Eat Healthy
“Clean your plate!” and “Be a member of the clean
-plate club
1
!” Just about every kid in the US
has heard this from a parent or grandparent
.
often
,
its accompanied by an appeal
:
“Just think about
those
Starving
orphans
in
Africa
2
!”
Sure,
we
should
be
grateful
for
every
bite
of
food
.
Unfortunately,
many people in
the US
take too
many bites
3
.Instead of staying “clean the
plate”
, perhaps we should save some food for tomorrow
.
According to news reports
,
US restaurants are partly to blame for the growing bellies
.
A waiter
puts a plate of food in front of each customer, with two to four times the amount recommended by
the government
,
according to a USA Today story
4
.Americans traditionally associate quantity with
value and most restaurants try to give them that
.
They prefer to have customers complain about too
much food rather than too little
.
Barbara
Rolls
,
a
nutrition
professor
at
Pennsylvania
State
University,
told
USA
Today
that
restaurant
portion
Sizes
began
to
grow
in
the
1970s
,
the
same
time
that
the
American
waistline
began to expand.
Health experts have tried to
get
many restaurants
to
serve smaller portions
.
Now, apparently,
some customers are Calling for this too
.
The restaurant industry trade magazine QSR reported last
month that 57 percent of more than 4
,
000 people surveyed believe restaurants serve portions that
are too large
;
23 percent had no opinion
;
20 percent disagreed
.
But a closer look at the survey
indicates
that
many
Americans
who
can′t
afford
fine
dining
still
prefer
large
portions
.
Seventy
percent of those earning at least $150
,
000 per year prefer smaller portions
;
but only 45 percent of
those earning less than $25
,
000 want smaller.
It′s not that working class Americans don′t want to eat healthy
.
It′s just that
,
after long hours at
low-paying jobs
,
getting less on their plate hardly seems like a good deal. They live from paycheck
to paycheck
,
happy to save a little money for next year's Christmas presents
.
词汇:
orphan [
´
ɔ
:f
ə
n] n
.孤儿
belly [
´
beli] n
.肚子
nutrition [nju:
´
tri
ʃ
ə
n] n
.营养
waistline [
´
we
ɪ
st
´
la
ɪ
n] n
.腰围
paycheck
[
´
peit
ʃ
ek] n
.薪金支票
注释:
1. Be a member of the clean-plate club!
做清盘俱乐部的成员
2. Just think about those starving orphans in Africa!
只要想想在非洲挨饿的孤儿们!
3. take too many bites
吃得太多
4.
A
waiter
puts
a
plate
of
food
in
front
of
each
customer,
with
two
to
four
times
the
amount