✅ Some people believe that fast food has a negative influence on our lifestyle and diet. Do you agree or disagree?

Want to know the secret language of Band 9 essays? Rory breaks down a perfect response, revealing the complex vocabulary and grammar tricks that examiners love. This is your ticket to a top score!

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✅ Some people believe that fast food has a negative influence on our lifestyle and diet. Do you agree or disagree?
IELTS Speaking for Success
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Health and WellbeingParaphrasingSoftening OpinionsPassive VoiceCause & EffectCollocationsLogical Connectors

Main ideas:

✔️ Unhealthy diet contributes to obesity

✔️ Obesity comes with a bunch of other diseases (comorbidities)

✔️  Not cooking and eating at home might result in weaker connection within the family + simply not being able to cook for oneself

The essay

It is believed that fast food can have a detrimental  impact on how we live and what we eat. Based on the overwhelming weight of the evidence I tend to agree with this proposition.

We have started off well with a rephrasing of the task and the use of passive voice for formal essay writing. Our answer is clear and uses a variety of lexis and structures to express the strength of our agreement

With regard to lifestyle, fast food consumption could contribute to less cooking at home which has the consequence of people not being able to cook in situations without access to fast food. This can have serious problems in terms of culture with certain non-fast food dishes being connected to local traditions. Additionally, if the fast food supply becomes unstable, people will not be able to effectively manage such situations.

"A strong first main paragraph begins with a linker and paraphrase ("lifestyle" instead of "how we live". This continues with a modal verb (because we know this is not an absolute fact) and a variety of collocations to discuss the subject. The line of reasoning is continued in the next sentence for maximum clarity. We end with a conditional structure to discuss one possible outcome."

Not only does fast food consumption have serious potential consequences for the way people live, it can also have major dietary effects. Foremost amongst these is obesity caused by excessive sugar (in addition to other carbohydrates) consumption and high amounts of added sugar along with other chemical additives, are usually present in practically all fast food products.

"We begin with another reference to what has come before and the use of inversion in a complex sentence. The vocabulary here is precise and accurate with a simpler modal verb (can) to describe another possible outcome."

Occurring alongside obesity are equally serious comorbidities such as diabetes (also caused by excessive sugar consumption) and heart disease. In addition to being life threatening, these health issues place a serious strain on families, healthcare systems, and general societal well-being.

"Our argument carries on with an unusual but valid linker and another round of complex vocabulary that most native speakers are unlikely to know. We mention a variety of negative aspects beyond the individual before turning to our conclusion. This paragraph is a little shorter than the others, but the point remains clear."

Taking the aforementioned points together, it is clear that the belief that fast food may have a damaging effect on both our lifestyle and diet is well-founded. These could be seen in the effects on home cooking, various illnesses and their wider influences on society in general.

"And so we come to our conclusion with another rare but excellent linking expression, a paraphrase of the task and the answers we gave for a well-rounded ending and a Band 9 score."