6 Minute English / Addicted to sugar

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript.

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I m Neil.

And I m Georgie. Would you like a cup of tea, Neil?

Oh, yes thanks, Georgie - with milk and three sugars please.

Three sugars!? Wow, you really have a sweet tooth - you like eating sweet things. Aren t you worried about your weight?

Yes, but I can t say no to sugar. Just as our addiction to oil is causing a climate emergency, our addiction to sugar is causing a health emergency for our bodies. Sugar gives us an instant hit of the chemical hormone, dopamine, making us feel good, but in the long run causing obesity, tooth decay, and diseases like diabetes.

But how did our addiction to the sweet stuff begin? That s what we ll be discussing in this programme and, as usual, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well. Anyway, here's your tea, Neil I just put one sugar.

Thanks, Georgie, I ll give it a try. Now before we go on, I have a question for you. Sugar cane, which grows naturally in Asia, Africa and the Americas, first came to England in the 11th century. Back then it was an expensive luxury item, affordable only to kings, queens and the very rich. So, which English monarch loved eating sugar so much their teeth turned black?

Was it:

a) King Henry VIII?