today's podcast is about
breakfast probably most people think of
breakfast as the meal you eat at the
beginning of the day when you first wake
up however it is more complicated than
that first let's look at what the word
breakfast really
means as you probably know the word fast
has several completely different
meanings in
English one of the meanings of fast is a
period when you do not have any food to
eat so for example Muslims fast during
the month of Ramadan they do not eat
anything between sunrise and
sunset a breakfast is literally a meal
which you eat at the end of a period of
fasting when you eat breakfast first you
break or end your
fast when I get up in the morning I have
not had anything to eat since about 7:00
the night
before now that is not a very long fast
perhaps 12 hours but not
more however the meal which we eat first
thing in the morning breaks our
overnight fast so we call it
breakfast what do you eat for
breakfast I have a bowl of musley with
milk two pieces of toast with marmalade
and two cups of
coffee some people go for a run first
thing in the morning and then have a
breakfast of fruit and orange
juice they are slim and fit and healthy
and they make me feel guilty so I do not
like
them other people have no break
breakfast at all they do not eat until
the middle of the
day nutritionists tell us that it is not
a good idea to go without breakfast
because your concentration is poor if
you have not had anything to
eat other people eat huge breakfasts
with fried eggs and bacon sausages
mushrooms and fried
bread in hotels and restaurants a big
cooked breakfast is called an English
breakfast actually very few English
people eat a cooked breakfast every day
we do not have time we are in a hurry to
catch the bus or the train and get to
work I am very interested in breakfast
today because I have not had any the
doctor has the silly idea that I may
have too much cholesterol in my blood so
later today I have to go to have a blood
test the nurse will stick an enormous
needle into my arm and take out several
liters of blood and send the blood away
to a laboratory to be
tested the laboratory will of course
send back a report to say that my blood
cholesterol is absolutely wonderful and
that they have never seen such magnific
blood
before but and this is the terrible bit
the blood test is what the doctor calls
a fasting blood
test and that means that I must not eat
anything for at least 12 hours before
the
test so no
breakfast now it would be sensible to
have a fasting blood test early in the
morning so that I do do not have to wait
a long time to have something to eat
however the nurse who takes the blood
tests only works in the afternoon so I
cannot eat anything until about
3:00 you have no idea how terrible this
is it is the middle of the morning and I
am hungry really hungry I cannot stop
thinking about breakfast surely a very
every little bowl of musley and one
slice of toast with no marmalade would
be okay surely a very small breakfast
would not ruin the blood
test however the nurse who does the
blood tests is big and fierce and so I
stay
hungry and now the telephone rings it is
the receptionist at the doctor's surgery
she is very sorry
but the fierce nurse who does the blood
tests is unwell and cannot come to work
today please can she rearrange the blood
test for another
day how do I feel what is my reaction to
this
news first of course I am relieved I can
eat my breakfast now I do not have to
fast until the middle of the
afternoon but I am also annoy
why because I will have to go without my
breakfast on another day in a few weeks
time finally I have an English
expression for you to learn I have
talked about people who go without their
breakfast or do without their
breakfast if you do without something or
go without something you decide that you
do not need it perhaps you you do not
have time or you do not have enough
money here are some more things you
might do
without if you do not have enough money
you might have to do without new clothes
or
shoes if you are very busy at work you
might go without your normal lunch
break and if you feel tired you might
decide to do without your normal trip to
the cinema and go to bed early
instead and if the blood test tells me
that I have too much cholesterol in my
blood I might have to do without butter
and cheese and
chocolate and all sorts of other nice
things to
eat I might even have to go for a run
first thing in the morning and eat fruit
and drink orange juice for
breakfast it is too awful to think about
goodbye