Increasingly, over the past ten years, people -- especially young people -- have become aware of the need to change their eating habits, because much of the food they eat, particularly processed food, is not good for the health. Consequently, there has been a growing interest in natural foods: foods which do not contain chemical additives and which have not been affected by chemical fertilizers, widely used in farming today.

Natural foods, for example, are vegetables, fruit and grain which have been grown in soil that is rich in organic matter. In simple terms, this means that the soil has been nourished by unused vegetable matter, which provides it with essential vitamins and minerals. This in itself is a natural process compared with the use of chemicals and fertilizers, the main purpose of which is to increase the amount -- but not the quality -- of foods grown in commercial farming areas.

Natural foods also include animals which have been allowed to feed and move freely in healthy pastures. Compare this with what happens in the mass production of poultry: there are battery farms, for example, where thousands of chickens live crowded together in one building and are fed on food which is little better than rubbish. Chickens kept in this way are not only tasteless as food; they also produce eggs which lack important vitamins.

There are other aspects of healthy eating which are now receiving increasing attention from experts on diet. Take, for example, the question of sugar. This is actually a nonessential food! Although a natural alternative, such as honey, can be used to sweeten food if this is necessary, we can in fact do without it. It is not that sugar is harmful in itself. But it does seem to be addictive: the quantity we use has grown steadily over the last two centuries and in Britain today each person consumes an average of 200 pounds a year! Yet all it does is to provide us with energy, in the form of calories. There are no vitamins in it, no minerals -- and no fibre.                                                                                   

It is significant that nowadays fibre is considered to be an important part of a healthy diet. In white bread, for example, the fibre has been removed. But it is present in unrefined flour and of course in vegetables. It is interesting to note that in countries where the national diet contains large quantities of unrefined flour and vegetables, certain diseases are comparatively rare. Hence the emphasis is placed on the eating of whole-wheat bread and more vegetables by modern experts on "healthy eating". (446 words)

1. People have become more interested in natural foods because

  [A] they want a change of diet.

  [B] they want to be fashionable.

[C] they want to eat food that is better for them.

  [D] they no longer like processed foods polluted by chemical additives.

2. Soil that is rich in organic matter

  [A] has had nothing added to it.

  [B] contains unused vegetable matter.

  [C] has had chemicals and fertilizers added to it.

  [D] provides vegetable matter with vitamins and minerals.

3. Battery chickens cannot be called "natural food" because

  [A] they are tasteless.

  [B] their eggs have no vitamins.

  [C] they live in crowded conditions.

  [D] they are not allowed to move about and eat freely.

4. According to experts on diet,

  [A] sugar is bad for the health.

  [B] sugar only sweetens food.

  [C] the use of sugar is habit forming.

[D] people need sugar to give them energy.

5. If we ate more food containing fibre,

  [A] our diet would be healthier.

  [B] our diet would be more interesting.

  [C] we would be as healthy as people in other countries.

  [D] we would only eat whole-meal bread and vegetables.