Do you have sayings or quotes that help you navigate different areas of your life?

 

We definitely do!

 

 

For example, my husband is always reminding our kids, “You can’t get hit by the luck truck if you are not standing in the middle of the street.”  

Along our REAL food journey, we have found a number of short phrases and quotes that have given us inspiration and guidance.  When we first started this journey, when our kids were young, we read a book called Food Rules by Michael Pollan.  Many of you have heard me share some of my favorite quotes from this book including:

 

Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.

Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third grader cannot pronounce.

If it arrived through the window of your car, it is not REAL food.

 

While we were doing some cooking demos this past week, one of our beloved Eat REAL America members said she has always remembered the advice, “Don’t buy food where you buy your gasoline.”  Another great one!

Of course, Zonya and I sum it all up by saying,

“Keep it simple and EAT REAL!”

 

We have gathered a list of phrases and quotes that may help you on your REAL food journey.  Some of these may resonate with you or someone you love, and a couple may make you laugh out loud!  Some of these are from Michael Pollan’s Food Rules, while others are from a variety of people, books, articles and other things we have read or watched over the years.

 

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.  (A Michael Pollan classic!)

Avoid foods that have some form of sugar (or sweetener) listed in the top three ingredients.

Avoid foods you see advertised on television.  (OK, you may see commercials for pistachios and avocados…make sure to enjoy both of those!  As far as we know, no one is advertising REAL foods like spinach, pears and butternut squash!)

If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t.

Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk.

The whiter the bread, the sooner you’ll be dead.

 

You are what you eat eats.  (Are those cows eating natural grass out on the prairie or processed grains in a confined area?)

Don’t eat foods with ingredients you wouldn’t keep in your own kitchen.  (I’m betting that none of us have things like sodium nitrate, potassium bromate, or monosodium glutamate in our kitchens!)

If it doesn’t rot, it’s not REAL food.

The longer the shelf life of the food, the shorter the shelf life of the person eating the food.

 

 

Eat when you are hungry, not when you are bored.

Every time you eat or drink, you are either feeding disease or fighting it.

Know what you’re going to eat tomorrow before you go to bed tonight.

When you start eating food without labels, you no longer need to count calories.

You don’t have to eat less; you just have to eat right.

It’s the dose that makes the poison.  (Even with sugar, small amounts are fine for most people, but too much contributes to a variety of illnesses and disease.)

Let food be thy medicine.

Your tastebuds will learn to love the foods they’re with.

 

 

Pay the farmer now or pay the doctor later.

Keep your friends close and your farmers closer.

The food you eat can either be the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.

Buy most of your food from the perimeter of the supermarket.

You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces, just good food from fresh ingredients.

Eat 8-10 fist-sized servings of fruits and vegetables every day.

 

20 minutes in the kitchen will save you hours in the gym.

Healthy behaviors are contagious.  (And so are unhealthy behaviors!)

Look at the first three letters of the word “diet.” How many people feel that way when they are on a diet?

Carbohydrates can be anything from lentils to lollipops, pinto beans to jellybeans.  

Healthy eating isn’t about counting fat grams, dieting, cleanses and antioxidants. It’s about eating food untouched from the way we find it in nature in a balanced way.

DNA is not your destiny. Dinner is.  

 

An apple isn’t a “carb”; it’s an apple.  (Remember, we don’t eat nutrients; we eat foods!)

80% of the salt in the typical America diet comes NOT from a saltshaker, but from salt that’s processed into food that you buy in a bag, box, bottle, jar, or can.

You are what you eat, so don’t be fast, cheap, easy, or fake.

When you eat food with a lot of nutrients and fiber…it’s going to make you full before it will make you fat.

The best memories are made when gathered around the table.

 

Of course, there are many more!

Please share your favorites!