Sixth Grade
Worksheets
Diets are Not Our Friends
Rid the World of Fad Diets and Gimmicks Day
Reading Comprehension for January 22
Amanda was sitting with her friends after school. They were all discussing New Year's resolutions and looking through magazines. All of a sudden, Amanda stood up and ran into the empty school building. Her best friend, Cami, followed her into the building and found Amanda sitting on the floor in the hallway.
"Hey, Amanda, what's the matter with you?" asked Cami.
"I feel so fat compared to all of you!" Amanda burst into tears. Cami was dumbfounded. Why on earth was Amanda so upset? Cami put her arms around Amanda. "I don't understand why you're so upset," said Cami. "You are the prettiest girl in school."
"You don't have to say these lies to me," retorted Amanda. "I know you all think I'm fat."
Cami looked at Amanda in astonishment. No one would ever think of Amanda as fat. She was not bone thin; she wasn't even what you'd think of as skinny, but fat? No way! "Who said you're fat? That is just plain mean! It's so not true, Amanda!"
"No one had to say anything. I can see myself in the mirror. All of you have such nice, flat tummies. Mine is so poochy. And none of my jeans fit anymore. I can barely button them!" Amanda began to cry in earnest now. On her lap was a magazine. It was opened up to an article on New Year's resolutions. Cami picked up the magazine and began to read from the article. It had a large section on dieting.
"Amanda, is this what you were reading?" asked Cami.
"It has some great ideas for losing 10 pounds in a week. If I try two at the same time, do you think I can lose 20 pounds in a week?"
"These ideas are crazy, Amanda. No one ever loses that much weight, and besides, some of these things could actually kill you!" Cami was very alarmed as she read through more of the article. "This is just pseudoscience. Some of these scams are going to cost you a lot of money-and at best you could end up gaining weight, instead of losing. The worst case scenario is just unthinkable; I saw on the news where some women died from taking some of the ingredients in these diet pills."
