Learn Food Vocabulary in English: U.S. Culture with JenniferESL 🍽️

Hello everyone. Its Jennifer.

I'm here in my kitchen so that we can talk about food and our eating habits.

If you'd like to learn even more vocabulary after this lesson, be sure to check out my

vocabulary playlist and also my language note series that focuses on American culture.

Do you eat healthy?

I try to, but I admit that I have a sweet tooth.

I like to eat all kinds of sweet things, like chocolate and

baked goods.

These are lemon bars that my neighbor made. They smell wonderful and they taste even better.

I think I've eaten five or six of these lemon bars in the past few days.

I asked you about eating healthy.

"Healthy" is an adjective. The adverb form is "healthily."

But in American English when we talk about everyday things like our eating habits,

we often use "healthy" as an adverb.

You can also use "healthy" as it should be used: as an adjective.

People sometimes wonder if I watch what I eat because I'm kind of skinny.

Well, I can tell you that I have a healthy appetite. I'm not on a diet to lose weight.

I eat healthy portions of food at every meal. I try not to overeat, though.

I hate that feeling of eating too much. Don't you?

American restaurants usually serve large portions of food, and I think it's terrible because

people are tempted to overeat.

I have a good appetite at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and I snack between meals.

My favorite meal of the day is breakfast.

What's yours?

I really do love breakfast and when I have time on the weekend,

I enjoy a hearty breakfast of blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs,

fresh fruit,

yogurt, and a hot cup of tea.

Do you enjoy a hearty breakfast? That's one of the questions you can answer for me in the comments.

My son enjoys a good breakfast, too, every day of the week...at least now he does.

His appetite has grown over the past year or so.

My son is still a picky eater, but at least he eats bigger portions now.

He doesn't like fish or meat very much, but he's not a vegetarian. He eats only one kind of meat:

chicken.

He's picky about vegetables too. He'll eat peas, corn, and carrots and not much else.

Thankfully, he loves fruit.

My daughter has my sweet tooth, so the two of us have to be careful.

One thing both my children enjoy is yogurt.

I often buy these yogurt tubes for them.

But I buy lactose-free yogurt for myself because my body doesn't digest

regular dairy milk very well now..well, now that I'm getting older.

People who don't tolerate milk and other dairy products very well are called lactose intolerant.

Fortunately, I'm not allergic to milk, so I can enjoy small amounts of cheese.

Food allergies are quite common in the U.S. today.

People are allergic to nuts, fish, and other foods.

Many U.S. restaurants post a sign on the wall or

a request in the menu,

and it says:

Many food shops have a similar request posted somewhere

If you're hosting a dinner party,

these days it's not a bad idea to ask:

A similar issue is having food restrictions.

Some people are on a special diet to avoid digestive problems.

For example, some people need gluten-free foods,

so serving these people wheat bread or regular pasta isn't a good idea.

In other cases, food restrictions are a matter of preference because of one's lifestyle or religion.

In U.S. stores, it's fairly easy to find kosher foods, for instance.

These are foods that are prepared according to Jewish law.

Halal foods are becoming more common, too, in the U.S. These are foods that are prepared according to Islamic law.

So you know about vegetarians not eating meat, right? What about vegans?

These people choose not to eat any animal products.

It's a very strict diet,

but it seems a lot of people choose to go vegan. If you go vegan, you switch to a vegan diet.

A trend that I see is that the world is becoming a more accommodating place for all the dietary needs that people have.

When I went on vacation last summer with my family,

I was very happy to find lactose-free yogurt and gluten-free muffins at the hotel breakfast buffet.

So what kind of diet do you have? Do you have any restrictions? Are there some foods you'll never give up?

Tell me in the comments.

I really do try to eat healthy, but I can't completely give up junk food.

I admit that I have some unhealthy foods in my pantry.

I keep snacks like potato chips up here. That's for when I get the munchies.

So when I want to nibble on something and I start to reach up high, I remind myself that we have healthier snack choices

below, like dried fruits and crackers.

But sometimes you just want to indulge yourself a little, right? I think it's okay to treat yourself to things sometimes.

To eat healthy...well, it's usually about eating things in moderation.

You may wonder why I chose this topic.

Well, one thing I think we all enjoy is food. It's a common topic of conversation.

But there's another reason.

There's a trend in the U.S. today.

The popularity of food shows cooking shows and cooking competitions has grown.

We have a network on TV that's devoted to everything about food.

More and more people in the US are becoming foodies. We're not experts.

We're not chefs, but we take an interest in food, and we enjoy trying new dishes.

Foodies like me enjoy watching cooking shows and cooking competitions. My own children like watching a kids baking championship.

And foodies enjoy a good trip to a restaurant. It doesn't have to be expensive or fancy.

The food just has to taste good.

Are you a bit of a foodie too?

That's all for now. Please like this video if you learned new vocabulary today.

Thanks for watching and happy studies!

Become a sponsor of English with Jennifer.

You'll get a special badge, bonus posts, on-screen credit, and a monthly live stream.

Click on the link or look in the video description for more information.

Note that sponsorships are not available in every country at this time.

I'd like to say a very special thank you to my current sponsors. Hopefully, more of you will join us for the next live stream.

Join me on my YouTube community tab for special posts each week.

If you haven't already, please subscribe to my channel. That way you'll get notification of every new video I upload to YouTube.