Eating for two ⏲️ 6 Minute English

Hello. This is Six Minute

English from BBC

Learning English. I'm Phil. And I'm Georgie.

If you ask a woman

'Are you eating for two?',

the phrase has a very specific meaning. You're asking

'Are you pregnant?' and, like many of the idioms we commonly use in English,

this phrase contains a little bit of truth.

A pregnant woman really is eating for two - herself

and the baby growing inside her.

The female human body is amazing. During pregnancy

it protects the growing baby by allowing it to take whatever nutrients

it needs from the mother. This means

it's the mum-to-be, not the baby, who experiences any nutritional problems.

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

In this programme, we'll be finding out how a woman's relationship

to food changes during pregnancy and, as usual,

we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary, too.

But first,

I have a question for you, Phil.

For some pregnant women,

finding reliable information on what food to eat can be hard. Finding out

about harmful foods to avoid, on the other hand, is much easier.

So, according to NHS recommendations,

which of these foods should pregnant women not eat?

Is it A. chips, B. oily fish or C. smoked salmon?

I think the answer is C. smoked salmon.

OK, Phil. We'll find out the correct answer at the end of the programme.

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

the story gets complicated because of the changes

a woman's body goes through during pregnancy.

Here's Jaega Wise, presenter of BBC

Radio 4’s, The Food Programme, reporting

on her experience of pregnancy:

I feel like throughout this pregnancy

my body's just gone a bit haywire, and there are things that my body is doing

[laughs] that are frankly weird... Nosebleeds is a really good example.

I can count the amount of nosebleeds pre-pregnancy

I've had on one hand and now

I seem to get them all the time.

Jaega says that during pregnancy,

her body went haywire -

it stopped working properly. For example,

she had lots of nosebleeds, whereas before being pregnant,

she could count the number of nosebleeds

she had on one hand. The idiom to count the number

of something on one hand emphasises that this doesn't happen very often,

or that there is a small number of something -

after all, you can only count to five on one hand!

Many pregnant women experience cravings,

the strong desire for some particular food,

anything from ice cream to sardines.

When these cravings are for food

that is not so healthy,

some women feel guilty, thinking

"I know I should be eating healthily, but all I want is chips!"

Here’s Jaega Wise again speaking with nutritional therapist,

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

How guilty should you feel...

is more the question for that late night chocolate binge

when your body is telling you, ‘I need cake!’

Listen, I think the most important thing is to not get out the

cat-o’-nine-tails, is to absolutely be kind to yourself,

particularly in that first trimester. It is a very critical window, but at the same

time it can be the time when all you want to do is to eat chips because

your body is going through what it perceives to be physiological stress.

So it's doing the best that you can,

it's absolutely not about giving yourself a hard time.

Jaega’s food cravings led to a chocolate binge.

A binge is an occasion where you do something in an extreme way,

like eating or drinking too much.

Henrietta’s advice is to not use the cat-o’-nine-tails. In the past, the

cat-o’-nine- tails was a whip made of nine strings

which was used to punish prisoners.

Nowadays, when someone talks about the cat-o’-nine-tails,

they are probably talking about the ways

people sometimes use to punish themselves

if they feel guilty.

But, says Henrietta,

pregnancy isn't about giving yourself a hard time, treating yourself badly

or criticising yourself.

Pregnancy is a special time of life, and all a baby can ask

is that mum does her best. And, of course, avoids some foods,

which reminds me of your question, Georgie.

Which food does the NHS recommend

pregnant women do not eat?

I guessed it was smoked salmon... Which was... the correct answer!

Smoked salmon is best avoided because of the risk of bacteria,

but oily fish is good

and even a bowl of chips now

and then are fine.

Right, let's recap the vocabulary

we have learnt in the programme, starting with the idiom,

eating for two, which means to be pregnant.

If something goes haywire, it stops working properly

or becomes difficult to control.

If you say you could count something on one hand,

you're emphasising that something does not happen very often

or that there are only a few of those things.

A binge is an occasion where you do something to excess, for example,

eat, drink or spend money. In the past, the

cat-o’-nine-tails was a whip

used to punish prisoners, but nowadays

it usually refers to the ways in which someone criticises themselves

as a form of self-punishment.

And finally, to give yourself a hard time

means to treat yourself badly by criticising or blaming yourself. Once again

our six minutes are up!

Remember to join us again next time

for more topical discussion and useful vocabulary, here at Six Minute

English. Goodbye

for now. Bye!