6 Minute English.

18:09 Goodbye for now!

18:10 Bye!

18:11 6 Minute English.

18:13 From BBC Learning English.

18:16 Hello.

18:16 This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English.

18:20 I'm Phil.

18:20 And I'm Georgie.

18:22 If you ask a woman, "Are you eating

18:25 for two?" the phrase has a very specific meaning.

18:29 You're asking, "Are you pregnant?" And like many

18:32 of the idioms we commonly use in English,

18:35 this phrase contains a little bit of truth.

18:38 A pregnant woman really is eating for two,

18:42 herself and the baby growing inside her.

18:45 The female human body is amazing.

18:48 During pregnancy, it protects the growing baby by allowing

18:51 it to take whatever nutrients it needs from the mother.

18:55 This means it's the mum-to-be,

18:57 not the baby, who experiences any nutritional problems.

19:01 It's also the reason why it's so important that pregnant women eat well.

19:06 In this programme, we'll be finding out how

19:09 a woman's relationship to food changes during pregnancy.

19:13 And, as usual, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary too.

19:18 But first, I have a question for you, Phil.

19:21 For some pregnant women,

19:22 finding reliable information on what food to eat can be hard.

19:27 Finding out about harmful foods to avoid, on the other hand, is much easier.

19:32 So, according to NHS recommendations,

19:35 which of these foods should pregnant women not eat?

19:38 Is it a) Chips?

19:40 b) Oily fish?

19:42 Or c) Smoked salmon?

19:44 I think the answer is c) Smoked salmon.

19:47 OK, Phil.

19:48 We'll find out the correct answer at the end of the programme.

19:52 Although eating healthy and nutritious food is important for mums and babies,

19:57 the story gets complicated because of the changes

20:00 a woman's body goes through during pregnancy.

20:03 Here's Jaega Wise, presenter of BBC Radio 4's The Food Programme,

20:08 reporting on her experience of pregnancy.

20:11 I feel like throughout this pregnancy my body has just gone a bit haywire,

20:15 and there are things that my body is doing that are frankly weird.

20:22 Nosebleeds is a really good example.

20:24 I can count the amount of nosebleeds, pre-pregnancy,

20:27 I've had on one hand and now I seem to get them all the time.

20:32 Jaega says that during pregnancy,

20:34 her body went 'haywire'— it 'stopped working properly'.

20:38 For example, she had lots of nosebleeds whereas before being pregnant,

20:42 she could count the number of nosebleeds she had on one hand.

20:46 The idiom to 'count the number of something

20:48 on one hand' emphasises that this 'doesn't happen very often',

20:52 or that there's a small number of something.

20:55 After all, you can only count to five on one hand!

20:58 Many pregnant women experience 'cravings',

21:02 the 'strong desire for some particular food',

21:04 anything from ice cream to sardines.

21:07 When these cravings are for food that's not so healthy,

21:11 some women feel guilty, thinking "I know I should be eating healthily,

21:15 but all I want is chips!" Here's

21:17 Jaega Wise again speaking with nutritional therapist,

21:21 Henrietta Wilson, on the best way to deal with guilty feelings.

21:25 How guilty should you feel?

21:27 It's more the question!

21:29 For that late night chocolate binge, when your body is telling you I need cake!

21:36 Listen, I think the most important thing

21:38 is to not get out the cat-o'-nine-tails,

21:40 is to absolutely be kind to yourself, particularly in that first trimester.

21:44 It is a very critical window, but, at the same time,

21:47 it can be the time when all you want to do is to eat chips,

21:51 because your body is going through what it perceives to be physiological stress.

21:56 So it's doing the best that you can,

21:58 and it's absolutely not about giving yourself a hard time.

22:01 Jaega's food cravings led to a chocolate binge.

22:05 A 'binge' is 'an occasion where you do something in an extreme way',

22:09 like eating or drinking too much.

22:12 Henrietta's advice is to not use the cat-o'-nine-tails.

22:16 In the past, the 'cat-o'-nine-tails' was 'a whip made of nine strings',

22:20 which was used to punish prisoners.

22:22 Nowadays, when someone talks about the cat-o'-nine-tails,

22:26 they are probably talking about the ways people

22:29 sometimes use to punish themselves if they feel guilty.

22:32 But, says Henrietta, pregnancy isn't about 'giving yourself a hard

22:36 time'— 'treating yourself badly or criticising yourself'.

22:40 Pregnancy is a special time of life,

22:43 and all a baby can ask is that Mum does her best and, of course,

22:48 avoids some foods, which reminds me of your question, Georgie.

22:53 Which food does the NHS recommend pregnant woman do not eat?

22:58 I guessed it was smoked salmon.

23:00 Which was the correct answer!

23:03 Smoked salmon is best avoided because of the risk of bacteria,

23:07 but oily fish is good, and even a bowl of chips now and then are fine.

23:12 Right, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned in the programme,

23:15 starting with the idiom 'eating for two' which means 'to be pregnant'.

23:20 If something goes 'haywire',

23:22 it 'stops working properly or becomes difficult to control'.

23:26 If you say you 'could count something on one hand',

23:29 you're 'emphasising that something does not happen very often,

23:32 'or that there are only a few of those things'.

23:36 A 'binge' is 'an occasion when you do something to excess',

23:39 for example eat, drink, or spend money.

23:43 In the past, the 'cat-o'-nine-tails' was 'a whip used to punish prisoners',

23:48 but nowadays it usually refers to 'the ways

23:51 in which someone criticises themselves as a form of self-punishment'.

23:55 And finally, to 'give yourself a hard time' means

23:59 'to treat yourself badly by criticising or blaming yourself'.

24:03 Once again our six minutes are up!

24:06 Remember to join us again next time

24:08 for more topical discussion and useful vocabulary, here at 6 Minute English.

24:13 Goodbye for now!

24:14 Bye!

24:15 6 Minute English.

24:17 From BBC Learning English.

24:20 Hello.

24:20 This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English.

24:23 I'm Neil.

24:24 And I'm Georgie.

24:25 Do you know the five tastes which give food its flavour, Neil?

24:29 There's sweet.

24:30 Yes and, sour, bitter.

24:33 And salty!

24:35 Everyone knows that salt makes food taste

24:38 better by enhancing the flavours of the ingredients.

24:41 There's even a phrase you'll see in many recipes— 'add a pinch of salt'.

24:45 But exactly how much salt makes a 'pinch' of salt?

24:49 The World Health Organization, or WHO,

24:53 recommends a daily salt intake of less than 5g, about the same as a teaspoon.

24:59 In fact, the human body needs salt— at least 1g a day to survive.

25:04 But most of us eat far too much,

25:06 increasing the risk of high blood pressure and heart disease.

25:10 In this programme, we'll be asking how much salt is too much?

25:15 And, as usual, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.

25:19 Great!

25:19 But first I have a question for you, Neil.

25:22 The reason it's difficult to know how much

25:25 salt you consume is that it's hidden in food, especially processed food.

25:29 So, which of the following everyday foods do you think contains most salt?

25:35 Is it a) Meat?

25:37 b) Bread?

25:38 Or c) Pasta?

25:39 Well, I'm going to guess that meat is the saltiest of those foods.

25:44 OK, Neil, I'll reveal the answer later in the programme.

25:48 Marian Sumbiva lives in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan,

25:52 a country where people eat, on average, 17g of salt a day.

25:57 That's more than three times the amount recommended by the WHO.

26:02 Here, Marian explains some of the reasons behind

26:05 this to BBC World Service programme The Food Chain.

26:08 We consume lots of salt,

26:11 which is due to historical heritage, because when we were nomads,

26:16 for centuries and centuries we travelled

26:19 and wandered across the steppes, and here,

26:23 we had to carry lots of meat which could be preserved only adding salt.

26:30 And even the milk products, the dairy products,

26:33 are also very much salty for the same reasons.

26:37 Besides improving its flavour, salt can be used to 'preserve' food,

26:41 'to stop it from going bad'.

26:43 Traditionally, people in Kazakhstan were 'nomads',

26:46 they 'travelled from place to place with their animals,

26:49 'rather than living in one place all the time'.

26:52 Treating food with salt gave them enough to eat during the long winter months.

26:57 They even did it with 'dairy products',

27:00 'foods which are made from milk', such as cheese and butter.

27:04 So, salt has a long, and useful, history.

27:07 But there's a big difference between traditional Kazakh nomads

27:10 and the health problems associated with modern processed food.

27:14 When we eat too much salt, the body dilutes it by retaining water.

27:19 And as a result, the heart works harder to pump liquid around the body.

27:23 This causes high blood pressure which, over time, can lead to heart disease.

27:29 Globally, governments are fighting this health risk in different ways.

27:33 The Australian government reduced its recommended salt intake to 6g a day,

27:38 while the British government has passed laws forcing food

27:41 companies to reduce the amount of salt they use,

27:44 and now recommends just 5g of salt per day.

27:47 Clare Collins is Professor of Nutrition

27:49 at the University of Newcastle in Australia.

27:52 Here, she explains more about these salt recommendations

27:56 to BBC World Service programme The Food Chain.

27:59 I think you just gotta take a step back,

28:01 and look at the bigger picture, like arguing whether it should be 5g or 6g.

28:06 The issue is that around the world,

28:09 salt intakes are very high, contributing to high blood pressure,

28:13 contributing to premature strokes, premature mortality,

28:16 and we need to address it

28:19 in a way that's culturally appropriate for each country.

28:24 Instead of arguing over grams of salt,

28:27 Professor Collins thinks we should take a step

28:29 back and look at the bigger picture.

28:32 She uses two idioms, 'take a step back',

28:35 which means 'to temporarily withdraw from a situation

28:38 'in order to think about it more calmly',

28:40 and 'look at the bigger picture'— 'to consider the overall meaning of something,

28:45 not just the details'.

28:47 Yes, the problem remains that overconsumption

28:49 of salt is causing 'premature' health problems,

28:53 problems which are 'happening sooner' than they should.

28:56 By limiting salt and processed food, most people can enjoy long, healthy lives.

29:01 And if you don't like your food unsalted, try adding herbs and spices instead.

29:07 Well, speaking of salty foods,

29:09 I think it's time to reveal the answer to my question, Neil.

29:12 If you remember, I asked you which everyday food contains most salt?

29:17 And I guessed it was meat.

29:19 Which was the correct answer!

29:21 Meat contains the highest amount of salt— around 19%—

29:26 followed by bread with 14%, and pasta with 7%.

29:31 OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned in this programme,

29:34 starting with the verb 'to preserve food',

29:37 meaning 'to do something to stop it rotting, so it can be eaten later'.

29:41 'Nomads' are 'people who travel from one place to another,

29:45 'often with animal livestock, rather than living in one place all the time'.

29:49 'Dairy products' are 'foods such as cheese and butter,

29:52 which are made from milk'.

29:54 If you 'take a step back',

29:56 you 'temporarily remove yourself from a situation in order to reevaluate it'.

30:01 The idiom 'to look at the bigger picture'

30:03 means 'to consider the overall meaning of something,

30:06 'rather than the specific details'.

30:08 And finally, the adjective 'premature' describes 'something which

30:11 happens too soon or before the proper time'.

30:15 Once again, our six minutes are up.

30:17 Goodbye for now!

30:18 Bye!

30:19 6 Minute English.

30:20 From BBC Learning English.