Tired of nutri-nonsense? These 9 diet quotes are genuinely worth your attention

If you love scrolling through diet quotes, you're not alone - and, frankly, their appeal makes a lot of sense. When it comes to what we eat, thoughts and hot takes abound. And when you spend as much time poring over the latest nutrition research as we do at WH, it soon becomes apparent that consensus is hard to come by.

Whether it’s high-fat diets or artificial sweeteners, the pendulum swings from one point of view to the next. Hence why we're fond of pithy, pretty diet quotes.

It's refreshing to scroll through easily-digestible and artfully-presented diet quotes about everything from what foods to eat, how much, how often - and our relationship with food.

The Problem with Diet Quotes

But this isn’t the first time we’ve said it: health and nutrition advice – especially on social media – can be a bit of a wild west.

And if you’ve ever bought into advice dished out via diet quotes by someone whose qualifications don’t extend much beyond a skilful way with words and latest iPhone camera, you’re not alone.

So, where do you go to access diet quotes and diet motivation quotes that will truly, genuinely help you achieve your healthy eating goals - whatever they look like for you?

Diet Quotes for Every Goal, Dished Up

Maybe your healthy eating ambition right now is embarking upon sustaining weight loss to achieve a healthy weight or learning how to adequately fuel your workouts to optimise your performance lifting in the gym or running laps of your local park. Perhaps it’s improving your general health or healing a stormy relationship with food.

Whatever your food-focused mission, right now, we’ve pulled some of the wisest diet quotes from a selection of our favourite professionals across dietetics and nutrition. Dig in for inspiration.

Let's kick off our round up of diet quotes with one of the most hotly debated phrases within healthy eating and weight loss.

While many PTs and body composition pros maintain that losing weight and keeping it off is a simple matter of monitoring your calories in and calories out (and ensuring the latter outstrips the former - AKA achieving a calorie deficit) many others argue against calorie counting for weight loss, wholesale. Often citing the mental health impact of dieting and diet culture as a result.

Others are calling for nuance. Among their number is Dr Rupy Aujla AKA @doctors_kitchen: a medical doctor whose passion for nutrition is such that he’s created courses for top UK universities that educate doctors-in-training about the protective powers of different foods. Plus, how they can bring healthy eating advice into their consulting rooms.

By cautioning against the oversimplification of weight loss tools, while making the (increasingly unpopular) point that calorie counting and weight loss can be a valuable tool for weight management, Dr Aujla’s contribution is one worth hearing out.

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Ah, let us count the ways we wholeheartedly rate King's College London gut health researcher and registered dietician, Dr Megan Rossi. (It's pronounced 'Mee-gan' btw.) And as far as diet quotes go, we'd endorse this one being brandished across billboards and bumper stickers, nationwide.

The whole thing (read the caption, gang) is an effective rebuttal to those *still* convinced that a healthy diet is predicated on eradicating so-called unhealthy foods. Not only (as Dr Rossi spells out) can this lead to deficiencies and an inability to feel and function at your best, it's a needlessly joyless and desperately dull way to approach eating well.

So - bonafide allergies and intolerances beside - make like Megan and think not what you should leave out of your meals, but what fibre-full, tasty and gut health-loving elements you can add in. We're all over her suggestion for your next pizza night.

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If we could pick up a megaphone and take to Speaker's Corner to bellow one of these diet quotes at the nutrition-conscious passers by, it would be this.

As registered dietician Maeve Hannan (an eating disorders specialist) spells out, carbohydrates are - far from being a persona non grata in a healthy diet - are an essential component.

Sure, a glazed doughnut or basket of triple cooked chips on the daily probably won't serve your health goals - especially if you're looking to lose fat.

But spuds (sweet or regular), rice (wholegrain's your guy), pasta (same again), other grains and - yes - bread all deserve a spot in your daily fare.

We'll say it again (and again, and again...) the best diet - for weight management and supporting general health - is a balanced diet. And a diet without carbs? That, friends, really isn't it.

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If you eat your meal al desko or slumped on the sofa with one eye on Bake Off then, well, know that we've all been there. But this entry into our diet quotes round up is a salient reminder to break that habit - at least from time to time.

Not least because it's coming from Professor Tim Spector, genetic epidemiologist at King’s College London, founder of personalised nutrition app ZOE and author of Spoon Fed: Why Everything We’ve Been Told about Food is Wrong.

Sitting at the dinner table - relaxed, and not distracted by cortisol-spiking news alerts or social media notifications - signals to the body to activate its parasympathetic 'rest and digest' mode. Leading to more efficient, effective processing of nutrients.

According to Professor Spector, it's not just about copying what those Mediterranean countries eat - but how they eat it.

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There's a certain rhythm to health habits throughout the week that is entirely to be expected. Between Monday and Wednesday you're probably more ordered, enjoying your meal prep efforts and never incurring the wince-inducing £12 late cancel fee on your scheduled ClassPass sessions.

While Thursday night until Sunday, you'll usually be a little looser: spontaneous snacks; indulgent meals out; saying "f**k it, let's get a bottle!" when you meant to meet up with your mate for a single glass of wine.

But, as nutritionist and author Rhiannon Lambert emphasises, when this goes to extremes - and you punish yourself for enjoying not-especially-nutritious food and drinks at the weekend - that's anything but healthy.

As she says: no need to overthink nor overcompensate. Just go back to your usual eating pattern and drink enough water.

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Registered dietician, gut health specialist and WH nutrition columnist Laura is a woman who talks a lot of sense. And this recent post of hers? A diet quote to eat up.

We love her delicate, considerate reminder to mind our language when it comes to discussing what we eat. Especially how she underlines that just because certain terms have become commonplace in the healthy eating discourse, doesn't mean they they're helpful.

Ascribing a moral value to food, she explains, feeds a cycle of shame and guilt. Two things that, in her 15 years of clinical experience, really don't contribute toward a healthy relationship with food.

Oh, and she offers a pertinent reminder that you don't need certain foods, teas, juice cleanses or trending supplements "detox" you. Your body has evolved to perform this very function over hundreds of thousands of years - it's pretty bloody good at it.

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Yep, it's another entry to our diet quotes edit from Dr Megan Rossi. And sometimes the most important messages don't waste words.

As the nutritional supplements markets booms - this one is a timely reminder that even the most hyped or highest-rated supplements can't give you what actual food can.

Sure, they deliver a specific micronutrient - or a mix of them - but minus the fibre, flavour and fun you get from an abundant and balanced plate of food.

Read the caption for her warning about the risk of oversupplementation - plus her pick of the supps that the majority of us could do with popping on the reg. (Alongside a varied diet, obvs.)

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Thanks to registered dietician Sophie Medlin for the final entry to our diet quotes round up.

She makes a powerful case for why demonising certain foods can seriously harm your health, far more than the not-so-healthy food themselves. And sometimes even lead to fear around food so acute that it becomes an eating disorder.

Her clinical observations - especially that demonising high sugar foods makes you more likely to binge on them - is fascinating, and comes supported by research.

The upshot when it comes to limiting sugar's harms in your diet? As Sophie says, limit refined sugar - and products high in it - but seriously so not stress about the sugar content of your banana.

And remember that refined-sugar rich treats that you really love - now and again - have a genuine role to play in balanced, joyful diet. Class dismissed.

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