英语博客:Processed or unprocessed?（在线收听）

As most parents, I am concerned about what my children eat. Do they eat healthy food, and if they do, do they eat it consistently? And what about me? Am I careful about what I put in my body? It will, in time, influence my health and those around me. I find it is easy to quickly grab food when I am 'on the go', and not necessarily feed my body everything that it needs. School kids, especially, need a balanced diet. When my children come out of school, they are always ready to devour something. I have been experimenting recently, to see just how healthy I can make their after school snacks. There are so many quick, processed foods that I could feed them, but how would they benefit? So, the other day, when I picked them up, I presented them with chicken and a bag of blueberries each. "Ah, cool!" was their only reply as they tucked into the food. You would have thought that they would want something sweet, or starchy, but they were totally satisfied with what I had brought them. "Great!" I thought to myself, "I can feel good about feeding them all kinds of healthy snacks on the way home." Once when I was at the check-out till at a supermarket, the cashier made a remark about a box of pumpkin bread mix that I was buying. "Oh, this is really good stuff," she said. "I bought this the other day because my kids were getting tired of Oreo cookies as an after school snack." I was actually horrified at the thought of the super processed Oreos being eaten every day! Processed ingredients sneak into all kinds of foods these days, but every day Oreo cookies take the biscuit!

Grammar notes.

The past conditional with the past subjunctive with the new expressions.

1. 'On the go' - I would have grabbed a quick 'on the go' lunch if I had known that the cafeteria was closed.

2. 'To tuck into something' - We would have tucked into our chicken if it had been cooked properly.

3. 'Starchy' - If they had realized(sed) just how starchy the bread, pies, and cookies are, they wouldn't have bought them.

4. 'Check-out till' and 'cashier' - If the check-out till hadn't been so slow, the cashier wouldn't have been so frustrated.

5. 'To take the biscuit' - I would have been embarrassed to have performed like that on stage; she really takes the biscuit.