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English Listening Practice: Superfoods Healthy & Harmful
Discover how to improve your English fluency while uncovering the secrets of healthy living. This podcast lesson blends English learning tips with fascinating health facts like winter superfoods, all designed to keep you engaged and learning effortlessly.
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Have you ever wondered which foods could boost your health in surprising ways? From dark chocolate to honey, there’s so much to uncover about what we eat and how it affects us. Today we explore the science and separate the myths from the facts!
In nutrition, small changes repeated daily can have dramatic effects on long-term health outcomes
⭐ Dr. Rhonda Patrick, Cell Biologist
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More About This Lesson
Explore news stories while improving your English listening skills and expanding your vocabulary for real-world conversations.
The dose makes the poison – even essential nutrients can be toxic if consumed in excess
⭐ Dr. Catherine Price, Science Journalist
This lesson will help you feel confident discussing everyday topics in English with others:
- You expand your vocabulary with words like “nutrition,” “sceptical,” and “correlation.”
- You practise listening to clear British English pronunciation.
- You learn how to critique research and express opinions in English.
- You gain useful health-related vocabulary, such as “probiotic,” “allergy,” and “potassium.”
- You practise understanding complex topics explained in simple English.
- You improve your comprehension by hearing real-world examples and explanations.
- You experience varied sentence structures to enhance your speaking skills.
- You hear context-based vocabulary for better retention and usage.
- You practise active listening by focusing on specific points like scepticism and research methods.
- You strengthen your ability to understand and use English idioms, like “start the ball rolling.”
A topic like this is perfect for improving your English! You’ll learn useful vocabulary, phrases, and idioms about food, health, and research. It’s also a great way to practice understanding real-world topics and expressing opinions.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- How can I use health news articles to improve my English vocabulary?
Follow along with the podcast transcript while noting down new health and nutrition terms. Pay attention to how complex scientific concepts are explained in everyday English. Practice using these new words in your own sentences about health topics. Create flashcards with terms like ‘nutrition’, ‘correlation’, and ‘supplements’ along with their definitions and example uses. - What makes this lesson effective for improving listening comprehension?
The lesson combines authentic news content about superfoods with clear explanations of key vocabulary. The speaker uses natural pacing and pronunciation while breaking down complex topics. Regular pauses for spelling and definitions help you connect written and spoken forms. This multi-sensory approach helps train your ear while building real-world vocabulary. - Can beginners understand this type of health-focused English content?
Yes! The lesson is designed with scaffolding – complex terms are spelled out and defined in simpler language. The speaker uses repetition and provides context clues. While aimed at intermediate learners, beginners can focus on identifying familiar words and gradually build understanding of new vocabulary through context. - How does this lesson help with speaking practice?
By discussing current health trends and research, you’re learning vocabulary and expressions commonly used in everyday conversations about wellness. Shadow the speaker’s pronunciation of scientific terms. Practice summarizing the key points about each superfood in your own words. This builds confidence for real-world discussions about health and nutrition. - What’s the best way to review and retain the vocabulary from this lesson?
Create a personalized glossary of health terms, noting both spelling and pronunciation. Practice using new words in sentences about your own health habits. Listen to the podcast multiple times, focusing on different aspects (overall meaning, specific vocabulary, pronunciation). Discuss the superfood trends with language exchange partners to reinforce learning.
Most Unusual Words:
- Nutrition: The study of what you eat and how it affects your body and health.
- Sceptical: Not easily believing something; questioning if it’s true.
- Dementia: A condition where you lose brain function, often in older age.
- Correlation: A link or connection between two things.
- Probiotic: Helpful bacteria you eat to improve your digestion.
- Gut: A simple word for your stomach and intestines.
- Allergy: A reaction your body has to harmless things like pollen or food.
- Potassium: A mineral your body needs, found in foods like bananas.
- Hepatotoxicity: Harm to the liver caused by something like medicine or food.
- Turmeric: A yellow spice often used in Indian food, thought to be healthy.
Most Frequently Used Words:
| Word | Count |
|---|---|
| People | 14 |
| Health | 13 |
| Article | 13 |
| Which | 8 |
| Research | 8 |
| Chocolate | 8 |
| Means | 7 |
| English | 7 |
| About | 7 |
Listen To The Audio Lesson Now
Transcript: Learn English While Exploring Superfoods
‘Superfoods’ that made headlines in 2024 – a critique!
Hi there and welcome to this podcast from Adept English. Today, let’s get fully into the New Year feel. It’ll be 2025 by the time you’re listening to this. So, as ever, in comes the New Year. Happy New Year! Hope yours was a good one. And suddenly we’re all encouraged to be on a drive for our health. So today, I thought I would ‘start the ball rolling’, begin that process by doing a health and nutrition related topic. That word ‘nutrition’, N-U-T-R-I-T-I-O-N, is ‘the science of what you eat and its effect on our health and our bodies’. This means it’s an interesting topic today, but also lots of great English vocabulary for you to listen to and learn.
Hello, I’m Hilary, and you’re listening to Adept English. We will help you to speak English fluently. All you have to do is listen. So start listening now and find out how it works.
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Doubts and scepticism about some nutritional research and a welcome for other research!
So today’s podcast is based on an article, a fascinating article, entitled “Superfoods That Made Headlines in 2024” by Bronwyn Thomas in New Atlas. And it really is interesting. I’ll run through the points that the article makes, but also express my hesitation about some of the research. That’s my opinion creeping in. But some really useful and interesting health information here. What I’m doing is giving you access to an interesting article, which you probably won’t be able to find unless it’s in English. And I’m giving you a tutorial, a lesson if you like, in how to understand this article. It’s great English practice, as well as giving you access to something which you’ll probably only find in written English.
Is ‘Eating Cheese Linked To Better Mental Health In Older People?
The article starts by quoting research which suggests that ‘eating cheese is linked to better mental health in older people’. I’m so sceptical of this type of research. That’s ‘sceptical’ S-C-E-P-T-I-C-A-L. And if I’m sceptical, it means ‘I find it hard to believe this research’. The article says ‘it was adjusted for socioeconomic factors’. That means that they adjusted the results to allow for the fact that some people have more money than others. And I believe them. I’m sure they’ve taken care about that. But there are probably hundreds of factors, hundreds of things that affect your mental health in later life. And I can’t believe for a minute that all of these other factors have been eliminated in the study to show a clear link between better mental health and eating cheese! Surely you can’t say that better mental health in later life can be solely down to eating cheese?
Can Nuts Prevent Dementia?
And it’s the same with the information further on in this article about eating nuts. The headline here is “Nuts Help Protect The Brain From Dementia.” Vocabulary here – ‘nuts’, N-U-T-S. They come from trees and examples are walnuts, hazelnuts, cashews, and pistachios. And dementia, D-E-M-E-N-T-I-A. That’s the condition where you lose brain function in later life. None of us want dementia. Here, what the research says may be true. But what if people who eat lots of nuts are also taking other measures for their health? For example, I eat a handful of walnuts every day. If I succeed in not getting dementia, who could say that that’s because of my nut eating? It could equally well happen because of the other measures I take for my health, like not eating very much sugar, exercising, or limiting my alcohol intake. The trouble is people who are health conscious don’t tend to just do one thing for their health. They tend to do lots of things for their health. So I don’t think that research can remove the effect of all those other factors and get a clear signal that better mental health in later life is solely down to eating nuts. It can’t be. Or if it is, it’s difficult to prove. The famous phrase here is “correlation is not causation.” Look that one up if you need to!
And it’s the same with the research in the article that’s quoted and says, “Eating Fruit Is Linked To Less Depression In Later Life.” I’ve already critiqued this research in episode 13 of our subscription service. How can you possibly say it’s just down to fruit, not a broadly healthier lifestyle in general? I don’t think you can.
Dark Chocolate – Can It Really Reduce Diabetes?
And another one. There’s a section in this article headed “Dark Chocolate’s Link To Diabetes – In A Good Way”. I think that there’s little doubt that dark chocolate is much better for you than milk chocolate, which is sugar- heavy or even worse, white chocolate. And there are, in fact, quite a few health benefits from dark chocolate. But again, I think the research, which says ‘five servings of dark chocolate per week, are linked to a 21% reduction in diabetes’, is potentially flawed. Dark chocolate is what we call ‘an acquired taste’. It’s not the chocolate that your children ask for, is it? Even as adults, if we decide to eat dark chocolate for health reasons, we have to get used to it before we like it. But we do. Once you’re used to dark chocolate, milk chocolate tastes too sweet! But again, people who are purposefully switching to dark chocolate are probably making other changes that benefit their health. Don’t get me wrong, I’d absolutely love it if you could reduce your risk of diabetes by 21% just by eating dark chocolate. And I do eat dark chocolate. It’s just, again, I think it’s hard to say that a correlation, C-O-R-R-E-L-A-T-I-O-N, a link in the data, in other words, means that dark chocolate is the sole reason for less diabetes amongst people who eat it.
I think the useful and interesting parts of this article are the ones where it highlights two new food effects, ones I haven’t heard of, and the sections where it cautions against too heavy use of supplements. I’ll take those in turn and explain the vocabulary.
Learn English While Discussing the UK Food Advertising Ban
A New Benefit of Honey
Firstly, the new research that I hadn’t heard. The article quotes, “Honey Helps Probiotics Reach The Gut”. ‘Honey’ is sweet and comes from bees. The word ‘probiotic’, P-R-O-B-I-O-T-I-C, if you’ve not heard it, it means basically ‘substances you take by mouth, which help you have so-called ‘good bacteria’ in your body. And your ‘gut’, G-U-T, is a word for your digestive system. Again, I’ve done a whole subscription episode, episode 35, for our subscription service. So if you’re signed up for that, you’ll be getting that one soon. I did it on ‘The Health Benefits Of Good Bacteria’. The challenge with taking good bacteria in foods or in tablet form, otherwise known as ‘food supplements’, is trying to ensure that the good bacteria actually reach the place in your body where they do their good work. So to read that there’s evidence that taking them with honey, especially yoghurt and honey, means more of the good bacteria arrive in your gut where you can use it – that’s really interesting. Plus the fact that natural yoghurt with honey is nice to eat anyway!
Strawberries for Allergies – unless you’re allergic to strawberries?!
And the second piece of research I hadn’t heard, it says, “Strawberries Can Aid The Body In Silencing Allergies.” Vocabulary again – an ‘allergy’, A-L-L-E-R-G-Y, is when your body reacts to substances which are harmless as though they’re harmful. So if you’re ‘allergic’, that’s A-L-L-E-R-G-I-C, to pollen from grass or trees in the summer, you may have what we call ‘hay fever’. That’s an example of an ‘allergy’. There are lots of different allergies and they can make life difficult for people. So knowing that strawberries, a simple fruit, can lessen the effect of allergies on people – that’s brilliant! That research comes straight out of Tokyo University. I will be reading up on that.
Beware those watermelons – you could end up in hospital!
The article in New Atlas ends by sounding a warning about apparently healthy foods and taking too many food supplements, both things which can do people harm. In the section entitled “Watermelons’ Hidden Danger”, the article talks about how the fruit watermelon has high potassium, P-O-T-A-S-S-I-U-M, or the chemical symbol K, that’s potassium. Our bodies need potassium, but only in moderation. Apparently the potassium in watermelons can be so high that it affects people’s kidneys, K-I-D-N-E-Y. And this is all the more so as plenty older people have disease of the kidney or reduced kidney function without even knowing it. So people have ended up in hospital because of eating too much potassium in watermelon. Probably we eat more watermelon than is good because they are huge fruits. Perhaps better to buy a portion of watermelon rather than a whole one.
Taking supplements can be OTT!
And the other warning sounded by the article? “Turmeric And Green Tea Lands People In Hospital”. ‘Turmeric’, T-U-R-M-E-R-I-C, is a spice common in Indian curries. And it has in recent years been said to have such health benefits that people take it as a nutritional supplement. That means turmeric in tablet form or capsule. And it’s the same with green tea. I’ve certainly taken E-G-C-G from green tea in tablet form in the past. The problem often with supplements is the high dose. It’s easy to take too much of it. And you can buy supplements online with huge high doses in them. The article makes the point that doing too much turmeric or green tea extract can do you harm, harm your liver, L-I-V-E-R. And that hepatoxicity or ‘harm to the liver’ has put lots of people in hospital. Virtually every supplement you take exits the body through the liver.
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Suspicious of Big Pharma? Hold ‘healthy scepticism’ for non pharma too!
It’s worth bearing in mind – in these days where people are increasingly suspicious of Big Pharma – this article makes an interesting point towards the end. It says “Just because the treatments aren’t products of the pharmaceutical industry, it doesn’t mean they’re risk-free”! So the upshot, the takeaway or the message if you like, “Beware what and how much nutritional supplement you take”! OK, hopefully that’s interesting information. And you can find links in the transcript on our website to the original article in New Atlas and to the research. Hopefully there I’ve simplified a complex topic so that you can understand it more easily. Let me know whether I’ve been successful in that or whether you found this too difficult. As always, we love to hear from you.
Goodbye
Enough for now. Have a lovely day. Speak to you again soon. Goodbye. Oh, and Happy New Year!
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