The Chinese words for “fish” and “plenty” are homonyms (同音异义词). A whole fish, eaten on the eve of the lunar new year — represents a wish for plenty to come. It can be deep-fried or roasted in a pan, but if you live on a coast, or have access to first-rate fish, steaming is the way to go. 【小题1】, which symbolizes hopes for a surplus (盈余) in the year ahead. Spring rolls, with their fanciful appearance of gold bars, represent hopes for wealth. Uncut noodles symbolize a long life.

【小题2】. On the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah, Jews make their challah, a traditional enriched bread, in a round shape to represent the cycle of life and creation. The bread, and often apples too, are covered with honey, symbolizing the wish for a sweet year.

On New Year’s Day in America, black southerners have long eaten green vegetables together with Hoppin’ John, a delicious dish of rice and black-eyed peas (豌豆), cooked with salt pork. 【小题3】. Some people put a clean coin in the pot. Whoever gets it on their plate will enjoy a lot of good luck.

Whether anyone actually believes in a causal relationship between eating these foods and receiving the promised benefits is unclear. Mainly, these traditions continue for the same reason that other traditions do. 【小题4】.

Fish and noodles, bread and apples, beans and greens appear regularly on Chinese, Jewish and American tables. 【小题5】. Rather these foods are ordinary, yet with good meaning when eaten at the right time and in the right frame of mind. Good fortune, they suggest, lies all around, and is always within reach.

Food shopping has become a dangerous pursuit. Ready-meals are packed with salt and preservatives (防腐剂), breakfast cereals are sweeter than chocolate bars, and processed meats are packed with nitrite-preservatives, which can form harmful compounds when cooked. A new term is catching on to describe these nutritional bad guys: ultra-processed foods (UPFs). Just how bad are UPFs, and what do they do to us?

In his new book, “Ultra-Processed People”, Chris van Tulleken, a doctor and television presenter, argues that UPFs dominate the food supply in rich countries, and are also creeping into diets in low-and middle-income countries.

The concept of UPFs was put forward by Carlos Monteiro, a Brazilian scientist, in 2009.His team observed that although people in Brazil were buying less sugar and oil, rates of obesity and type-2 diabetes (糖尿病) were rising. That was because they were instead eating more sugar, fats and additives in packaged snacks and pre-made meals.

UPFs often go through many complicated industrial processes. That does not make them all unhealthy — a soya-based meat substitute can be part of a balanced meal — but the frequent consumption of UPFs causes a series of issues. Arguably, some UPFs are more alike to industrial products than food. There is plenty of evidence linking many ingredients in UPFs, such as sugar, salt, and saturated fats (反式脂肪), to negative health outcomes.

Yet UPFs are cheap, tasty and abundant, and for those on a tight budget or on specific diets, such as vegan (严格素食主义者), there are often few available alternatives. It is possible to eat well by selecting the right UPFs, such as whole-grain cereals. Government scientists at the American government’s Agricultural Research Service showed it was possible to build a health y diet with 91% of calories from selected UPFs. But Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition at New York University, criticised the study, saying the researchers had a conflict of interest through their links to the food industry. Better stay cautious in those tricky supermarket walkways.

There’s been lots of concern recently about the potential dangers of microwave popcorn (爆米花), but is this concern founded, or just overmuch fear-spreading? The answer is that many of the chemicals that caused worry in earlier decades have been removed from microwave popcorn, but some critics still are not satisfied.

“You may consider popcorn to be a low-calorie, high-fiber snack, but microwave popcorn isn’t a healthy choice,” explains nutrition expert Dan DeFigio. That’s because microwave popcorn bags were coated with perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) to prevent oil substance from leaking out. One particular type of PFC, known as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), has been linked to certain cancers, but the American Cancer Society says the evidence is unsure and more research is being done about this.

Nevertheless, in response to concerns about PFCs, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) worked with popcorn makers back in 2011 to remove PFOA from their packaging. Three more PFCs were banned in the next five years. So today’s microwave popcorn doesn’t have these chemicals, but critics say that the alternatives could cause problems as the old ones, but less is known about them.

That’s not the only problem, however. The chemical that for decades lent buttery deliciousness to popcorn has also been connected in rare cases with major lung damage. Known as diacetyl (二乙酰), it’s long been a documented problem with workers in popcorn making facilities, but also can be risky for people who just eat the snack a lot. A 2007 study published in the journal Critical Reviews found that more than 80 percent of chemical release happened when the bag was opened post-popping. Although diacetyl has been removed from most products, some critics claim that the alternative to diacetyl is also harmful.

Most of the exposure to diacetyl came from inbreathing rather than eating popcorn. Therefore, experts recommend at least waiting for the bag to cool before you open it to reduce potentially harmful chemical exposure. Better yet, make your own fresh at home with an air popper. If you like to flavor it, add organic butter or some cheese.