Cool & contemporary vocab: FOOD

The topic of food comes up a lot in the IELTS test. You might read about it in the Reading test or hear it talked about it in the Listening test. It is more likely though that you will be asked questions related to food or eating habits in the Speaking test or get a Writing Part 2 essay question about diets, healthy eating or obesity.

A lot of students learn English from out-dated books and not every student follows the news and tries to learn and use modern vocabulary. Be the exception!!

Here are some useful expressions you can you to describe your eating habits or dietary conditions:

to be allergic to something

meaning: when you cannot eat something, such as peanuts, as it will make you sick or even kill you.
example: “I’m allergic to all types of nuts”.

to be gluten intolerant / to have a gluten intolerance

meaning: when your body cannot digest gluten.
example: “I’m gluten intolerant so I generally avoid eating cakes”.

to be flexitarian

meaning: when you are mostly vegetarian.
example: “I’m a flexitarian so I do eat meat and fish, but only occasionally”.

to have / to go on a low-carb diet

meaning: diet that has very few carbohydrates.
example: “I went on a low carb diet and feel great now”.

a superfood

meaning: a type of food rich in nutrients.
example: “I eat goji berries and kale because they are both superfoods”.

Here are some everyday phrasal verbs that you can also use:

to cut back on

meaning: to eat or drink less of something
example: “I cut back on sweet food when I started putting on weight”.

to cut (something) out

meaning: to remove something from your diet completely
example: “I cut out all spicy food because I suffer badly from heartburn”.

to give (something) up

meaning: to stop consuming something
example: “I had to give up nuts because I got an allergy.”

to go on (a diet)

meaning: to restrict or control what you eat and/or drink
example: “I went on a new diet to lose weight”.

to put on (weight/pounds/stones/kilos)

meaning: to gain weight.
example: “I overate on holiday and put on nearly 2 kilos!”

to pile on (the weight/pounds/kilos)

meaning: to gain a lot of weight.
example: “I ate lots of fast food as a teenager and quickly piled on the pounds”.

Resource: ipassielts.com