Outcomes Advanced p 93. Health and Diet. Speaking

1. Conversation: Talk about the following questions with your partner for about 5 minutes. The pictures are there to help you.

1.    Health care: is it a right or a privilege? Is healthcare a business? Does your country have a National Health Service or do you need to pay for all treatments? Which system do you think is better? Is there much difference between the quality of service in private and public hospitals?

2.    What are the health risks associated with your lifestyle and environment? Do people make logical and sound decisions about health? Do you consider yourself a hypochondriac?

3.    What do you think of homeopathic or holistic medicine? Have you (or any of your friends and family) ever tried acupuncture or acupressure? Do you prefer traditional medicine or alternative medicine? Why?/ Why not?

4.    Do you believe that "we are what we eat?" How would the world be different if everybody was vegetarian? Or a vegan?

5.    What do you think of the idea of having plastic surgery to improve your looks? Would you ever get a nose or a boob job, a nip and tuck or a facelift? Are such procedures dangerous? Would you go under the knife just to get rid of your wrinkles or rolls? Is our society too obsessed with the way we look?

6.    What do you know about mental health? What springs to mind when you hear the term 'mental health'? Are people with mental disorders stigmatised? Are anxiety, depression, OCD or any other mental disorder more common now than 50 years ago?

2. Partner A/B:Below there are some issues related to the topic. You must talk about at least two of them for 3 minutes. You may be asked further questions about the topic when you have finished.

•          Have you ever felt an excruciating pain? Have you ever damaged a knee or an arm quite badly? What kind of medical treatment did you receive? How often do you have a health check?

•          Have you ever gone on a diet to improve your health or lose weight? How well did it work? What food did you have to cut out? Do you think dieting can be dangerous? Is there a miracle diet? Do you know anyone who struggles with an eating disorder?

•          Have you ever snapped after being under too much stress? How do you de-stress when you feel overwhelmed?

•          What do you think about canned, frozen and processed food? What do you think of genetically-modified (GM) food?

•          Can you give some examples of how mind and body are connected, from your own experience? Do you have a kind of red warning flag that indicates too much stress? Do you feel snowed under?

•          When was the last time you had to rush to hospital?

Vocabulary

privilege:/ˈprɪvəlɪdʒ/a special right or advantage that a particular person or group of people has

lifestyle: the way in which a person or a group of people lives and works

hypochondriac:/ˌhaɪpəˈkɒndriæk/ worried all the time about your health and believing that you are ill/sick when there is nothing wrong with you; suffering from hypochondria

homeopathic:/ˌhəʊmiəˈpæθɪk/ using homeopathy (= a system of treating diseases or conditions using very small amounts of the substance that causes the disease or condition)

holistic:(medical) treating the whole person rather than just the symptoms (= effects) of a disease

acupuncture:/ˈækjupʌŋktʃə(r)/ a Chinese method of treating pain and illness using special thin needles which are pushed into the skin in particular parts of the body

acupressure: a form of medical treatment, originally from East Asia, in which pressure is applied to particular parts of the body using the fingers

vegetarian: eating no meat or fish

vegan:/ˈviːɡən/ a person who does not eat any animal products such as meat, milk or eggs. Some vegans do not use animal products such as silk or leather.

nose job: (informal) an operation involving rhinoplasty or cosmetic surgery on a person's nose.

boob job: to have an operation to change the shape of the breasts, usually to make them larger

nip and tuck:(informal) a medical operation in which skin is removed or made tighter to make somebody look younger or more attractive, especially a facelift

facelift: medical operation in which the skin on a person’s face is made tighter to make them look younger

procedure: [countable] (medical) a medical operation. To perform a routine surgical procedure.

wrinkle:/ˈrɪŋkl/ a line or small fold in your skin, especially on your face, that forms as you get older

roll:[countable] an area of too much fat on your body, especially around your waist.

mental health: a person’s condition with regard to their psychological and emotional well-being.

spring to mind: to come quickly into your mind

disorder: an illness of the mind or body

stigmatise:/ˈstɪɡ.mə.taɪz/ to treat someone or something unfairly by disapproving of him, her, or it

anxiety: a medical condition in which you always feel frightened and worried

depression: a mental illness in which a person is very unhappy and anxious (= worried and nervous) for long periods and cannot have a normal life during these periods

OCD:  or obsessive compulsive disorder. A mental illness that causes a person to do something repeatedly for no reason.

excruciating:/ɪkˈskruː.ʃi.eɪ.tɪŋ/ extremely painful

health check: an occasion when a doctor or nurse examines someone's body, takes blood tests, etc. in order to make sure the person has no health problems

to be on a diet: trying to lose weight by eating less food or specific foods.

cut out: to make something shorter, lower, smaller, etc

struggle: to experience difficulty and make a very great effort in order to do something

eating disorder: a mental illness in which people eat far too little or far too much food and are unhappy with their bodies.

Binge Eating Disorder: a serious eating disorder in which you frequently consume unusually large amounts of food and feel unable to stop eating

Anorexia: a serious mental illness in which a person does not eat, or eats too little, often resulting in dangerous weight loss

Bulimia: a mental illness in which someone eats in an uncontrolled way and in large amounts, then vomits intentionally.

snap: [intransitive] to suddenly be unable to control your feelings any longer because the situation has become too difficult.

overwhelm: to cause someone to feel a sudden strong emotion

de-stress: to get rid of feelings of stress (= worry caused by difficult situations in your life or job)

canned: preserved and sold in a metal container

processed: processed food has had some sort of chemical or industrial treatment in order to cook it, preserve it, or improve its taste or appearance

(a) cast iron stomach: if you can eat all sorts of food and drink what you like, without any indigestion, discomfort or bad effects, it is said that you have a cast-iron stomach.

(as) fit as a fiddle: a person who is as fit as a fiddle is in an excellent state of health or physical condition.

hale and hearty: someone, especially an old person, who is hale and hearty is in excellent health.

genetically modified food: are foods produced from organisms that have had changes introduced into their DNA using the methods of genetic engineering.

preservative: preventing food or wood from decaying

shelf life: the length of time that food, etc. can be kept before it is too old to be sold
dexa scan:dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. Also: bone densitometry, bone density test/ scan.
scan, sonogram, ultrasound (scan): Sp. ecografía. E.g. The ultrasound showed...
PET scan: /pet/ position emission tomography.(A process that produces an image of your brain or of another part inside your body).E.g.  a PET scan.
CAT scan: /ˈkæt skæn/ (also CT scan  /siːˈtiː skæn/ ) (computerized axial tomography) a medical examination that uses a computer to produce an image of the inside of somebody’s body from X-ray or ultrasound pictures. E.g. The doctor arranged for me to have a CAT scan. Run a CAT scan.
 MRI scan: /ˌem ɑːr ˈaɪ/ magnetic resonance imaging (a method of using a strong magnetic field to produce an image of the inside of a person’s body) E.g. an MRI scan