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Warm Up

Helpful Words and Phrases

Listen and repeat.

  1. intention
    • ex. She has good intentions and always tries to help her friends.
  2. exposure
    • ex. Too much exposure to the sun can hurt your skin.
  3. digest
    • ex. After eating, our stomachs take a few hours to digest the food completely.
  4. absorb
    • ex. Drinking water helps your body absorb nutrients from the food you eat.
  5. nutritious
    • ex. Carrots are nutritious because they are full of vitamins that are good for your eyes.

Article

Read the article below and answer your tutor's questions.

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Diet expert Carlene Thomas from Virginia often gets questions on the best ways to prepare vegetables. Some people want to know how different cooking methods affect the vitamins and nutrients in vegetables. Others are simply looking for ways to add more vegetables to their meals. Her advice? Choose vegetables you enjoy eating.

Thomas says that many people buy vegetables with good intentions but never actually eat them. “It doesn’t matter how you cook them because if they’re going in the trash, they’re not in your body,” she says. Are raw vegetables better than cooked ones? Not always. High heat exposure can reduce some nutrients, but cooking can also make vegetables easier to digest and help the body absorb more nutrients. For example, cooked tomatoes release more lycopene, a nutrient that helps fight cancer.

When it comes to healthy cooking methods, shorter cooking times help preserve nutrients. Steaming and microwaving are good cooking methods because they don’t require oil. Boiling vegetables quickly is another option. However, experts agree that using a bit of oil can make vegetables taste better and help absorb vitamins, making your meal both delicious and nutritious.

This material was based on an article by The Associated Press.

Discussion

Choose a topic and discuss the questions with your tutor.

Preparing Vegetables

  • What vegetables do you usually include in your diet? Discuss.
  • What do you think about cooking vegetables? Discuss.
  • According to a diet expert, many people buy vegetables but never actually eat them. Why do you think this happens? Discuss.

Diet and Diet Experts

  • Have you ever asked for advice from a diet expert? Discuss.
  • How would you describe a healthy diet (ex. have a lot of vegetables, the serving of food is not too much)? Discuss.
  • Describe your diet. Discuss.