Shadowing Practice: Understanding Traffic Light Labels | How to read food labels | UK Healthy Eating - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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Learning how to read and understand food labels can help you make healthier food and drink choices.
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Learning how to read and understand food labels can help you make healthier food and drink choices.
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We know that fat, salt and sugar are nutrients that most people need to eat less of to stay healthy.
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Front of pack colour-coded labels or traffic light labels highlight these nutrients
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and this can help us to make healthier choices more easily.
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Green on a label means the product has a low amount of either fat, salt or sugar.
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Amber means there is an average amount and red means there is a lot.
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This should encourage us to choose more foods and drinks with green and amber on the label and less with red.
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Nutrition labels can also provide information on how a food or drink product fits into your daily diet.
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You might find the term reference intake on the front
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or back of pack and it might be shown in grams or as a percentage.
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Reference intake is the recommended limit of that nutrient that the average adult should eat in a day.
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For example, we see on this label that there are 377 calories in a serving of this food
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and that is about 19% of the total calories an adult should have in a day.
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A serving of this product will also give someone 18% of their total fat intake and 33% of the maximum salt intake.
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If a product doesn't have a traffic light label on the front,
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you can use a nutritional label to check nutritional content.
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You will need a decoder to work out whether a product has high,
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medium or low amounts of each nutrient.
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Feel free to pause and take a photo of it.
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Look at the nutrition table and look for per 100 gram column.
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read fat, saturates which means saturated fat,
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sugar and salt down the left hand side.
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Then read how many grams of that nutrient are in 100 grams.
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Compare this number to your decoder.
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For example, this food would be considered red
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or high for sugar as it has more than 22.5 grams of sugar per 100 grams of product.
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Use your new label reading skills or try using the free NHS Food Scanner app to compare food and drink products.
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This could help you to find a healthier version of the foods you eat every day like cereal, yoghurt or ready meals.
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You might find a swap for life.
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Remember to check suggested serving sizes on the label as this might be different from the serving you are having.
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Watch our Understanding Food Labels video for more information
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and don't forget to subscribe to the Public Health Dietitian's YouTube channel for further nutrition information and healthy recipe videos.

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Why practice speaking with this video?

Understanding how to read food labels is essential for making healthier choices, and practicing speaking about nutrition can enhance your English skills. This video provides an excellent context for English speaking practice focused on a practical topic that affects daily life. By engaging with the content, you can use the shadowing technique to improve your vocabulary, pronunciation, and fluency in discussions about healthy eating.

As you listen and repeat the sentences, you will gain confidence in discussing nutrition, which is a valuable conversational skill. Not only will this exercise help with your English, but it will also make you more informed about food choices, enabling you to engage in discussions with others about health and nutrition. This is where the shadowspeak method shines, as it allows you to learn through imitation and reinforcement.

Grammar & Expressions in Context

Let's analyze some key structures used in the video that can enhance your English speaking:

  • Imperative Verbs: "Use a nutritional label to check nutritional content." This commanding structure is useful when giving advice or instructions.
  • Comparative Phrases: "More foods and drinks with green and amber on the label." This comparison helps express preferences and recommendations effectively.
  • Quantitative Language: "377 calories in a serving." Using numbers in conversations about health helps convey specific information clearly, which is particularly helpful in nutrition discussions.
  • Prepositional Phrases: "In a day." These phrases help frame your sentences and provide context for timing and frequency, essential in everyday conversations.

Practicing these structures through shadow speech can significantly improve your ability to communicate more naturally and fluently in English.

Common Pronunciation Traps

While working through the transcript, you may encounter some tricky words or phrases. Here are a few common pronunciation hurdles to watch out for:

  • Nutritional: This word can be challenging. Break it down into syllables: nu-tri-tion-al.
  • Reference Intake: Pay attention to the rhythm and stress in this phrase, as it is often spoken quickly in conversation.
  • Calories: Ensure you pronounce the first syllable clearly: cal-or-ies. Misplacing stress here can lead to confusion.

By focusing on these potential pronunciation traps, you will boost your clarity when discussing nutrition-related topics. Consider using the shadowing technique to practice speaking along with the video, reinforcing your learning while ensuring proper pronunciation.

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.

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