Less salt, better health ⏲️ 6 Minute English

227,320 views ・ 2024-09-05

BBC Learning English


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00:07
Hello, this is 6 minute English from BBC Learning English.
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I'm Neil, and I'm Georgie.
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Do you know the five tastes which give food its flavour,
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Neil? There's sweet...
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Yes. And, uh, sour, bitter...
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And salty!
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Everyone knows that salt makes food taste better
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by enhancing the flavours of the ingredients.
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There's even a phrase you'll see in many recipes -
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'Add a pinch of salt'.
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But exactly how much salt makes a 'pinch' of salt?
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The World Health Organisation,
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or WHO, recommends a daily salt intake of less than 5g,
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about the same as a teaspoon.
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In fact, the human body needs salt - at least 1g a day to survive.
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But most of us eat far too much,
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increasing the risk of high blood pressure and heart disease.
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In this program, we'll be asking, how much salt is too much?
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And as usual, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.
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Great. But first, I have a question for you, Neil.
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The reason it's difficult to know how much salt you consume
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is that it's hidden in food, especially processed food.
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So, which of the following everyday foods do you think contains most salt?
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Is it a) meat, b) bread, or c) pasta?
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Well, I'm going to guess that meat is the saltiest of those foods.
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OK Neil, I'll reveal the answer later in the program.
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Marian Sumbiva lives in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan,
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a country where people eat, on average, 17g of salt a day.
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That's more than three times the amount recommended by the WHO.
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Here, Marian explains some of the reasons behind this
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to BBC World Service program 'The Food Chain'.
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We consume lots of salt, which is due to historical heritage
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because when we were nomads for centuries and centuries, we travelled
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and wandered across the steppes,
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and here, we had to carry lots of meat which could be preserved
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only adding salt. And even the milk products,
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the dairy products are also very much salty for the same reasons.
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Besides improving its flavour,
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salt can be used to preserve food to stop it from going bad.
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Traditionally, people in Kazakhstan were nomads.
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They travelled from place to place with their animals rather than living
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in one place all the time.
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Treating food with salt gave them enough to eat during the long winter months.
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They even did it with dairy products -
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foods which are made from milk, such as cheese and butter.
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So, salt has a long and useful history.
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But there's a big difference between traditional Kazakh nomads
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and the health problems associated with modern processed food.
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When we eat too much salt, the body dilutes it by retaining water,
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and as a result, the heart works harder to pump liquid around the body.
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This causes high blood pressure, which over time can lead to heart disease.
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Globally, governments are fighting this health risk in different ways.
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The Australian government reduced its recommended salt intake
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to 6g a day, while the British government has passed laws forcing
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food companies to reduce the amount of salt they use,
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and now recommends just 5g of salt per day.
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Claire Collins is professor of nutrition
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at the University of Newcastle in Australia.
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Here, she explains more about these salt recommendations
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to BBC World Service Programme, 'The Food Chain'.
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I think you just got to take a step back, and look at the bigger picture,
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like arguing whether it should be 5g or 6g...
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The issue is that around the world salt intakes are very high, contributing
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to blood... high blood pressure,
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contributing to premature strokes, premature mortality.
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And we need to address it in a way
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that's culturally appropriate for each country.
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Instead of arguing over grams of salt,
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Professor Collins thinks we should take a step back,
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and look at the bigger picture.
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She uses two idioms:
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'take a step back', which means to temporarily withdraw from a situation
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in order to think about it more calmly and 'look at the bigger picture' -
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to consider the overall meaning of something, not just the details.
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Yes, the problem remains that overconsumption of salt is causing
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premature health problems - problems which are happening sooner
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than they should.
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By limiting salt and processed food,
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most people can enjoy long, healthy lives.
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And if you don't like your food unsalted,
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try adding herbs and spices instead.
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04:54
Well, speaking of salty foods, I think
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it's time to reveal the answer to my question, Neil.
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If you remember, I asked you which everyday food contains most salt.
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And I guessed it was meat...
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Which was the correct answer.
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Meat contains the highest amount of salt - around 19%, followed by bread
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with 14%, and pasta with 7%.
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OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned in this program,
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starting with the verb 'to preserve' food,
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meaning to do something to stop it rotting so it can be eaten later.
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Nomads are people who travel from one place to another,
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often with animal livestock, rather than living in one place all the time.
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Dairy products are foods such as cheese and butter, which are made from milk.
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05:41
If you take a step back,
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you temporarily remove yourself from a situation in order to reevaluate it.
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The idiom 'to look at the bigger picture' means to consider
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the overall meaning of something rather than the specific details.
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And finally, the adjective 'premature' describes something which happens
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too soon, or before the proper time.
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Once again, our six minutes are up. Goodbye for now.
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Bye!
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