Everyone has different routines and patterns around when, where, and how they eat. These questions explore everything from daily meal schedules to cultural differences in eating behaviors.
Questions are organized by level from beginner to advanced. A printable PDF of all the questions is available at the bottom of the page.
Beginner (A1-A2)
- What is the most unhealthy food you can think of?
- Do you usually eat healthy food? What do you eat?
- Do you eat a lot of small portions or a few large portions of food each day? Which do you prefer?
- What is your favorite meal of the day? What do you usually eat?
- Who usually cooks in your home? What do they make?
- What is a popular snack in your country? Do you eat it often?
- Do you eat breakfast every day? What do you have?
- Do you drink coffee or tea? How do you make it?
- What time do you eat dinner? Do you eat with other people?
- What food do you eat when you feel sick or tired? Does it help?
- Where do you usually buy food? How often do you go there?
- What’s the worst tasting healthy food you’ve ever tried?
Elementary (A2)
- Tell me about what you have eaten today.
- What do people need to eat more of? Why?
- What are some different types of diets you have heard of? Have you tried any?
- What are some things about your eating habits you want to change?
- Do you eat more at home or at restaurants? What’s good about each?
- What is the strangest food you have ever tried? How did it taste?
- Do you like spicy food or mild food? Why?
- What food did you not like as a child but you like now? What changed?
- Have you ever eaten something and then found out what it was made from? What happened?
- Do you eat more food in the winter or in the summer? Why do you think that is?
- What dishes from your country often confuse tourists?
- Have you ever been to a food market or food festival? What was it like?
- What is a meal you know how to cook really well? How did you learn to make it?
- Do you read food labels when you shop? What do you check for?
Intermediate (B1)
- Do you think your parents ate healthier food at your age than you do? How about your grandparents?
- Do you think people from your country usually eat healthy food? Why or why not?
- Do you think that organic food is much better than normal food or are they about the same?
- Why do you think organic food costs so much more? Is it worth the extra money?
- What is traditional food in your country like? Is it healthy?
- Do you think that a person’s eating habits affect how long they will live?
- Do you prefer eating alone or with other people? Why?
- Do you read the menu carefully at a restaurant or just order quickly? Why?
- Should fast food restaurants be required to show calorie counts on their menus? Why or why not?
- What do you think are the biggest problems with how people eat today? Give me some examples.
- Do you think people should eat meat or become vegetarian? Why or why not?
- Do you think food delivery apps make people’s eating habits better or worse? Why?
- Should parents control what their children eat, or let them make their own choices? Why or why not?
- Should schools teach students how to cook and eat well? Why or why not?
- If you could only eat the food from one country for the rest of your life, which country would you choose? What makes their food so good?
- How much does the price of food affect what you buy? What do you do when healthy food is expensive?
- Do you think eating together as a family is important? Is it common in your culture or country?
Upper-Intermediate (B2)
- How have eating habits changed in your country over the last 20 years? What do you think about those changes?
- How do restaurants and cafes create an atmosphere that makes people want to eat more or stay longer?
- How do cultural attitudes toward body image influence eating habits? What patterns do you see?
- What responsibilities do food companies and the government have regarding processed foods?
- Some people say we should eat insects as a major source of protein. What are the arguments for and against this idea?
- How do food companies use packaging, labels, and marketing to make products seem healthier than they are? How much does this influence your own choices?
- What role does food play in your culture beyond just nutrition? How is this different from other cultures you know about?
- How has globalization affected the food people eat in your country? What has been gained and what has been lost?
- In many countries, people are eating more processed food and less home-cooked food. What is driving this trend, and what are the consequences?
- Many people say they want to eat healthier but don’t actually change their habits. What makes it so difficult to change how you eat?
Advanced (C1)
- How do economic systems and food production create a situation where unhealthy food is often cheaper than healthy food?
- Diet culture promotes health and wellness, but it also creates anxiety and disordered eating. How do these contradictory effects happen at the same time?
- Food waste is widely recognized as wrong, yet it continues at massive scales in wealthy countries. What makes this gap between values and behavior so persistent?
- Fast food is often blamed for health problems, but billions of people eat it every day. Why is it so hard to resist, and is the blame fair?
- Food trends like superfoods, cleanses, and elimination diets spread quickly online. How does the way health information travels on social media make it harder to know what is actually good for you?
- Many traditional diets around the world were well-balanced for centuries, but modern food systems have disrupted them. How does this play out in different parts of the world, and who benefits from the change?
- The meat industry is one of the biggest contributors to climate change, but asking people to eat less meat is politically and culturally controversial. Why is this issue so difficult to address?
- Some countries are dealing with both obesity and malnutrition at the same time. How can the same food system produce too much food for some people and not enough for others?
- Governments, doctors, and food companies all give advice about what to eat, but their recommendations often conflict. How should ordinary people decide who to trust when it comes to food and nutrition?
- Cooking used to be a daily necessity, but now many people rarely cook at all. What has been lost as cooking has become optional, and does it matter?