英语 英语 日语 日语 韩语 韩语 法语 法语 德语 德语 西班牙语 西班牙语 意大利语 意大利语 阿拉伯语 阿拉伯语 葡萄牙语 葡萄牙语 越南语 越南语 俄语 俄语 芬兰语 芬兰语 泰语 泰语 泰语 丹麦语 泰语 对外汉语

Foods, Tastes Change Because of the Coronavirus Crisis

时间:2021-02-12 15:20来源:互联网 提供网友:nan   字体: [ ]
    (单词翻译:双击或拖选)

 

The coronavirus health crisis has interfered1 with almost every part of daily human life—including what we eat.

Nearly a year into social distancing, many people are enjoying foods long forgotten or once rejected for taste, feel or smell. Some have added healthful food to their diets to strengthen the body's natural defenses.

Home cooking activity is up everywhere as a result of restrictions2 on restaurants and other food shops. People are increasingly exploring new food experiences in their own kitchens.

The joy of pears

Maeri Ferguson is a 31-year-old woman living in Brooklyn, New York. She got COVID-19 last year and recovered. But, the disease damaged her sense of taste and smell for months. Many of her favorite foods no longer satisfied her.

Ferguson can again sense sweetness, saltiness and spiciness3, although many foods still seem to lack a strong taste — but not pears. The fruit was not part of her pre-COVID diet.

"I knew what a bad, unripe4 pear tasted like but not a good one," she said. Thanks to a gift from a friend, she pushed herself to find a good example. It was one of the first foods she could truly taste again.

"I'm a full convert," Ferguson said. "I'll never forget biting into a juicy, red pear."

Fermented5 foods

Fruits are simple pleasures. But fermented foods have also become popular. Fermented foods last a long time in the refrigerator which is a help if you go food shopping less often than before.

Anastasia Sharova, a chef in Stuttgart, Germany, runs Happybellyfish.com. The company is an online cooking school that works on healthy food. It added fermentation classes in late 2019. Then, the coronavirus crisis hit.

Suddenly, interest in making kimchi and sauerkraut, two kinds of fermented cabbage; and miso, fermented soybean, increased sharply. Earlier, Kombucha, a fermented tea, had helped popularize home fermented foods.

"Health became...number one for many last year," Sharova said. She added that being at home caused many to make cooking discoveries. She said fermenting6 things is like a community activity done by families or in online classes.

Thirty-year-old Alicia Harper also has discovered fermented foods. She is a nutritionist in New York City. She did not like the strong tastes and smells of fermented foods at first.

"Since trying them again recently, my opinion has completely changed. I have now grown to love the taste and smell," she said.

Anne Alderete of Los Angeles, California, is now enjoying natto. Made of fermented soybeans, natto is popular in Japan but considered too unusual by many people.

"I've smelled it many times since I'm half Japanese and lived in Tokyo after college for seven years," the 47-year-old said. But she never liked to eat natto before COVID-19.

"I feel somewhat virtuous7 when I eat natto because the health benefits are many, but it's also because it's brought me closer to my roots," Alderete said.

Concerns and comfort foods

Some experts think that changes in the way we eat also come from having more time to consider information about how food comes to our tables.

Ryan Andrews is a dietician who wrote a book on plant-based foods. Ryan is also an adviser8 for Precision Nutrition, which trains nutrition coaches. He said many people are learning painful truths about the food system.

Andrews said: "People have learned about the unsafe working conditions in meatpacking plants, the unfair wages of farm laborers9." He added that other problems include disease "related to diet," cruelty to farm animals and the cost of industrialized agriculture."

At the same time, the research company Semrush has studied Google searches related to changing food interests during the COVID-19 crisis. Their findings suggest comfort food and some unusual combinations are still on people's minds.

The company found a 17 percent increase in searches for "peanuts and coke" in December when compared to December 2019. It found a 33 percent rise for "prosciutto and melon." And, it found a 95 percent jump in searches for "bacon and jam."

A service called WoodSpoon uses technology to connect people cooking at home with people willing to pay for a home-cooked meal. The company is based in New York. Its chief, Oren Saar spoke10 to the Associated Press. He suggested that before the health crisis, there was a strong interest in healthy, less processed foods. Afterwards, orders for breads, pasta and fatty meats increased.

"In challenging times like this, diners are looking for authentic11, homemade food," Saar said.

Words in This Story

comfort –n. a state or feeling of not being worried, upset or unhappy, free of pain

fermented –adj. a chemical change in foods (and some industrial materials) that changes the nature of the food and often preserves it

jam –n. a sweet, sticky food made with fruit and sugar

challenging –adj. difficult

authentic –adj. real, genuine


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 interfered 71b7e795becf1adbddfab2cd6c5f0cff     
v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 );调停;妨碍;干涉
参考例句:
  • Complete absorption in sports interfered with his studies. 专注于运动妨碍了他的学业。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • I am not going to be interfered with. 我不想别人干扰我的事情。 来自《简明英汉词典》
2 restrictions 81e12dac658cfd4c590486dd6f7523cf     
约束( restriction的名词复数 ); 管制; 制约因素; 带限制性的条件(或规则)
参考例句:
  • I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
  • a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制
3 spiciness 5cf89aada610cc2284b271b94db3c95d     
n.香馥,富于香料;香味
参考例句:
  • For that extra spiciness, add powdered nutmeg to taste. 至于要得到那种额外的香味,酌量加入肉豆蔻粉。 来自互联网
  • Aside from a graph a thermometer will be used to show spiciness. 除了文字标记以外,还将用温度表图像形象地表达辣度。 来自互联网
4 unripe cfvzDf     
adj.未成熟的;n.未成熟
参考例句:
  • I was only ill once and that came of eating an unripe pear.我唯一一次生病是因为吃了未熟的梨。
  • Half of the apples are unripe.一半的苹果不熟。
5 fermented e1236246d968e9dda0f02e826f25e962     
v.(使)发酵( ferment的过去式和过去分词 );(使)激动;骚动;骚扰
参考例句:
  • When wine is fermented, it gives off gas. 酒发酵时发出气泡。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • His speeches fermented trouble among the workers. 他的演讲在工人中引起骚动。 来自辞典例句
6 fermenting fdd52e85d75b46898edb910a097ddbf6     
v.(使)发酵( ferment的现在分词 );(使)激动;骚动;骚扰
参考例句:
  • The fermenting wine has bubbled up and over the top. 发酵的葡萄酒已经冒泡,溢了出来。 来自辞典例句
  • It must be processed through methods like boiling, grinding or fermenting. 它必须通过煮沸、研磨、或者发酵等方法加工。 来自互联网
7 virtuous upCyI     
adj.有品德的,善良的,贞洁的,有效力的
参考例句:
  • She was such a virtuous woman that everybody respected her.她是个有道德的女性,人人都尊敬她。
  • My uncle is always proud of having a virtuous wife.叔叔一直为娶到一位贤德的妻子而骄傲。
8 adviser HznziU     
n.劝告者,顾问
参考例句:
  • They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
  • Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。
9 laborers c8c6422086151d6c0ae2a95777108e3c     
n.体力劳动者,工人( laborer的名词复数 );(熟练工人的)辅助工
参考例句:
  • Laborers were trained to handle 50-ton compactors and giant cranes. 工人们接受操作五十吨压土机和巨型起重机的训练。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
  • Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between the laborers. 雇佣劳动完全是建立在工人的自相竞争之上的。 来自英汉非文学 - 共产党宣言
10 spoke XryyC     
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说
参考例句:
  • They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
  • The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
11 authentic ZuZzs     
a.真的,真正的;可靠的,可信的,有根据的
参考例句:
  • This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it. 这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
  • Autumn is also the authentic season of renewal. 秋天才是真正的除旧布新的季节。
本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交,仅供参考,部分栏目没有内容,如果您有更合适的内容,欢迎点击提交分享给大家。
------分隔线----------------------------
TAG标签:   VOA英语  慢速英语
顶一下
(0)
0%
踩一下
(0)
0%
最新评论 查看所有评论
发表评论 查看所有评论
请自觉遵守互联网相关的政策法规,严禁发布色情、暴力、反动的言论。
评价:
表情:
验证码:
听力搜索
推荐频道
论坛新贴