Reading 21: How Toxic is Your Diet?

Reading 21

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14 – 27 which are based on Reading 21.

How Toxic is Your Diet?

A         Health experts have long warned of the dangers of high-fat foods that can lead to heart disease or cancer. New studies show that each fatty bite may also carry a dose of highly toxic chemicals.

B         Man-made chemicals, including traces of highly carcinogenic dioxins released into the environment, are turning up in fast-food and grocery store staples such as meat, fish and dairy products in industrialized countries at levels that exceed U.S. government standards by 200 percent or more, according to the studies.

C         "In industrialized countries you can avoid the intake of dioxins, to a certain extent, by eating food that is low in fat," says Dr. Arnold Schecter, an international medical expert on dioxins and an advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO). "But it is more desirable to avoid producing dioxins in the first place. Developing countries can avoid this problem completely if they do not follow the same polluted industrialized path as we have."

D         Dioxin is a toxic waste product formed when municipal and hazardous waste is burned, and when chemicals containing chlorine, such as pesticides and paper products, are manufactured. Once an animal has eaten these toxic chemicals that are in the environment as a by-product of industrialization and incineration, they accumulate in the fat. WHO and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency agree that dioxins cause cancer.

E          Two recent studies on the subject conducted by Schecter at the State University Health Science Center in Binghamton, New York, have been published in the British journal Chemosphere. He concludes that dioxins, and dioxin-like substances like PCBs and furans, are getting into food supplies at levels that are highest in high-fat foods, and lowest in low-fat foods such as fruits and vegetables. According to Schecter, besides cancer, minute amounts of these chemicals have been shown to lead to nervous system and liver damage, as well as to mimic hormones that disrupt reproduction and human development.

F          He points to a study in Japan and Taiwan of persons who ingested rice oil that had been contaminated with PCBs and furans during the 1960s and 1970s. They suffered from a combination of higher cancer mortality, increased frequency of lung infections, numbness and other nervous system effects.

G         From ice cream and fish bought in the grocery store to Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonald's Big Mac, all samples collected from across the United States contained trace amounts of dioxin that well exceed many government regulations, according to the studies. While vegetables and fruits also contained trace amounts of these chemicals, the dose was significantly less than high fat foods.

H         Advocacy groups such as the American Public Health Association (APHA) believe that governments should be doing more to protect people's health, especially in light of these new scientific findings. "The U.S. government and many other countries are not looking at the health effects of dioxin and other synthetic chemicals that end up in our food," says Richard Levinson, senior policy analyst with APHA. "Food agencies are not carefully monitoring these chemicals. we need a more consistent approach."

I           According to the studies, developing fetuses and infants are most at risk from the effects of dioxins. Birth defects, learning disabilities and other development problems have been linked to dioxin exposure. This is because these chemicals "mimic" or "block" estrogen and progesterone, natural hormones which instruct the body on how it should develop.

J           The amount of chemicals required to disrupt normal development could be as low as one part in a trillion. The equivalent of a single drop of liquid placed in the center car of a 10-kilometer long cargo train. Dioxins are also highly persistent in the environment and extremely resistant to chemical or physical breakdown.

K         Schecter, who has been involved with dioxin and PCB studies in Russia, China, Cambodia, the Middle East, and Vietnam as well as the United States, points to the widespread contamination by dioxin. "From penguins in Antarctica to rains that fall in South East Asia to the milk of a nursing mother in Germany, synthetic chemicals have been found."

L          Despite his gloomy conclusions, Schecter remains hopeful that the problem can be overcome. For the most part, these synthetic chemicals are historically new, they have only been around the later half of this century. We must take every step to stop putting dioxins into our environment and our food supplies. We can reverse this trend.

Questions 1 – 5

Reading Passage 2 has twelve paragraphs A – L.

Choose the most suitable headings for Paragraphs C - E, G and L from the list of headings below. Write the appropriate numbers (i –v) in boxes 1 – 5 on your answer sheet.

NB        There are more headings than paragraphs so you will not use all of them. You may use     
             any of the following headings more than once.

List of Headings

(i) Man-made chemicals and fast food

(ii) Effects of dioxin upon fetuses and infants

(iii) Widespread traces of dioxin in a wide range of fast foods

(iv) Findings of two recent studies

(v) Dioxin and its origin

(vi) Choices for industrialized and developing countries

(vii) Prospect for solving the problem

Example             Paragraph B                                     Answer (i)

1. Paragraph C

2. Paragraph D

3. Paragraph E

4. Paragraph G

5. Paragraph L

Questions 6 – 9

Answer questions 6 – 9 using NO MORE THAN FOUR WORDS from the passage. Write your answers in boxes 6 – 9 on your answer sheet.

6. According to health experts, what kinds of disease can high-fat foods cause?

7.Compared with the intake of dioxins, what is more desirable?

8.Who are most at risk from the effects of dioxins?

9.What have been found in the vast regions including Antarctic, Southeast Asia, and Germany?

Questions 10 – 14

Complete the table below. Use NO MORE THAN FIVE WORDS from the passage. Write your answers in boxes 10 – 14 on your answer sheet.

Dioxins	are highest in high-fat food, but lowest in low-fat foods such as … 10 …
Minute amount of these chemicals	may cause … 11 … as well as to mimic homones.
Developing problems such as learning disabilities	are also linked to … 12…
Dioxins	are highly persistent and extremely resistant to … 13 …
For the most part, … 14 …	are historically new.