Shadowing Practice: The Disgusting Science of Junk Food - Learn English Speaking with Video

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71% of Americans are overweight.

And this is the biggest culprit.

Drive down any American road and you'll find out why pretty quickly.

This isn't news either.

It's been over 24 years since the CDC recognized that obesity had become an epidemic.

So why hasn't anything changed?

The more research I did to find out, the more I realized how intentional this all is.

These companies have built a system on addiction and are doing everything in their power to keep you hooked.

But it wasn't always like this.

1921, Wichita, Kansas.

After five years of running food stands and diners, Walter Anderson and Billy Ingram launched White Castle.

They had a concept to serve quick and easy food that would be consistent and reliable.

Hamburgers were the perfect fit.

In 1906, a book called The Jungle exposed the bad practices of the beef industry

and burgers were thought to be made of the lowest quality meats available.

So White Castle knew that they had to fight against this and show exactly how clean they actually were.

To do this, White Castle built out a system where every inch of the grill was optimized for bread, burgers, or whatever else they were serving.

This systematic approach, paired with allowing customers to see their food getting made, showed how high quality their products were.

From the very beginning, White Castle was successful, expanding outside of Wichita within the first year.

Fast forward to 1927 and they added a new option where you could take out your food instead of just dining in.

But only really being popular in the Midwest, White Castle changed the perception of beef nationally.

People started to really love burgers.

This takeout model helped spawn drive-in restaurants, where you didn't even need to get out of your car to get served.

Drive-in burger spots were innately American experiences.

After hours or maybe even days of driving the open road, you could stop in somewhere and get a meal without even getting out of your car.

The highway infrastructure is one essential piece of American culture, and that experience of drive-in restaurants just elevated that experience even more.

Plus, burgers were easy to eat, so they fit right in.

A ton of other hamburger chains popped up over the next 20 years, but one stood out from the rest.

The McDonald Brothers came up with a concept to fully automate their kitchen for the first time ever.

Every piece of the production process fit like a puzzle piece.

It was a perfect art form of productivity.

They opened up in 1948 and absolutely blew up.

Ray Kroc came along and helped the McDonald Brothers expand outside of just California and fast food continued to expand nationwide.

Competitors like KFC, A&W, Burger King and more helped fast food to become an American staple.

Think of the golden arches or the rotating bucket of chicken that you'd see on the side of the road.

These became a site in all sorts of American cities and that's when you knew that fast food was the real deal.

In 1970 Wendy's took a spin on the drive-in model, adding a window instead and and allowing you to drive through instead of drive in.

Every fast food chain loved this and they took that model basically right away.

And other fast food options like Chinese takeout and pizza also started to grow across the United States.

But there was just one small problem.

I put a lot of food, man.

See, now's the time of the meal when you start getting the mixed stomach ache.

Since the 1980s, fast food has gotten increasingly more unhealthy.

As the fast food industry grew, companies had to get more and more products out to their franchise restaurants, meaning more preservatives and lower quality ingredients became the norm.

Add to that that fast food companies started to go public on the stock market and profits became priority number one.

Cheaper ingredients and cheaper production became the biggest focus for shareholders.

But that's where the problem lies.

So the question I want to answer right now is how bad is junk food really?

So I figured the best way to go about this was to compare five of the most popular fast food items.

And then also I want to talk a bit about why these are so addictive, but we'll get to that in a minute.

Let's start with A&W.

Their most popular item is the Teen Burger, which has a total of 920 calories.

Next, Subway, I put in my order, a six-inch chicken teriyaki sub, and that came to a total of 956 calories.

The iconic Big Mac comes to a total of 1120 calories.

And then lastly, we have Burger King and the Whopper at 1430, and the Baconator from Wendy's at 1630 calories.

Now, I should say these are all meals.

I wanted to keep the metrics relatively similar, so that includes fries and a soft drink.

Just looking Looking at these numbers, you can see just how damaging these foods actually are.

Keep in mind with the average activity levels of an American male, you're supposed to only get 2,500 calories a day.

1,630 is way too much for one meal.

But calories are a somewhat mystical metric, and most people don't even know what it is.

A calorie is a measure of potential energy that you consume in the food that you eat.

So the amount of energy you get is going to be the same

if it's 800 calories of fruit or 800 calories of McDonald's.

However, that doesn't really mean much.

The quality of the nutrients you're putting in your body has a much larger impact than calories.

So if you eat salmon and veggies, for example, you're gonna get 800 calories of high quality nutrients, meaning you'll feel nourished and energetic.

However, if you eat double the amount of calories from a fast food restaurant, your body's gonna be craving the good nutrients it needs to thrive,

so you're gonna be hungry within an hour or two, meaning you'll eat more, and thus begins that dangerous cycle.

What fast food does contain is fat, sodium, and sugar, which are excellent at releasing dopamine in our brains, which makes us feel very happy.

Should also say that a lot of drug addicts seek out dopamine in the drugs that they consume.

You're starting to see where this is very problematic now.

We feel hungry and we remember how good fast food made us feel, so what do you do?

You seek out fast food again.

Now, this isn't an accident.

This is a scientific calculation that fast food companies put together to keep you hooked.

But how do they get you in in the first place?

The key to good marketing for fast food companies is reducing barriers for customers.

Fast food companies spend a ton of money every year on research

and development to make the customer experience as smooth as possible.

Their goal with this research is to find pain points in their process which cause customers to reconsider their decisions.

Starting with TV and social media ads.

You see an ad for the new flame grilled ultra char double bacon triple cheese mega Big Mac

and you get a little bit interested.

You probably won't get it now but it's in the back of your head and you'll probably remember it a bit later.

Fast forward to a few days later and you're driving down the street.

You see the golden arches and the big red sign.

That triggers a happy memory in your brain from the last time you tried to eat McDonald's.

And then you start to wonder, that burger I saw a few days ago, what does the ultra char feel like?

How does triple cheese taste?

And you need to know.

So you pull into the parking lot, and there's no barriers to your entry process.

The drive-through takes away the barrier of getting out of your car.

The small menu removes the barrier of having too many options and feeling overwhelmed.

You know what you want, and you can get it.

The whole way along that process.

Anything that makes you feel confused or frustrated, it's gone.

Don't even worry about it.

But the other side of that is it's a deeply American trait to want to have freedom to pick whatever you want.

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So why don't you let people customize it at a kiosk inside or customize their burger however they want.

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Chances are they're not actually going to use that freedom.

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But lifelong customers, people who will always keep coming back, that's another important piece of the puzzle.

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So why don't you hand out toys with your kids meals

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to give people a positive memory with your restaurant from the very beginning

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and why don't you create a loyalty app that gives you free rewards for just coming back all the time?

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And even with that, I had no idea that in 1999 the CDC declared that there was an obesity epidemic brewing.

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That's 24 years ago.

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Study after study shows that junk food is causing people to get heart disease and other health complications.

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Super Size Me showed us exactly how bad this food is for you.

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I watched that in high school and elementary school.

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Those are cold hard facts that your marketing can't really beat.

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What if you don't need to beat it?

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What if there's no other option?

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I'm having like McPTSD.

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One in six Americans live in what is called a food desert.

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Food deserts are areas where you have to go out of your way to get access to good high-quality food.

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Food deserts are one half of what's called food insecurity, the other half being affordability.

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In an urban area, if you don't have a grocery store within one mile of your home, you're considered to be in a food desert.

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Now, maybe one mile away you have a Whole Foods.

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Great, right?

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Well, back in 2015, the New York City Consumer Affairs Department investigated Whole Foods for price gouging

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and it was found that they charge 10 to 20% more than other grocery stores for comparable products.

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Price gouging, distance, and a lack of options make food insecurity a big problem in the United States.

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Options like McDonald's cost less than good organic food options

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and the longest distance between between McDonald's restaurants in the United States of America is 120 miles.

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That's like an hour and 45 minutes of driving.

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The problem isn't in marketing and health, it's in accessibility and cost.

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Now people are hooked on fast food and health problems are starting to rise.

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Where do you go from here?

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Well, every single year half of the US sets New Year's resolutions based on fitness

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and weight loss and 45 million people every year decide to take action with a dieting program.

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Companies like Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers were born out of the growing obesity crisis, but the goal behind these programs is often dangerous and rarely works.

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To make things worse, in the last decade or so

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so diet culture has shifted away from physical appearance traits to focus more on leading a healthy lifestyle.

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But weight loss programs put 100% of the focus on diet and nearly none on activity.

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There's little accountability and personalization in these programs, which makes it almost impossible to succeed.

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Not to mention that the foods are often very bland and boring, especially for dopamine-addicted junk food lovers, which makes it really hard to stick.

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You're going to want to break.

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I don't think this is an accident.

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These foods are designed to be boring.

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These foods are designed to make you fail.

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You might be wondering, why would they construct a system that doesn't work?

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Wouldn't that make people not want to buy it?

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Touché.

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However, if you have people succeeding, does that not mean you lose the customers anyways?

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So, who owns these dieting companies?

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I was wondering, and I was pretty mind blown at what I found.

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Jenny Craig was purchased by Nestle.

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The same Nestle that sells ice cream and other junk food.

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They own the dieting company.

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Now, Nestle is also a massive company, so it's not super surprising, but when I saw that, I like burst out laughing.

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When I say that, it's probably not surprising to you

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that 95% of the people who enroll in these weight loss programs gain back all the weight

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that they intended to lose within the first two years.

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I've constructed this whole thing where it seems like you're in a system you can't break out of, but I promise you it's not impossible and you can break out of it like today.

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And it doesn't require you being perfect either.

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I was always taught that inactivity was pretty normal in North American culture, so I never really cared to work out.

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And I was also blessed with high metabolism, so I ate like junk and it never made a difference.

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Eating too much of one source of food, especially low-value carbs like fast food, means you'll be lacking in certain nutrients that are important for us to thrive.

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So having a balance between good protein sources like meats, beans, or even meat alternatives like tofu is very important to get protein sources.

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And on top of that, vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, all that stuff, those help to give you other nutrients as well.

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You'll hear people who are vegetarian telling you that there's this one solution, or people who eat a lot of meat who tell you you shouldn't eat too many vegetables, but here's the reality.

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What do you like to eat?

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How can you tailor it so that it's something you can sustain?

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If you're not a fan of broccoli, don't force yourself to eat broccoli.

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It's all about finding the right things that can make it work for you.

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And of course, physical activity is also pretty important.

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So yeah, the system is designed to fail, but it's possible to break free.

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And I know that if you're watching this and feeling maybe a little bit discouraged or maybe a little nervous, it's possible.

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You can do it.

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Anyways, if you enjoyed that video, I really enjoyed going in depth and learning about this

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so I would appreciate it if you could subscribe

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because I have a ton more just like this coming out soon and

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if you did enjoy this video check out this one I made right here about how verification is broken on social media.

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All right, see you guys next week.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 175 sentences and 2444 words to shadow. The speech runs for 12:01. The speaker talks fast, about 204 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
calorie noun	/ˈkæləɹi/	A non-SI unit of energy, equivalent to 4.184 kilojoules, that can raise the temperature of a kilogram of water by one degree Celsius. This is the unit normally…
burger noun	/ˈbɝ.ɡɚ/	A hamburger.
meal noun	/ˈmiːl/	Food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time, and usually in a comparatively large quantity.
junk noun	/d͡ʒʌŋk/	Miscellaneous items of little value, especially discarded or unwanted items.
nutrient noun	/ˈnuː.tɹi.ənt/	A source of nourishment, such as food, that can be metabolized by an organism to give energy and build tissue.
desert noun	/ˈdɛz.ɚt/	A barren area of land or desolate terrain, especially one with little water or vegetation; a wasteland.
barrier noun	/ˈbæɹi.ə/	A structure that bars passage.
hook noun	/hʊk/	A rod bent into a curved shape, typically with one end free and the other end secured to a rope or other attachment.
expand verb	/ɪkˈspænd/	To change (something) from a smaller form or size to a larger one; to spread out or lay open.
obesity noun	/ə(ʊ)ˈbiːsɪti/	The state of being obese.
hungry adjective	/ˈhʌŋ.ɡɹi/	Affected by hunger; having the physical need for food.
triple adjective	/ˈtɹɪp.əl/	Made up of three related elements, often matching
beef noun	/bif/	The meat from cattle or other bovines; especially, that from adults.
succeed verb	/səkˈsiːd/	To follow something in sequence or time.
ultra noun	/ˈʌltɹə/	A political extremist, in particular

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
get out of verb	To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of.
come back verb	To return to a place.
drive down verb	To cause or force a price, quantity, rate, etc. to decrease.
find out verb	To discover, as by asking or investigating.
blow up verb	To explode or be destroyed by explosion.
build out verb	To develop or expand (a system, structure, project, etc.).
burst out verb	To appear suddenly from within something else.
check out verb	To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	were thought · was optimized · is called
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	Burger, which has · sugar, which are · people who will
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	It's been · have built · has gotten

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 48 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, you'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: thrive /θɹajv/, smooth /smuːð/, unhealthy /ʌnˈhɛl.θi/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: perception /pɚˈsɛpʃ(ə)n/, addiction /əˈdɪkˌʃən/, nationwide /ˌneɪ.ʃənˈwaɪd/, nationally /ˈnæʃənəli/, calculation /ˌkælkjuˈleɪʃn̩/
Long words — get the stress right: obesity /ə(ʊ)ˈbiːsɪti/, epidemic /ˌɛpɪˈdɛmɪk/, ingredient /ɪnˈɡɹiːdi.ənt/, infrastructure /ˈɪnfɹəˌstɹʌkt͡ʃə/, priority /pɹaɪˈɒɹɪti/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like calorie, burger, meal.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: The Disgusting Science of Junk Food - Learn English Speaking with Video

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