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real food

real food

24 2.8
Food that comes from plants or animals and is not made in factories
  • noun
  • /riːəl fuːd/
translation icon : comida natural
  • Eating more real food, like fruits and vegetables, can improve your health.
  • Eat real food
  • get real food
  • taste real food

But for most people, just eating mostly real food is the best thing to do.

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Examples

  • But for most people, just eating mostly real food is the best thing to do.

  • You're gonna have to eat some real food today, you know.

  • Do we have any real food in this house?

  • So we can have real food more often.

  • I want some real food.

  • We need some real food down here, food that kids will eat.

    Fiction book (1995)
  • There are so many creative ways to use real foods in a fun way.

    Blog text (7)
  • So the two key points here are eat unprocessed real food as local as possible.

  • Now I am trying to find a balance of eating real food and training for a half-marathon.

    Blog text (30)
  • I would say eat food, just eat real food that's been unprocessed.

Synonyms

health food
vsreal food
30 3.4

Food that is good for your body and often natural or not processed

emphasizes natural, nutritious wholesomeness rather than marketed body benefits
fresh food
vsreal food
8 1.0

Food that is recently grown or prepared and not kept for a long time

focuses on natural, nutritious wholesomeness rather than preservation state

How Natural

real food
24 2.8
whole-wheat
  • US
22 2.8
processed
2.9
ultrarefined
  • Specialized
6.8

Surface Forms

real food singular
real foods plural

Morphology

real + food

The meaning is directly built from the constituents: 'real' (genuine, not artificial) combined with 'food' yields the idea of genuine/natural food rather than processed products. This compositional logic is straightforward and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer the intended sense.

Etymology

The phrase real food comes from using real to mean 'genuine' and food to mean what we eat, creating a clear picture of fresh vegetables, meat, and simple meals not made in a factory. So real food now means natural, whole, and nutritious food rather than processed products.