Short answer: The ten "Food and taste" questions (Q81 to Q90) ask how you choose, cook and talk about food. This is one of the two most evenly built categories in the quiz: all ten top options are worth between 52 and 55 points. Its main habit is to score knowing exactly what you like as older, and trying anything as younger.
I'm Muhammad Husnain Zahid. Start with the ten questions above; they take about a minute. Below I show how even the category is, what the three groups of top options reward, and the two questions that pull in opposite directions. The full question list has all ten, with every option.
An evenly built category
Look at the fourth option on each question: 53, 54, 53, 52, 53, 54, 53, 53, 52 and 55. All ten lie within a three-point band. The third options are almost as tight, between 34 and 37. The first options run from 9 to 13 and the second from 20 to 22.
Averaged over the ten questions, the first option is worth about 11 points and the last about 53. That gap of 42 is in the middle of the ten categories, and the ten individual gaps run only from 41 to 44, as narrow as in Feelings and fights. Relationships and people is the only other category whose top options stay inside a three-point band. So this one is among the least surprising. A pattern of answers moves your average in the same way on every question, and no single question can throw it. Picking at random gives about 30.
Three groups of top options
Staying with what you know
Three top options are about familiarity. Q81, choosing a restaurant: "Wherever I already know and trust" (53). Q82, something odd on the menu: "I'll stick with what I know I like" (54). Q86, breakfast: "The same thing most days, and I like it that way" (54).
The lower options on the same questions are about novelty and ease: "Wherever has chips" (9), "Trying it, obviously" (12), "Sugary and fast" (10). So the quiz reads sameness as old and adventure as young. I think many people would disagree. I would not assume that adventurous eating belongs to the young, or that fussy eating belongs to the old.
Order in the kitchen
Two top options are about running a kitchen well. Q84, cooking for yourself: "I meal-plan for the week" (52). Q89, leftovers: "Labelled, dated, and used properly" (52). They sit beside the bottom options "Someone else handles that" (10) and "What leftovers" (10). Here the quiz has a fair point. Planning a week of meals is a skill that takes practice, and most children do not have it.
Knowing how to say it
The remaining top options are about speaking with confidence about food.
- Q83, vegetables: "I have opinions about how they should be cooked" (53).
- Q85, a wrong order: "I've learned exactly how to phrase that request" (53).
- Q87, a dinner party of strangers: "I bring a dish and know exactly what to talk about" (53).
- Q88, favourite cuisine: "A considered answer, plus three recommendations" (53).
These all describe someone who has done it many times. The third options on the same questions, such as "I mention it politely and it gets fixed" (36) and "A genuine, considered answer" (36), are almost as good in my view. The gap from 36 to 53 is a gap in practice, not in manners.
Two questions that pull against each other
Q82 and Q90 show the same person in two lights. Q82 pays 54 for sticking with what you know. Q90 asks about a food you disliked as a child, and pays 55 for "Completely different palate now, genuinely", which is the highest top option in the category. The first rewards keeping to what you like, and the second rewards having changed what you like.
They can both be true of one person, but not in the way the points imagine. Someone who disliked vegetables as a child, now loves them, and will try anything on a menu picks the top option in Q90 (55) and the first or second in Q82 (12 or 21). The quiz sees an older palate in one question and a younger habit in the next. It is how people actually are, but it does mean your average here can hide a real pattern.
The lowest options
The first options are the lightest part of the category: "Wherever has chips" (9), "Vegetables and I are not friends" about vegetables (9), "Doesn't matter, I'll eat anything" (12), "More cake for me then" (11) and "Whatever has the most sauce" (11). Several are written as jokes about being a child at a table. Q85's first option, "Doesn't matter, I'll eat anything" (12), is one of the few that is not childish. Plenty of adults say it, and I think it is a good attitude. It scores as young because it is the opposite of the expert order in the top option.
Where I think it is unfair
It assumes you choose. Many of the questions need a menu, a free evening and a budget. Q81 asks where you eat, and Q87 puts you at a dinner party. Someone who eats at home most days has to guess what they would do.
It assumes a certain kitchen. Meal planning and labelled leftovers suit people with a fridge, time and a regular week. A person who works shifts or shares a kitchen can be very organised and still not do either.
It treats a settled taste as age. A person can be certain of what they like at fifteen.
Where the food points come from
A few questions came from searching social media, a few I wrote myself, and for the rest I asked friends and people around me. For the points I looked at how children, adults and older people around me talk about food. Children are fussy and quick. Adults start to cook and plan. Older people often know what they like and keep to it. I placed the four options along that line.
These are my judgements, and nobody has checked them against real ages.
Reading your food number
- Under 20: most of your picks were the first two options. Food is about speed, fun and what is in front of you.
- 20 to 40: a mix. You cook some days and order in on others.
- Above 40: you mostly picked the settled options. Open the list of your answers and check the three groups above. Familiar food (Q81, Q82, Q86), order (Q84, Q89) and confident talk (Q83, Q85, Q87, Q88) each say something different.
Why ten answers is a weak signal
This category is a tenth of the full test and moves your final result by about four points at most. It is also affected by what you ate today. Your answers on this page stay in your own browser, so you can try again another day and compare. To see how it all fits together, take the full test. The maths is set out in How a Mental Age Score Is Really Worked Out.
What this does not tell you
It is not nutrition advice, and it says nothing about how well you eat or how healthy your diet is. Treat it as a quiz for fun and self-reflection. It has no scientific validation behind it. If food is causing you worry or distress, a trusted person or a doctor is a better place to start, and the help resources page lists free, confidential support.
Sources and further reading
- How the whole number is built: the age guide and How a Mental Age Score Is Really Worked Out.
- Every question and answer option: the full question list.
Frequently asked questions
Why do Q82 and Q90 pull in opposite directions?
Q82 pays 54 for sticking with what you know and Q90 pays 55 for a completely changed palate. A person who has changed and now stays with what they like can score high on both.
Is adventurous eating really young?
The quiz scores it that way, but I would not assume it. It is one of the judgements in the points.
Why are the top options so close together?
All ten fourth options are worth between 52 and 55. Only Relationships and people is as even.
Is this nutrition advice?
No. It says nothing about how well you eat. It is a short quiz for fun and self-reflection and it has not been scientifically validated.