You hear it all the time, but when did the platitude “You are what you eat” first see print?

1826. It appeared in Frenchman Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin’s lifelong work, Physiologie du Goût - a title that’s even a few degrees cooler than being called The Fitness Master.

He was The Philosopher in the Kitchen.

This deep thinker also expressed something I experience every time I add ingredients to my healthy meals and make them even tastier: “The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star.”

Since I believe in sharing the wealth, spreading happiness, and know little about astronomy, you can probably guess where this column’s headed.

Upton’s Naturals

Original Jackfruit

Now you’ll never see a pyramid of jackfruit in your grocery store’s produce section - or probably even a single one for sale - for a really good reason. Fully grown, they weigh up to 40 pounds.

But you will find 7-ounce packets of it marketed by Upton’s Naturals at Walmart, Giant, and Whole Food Markets and that its stringy flesh works really well as a meat substitute.

Recently on a Tuesday, I simmered seven ounces of the Original version in a close-to-zero-calories barbecue sauce, added shirataki noodles, and melted fat-free mozzarella cheese on top just before chowing down. I liked it enough to make it again four days later.

That’s when my curious but carnivorous brother had a taste. His eyes lit up. He smiled and said it’s “like eating pizza cheese with pulled pork and rubbery spaghetti.”

Unlike me, my brother’s never taken to the taste of shirataki noodles, but he was taken aback when he asked, “How many calories?” The full meal that I need to serve myself in a salad bowl totals 370 calories - and only 120 of them come from the jackfruit.

Other Nutrition Facts from the 7-ounce package of Upton’s Naturals Original Jackfruit bear mention: 9 grams of fiber, 4 grams of protein, 0.5 grams of fat, 110 milligrams of calcium, and 370 milligrams of potassium.

In future experiments, I plan to use the product in a pseudo chicken salad and eat it in wraps, as well as see if it leads to a decent vegetarian chili.

Better Body Foods Golden Monk Fruit Blend

Another fruit you’re unlikely to find in your grocery store is luo han guo. The small green melon is native to southern China and northern Thailand and better known as monk fruit because Buddhist monks have been cultivating the melons for centuries.

To make their Golden Monk Fruit Blend, Better Body Foods extracts juice from its flesh, adds erythritol, and creates a granulated sweetener that in a blind taste test would easily pass for brown sugar.

But there are no calories in a two-teaspoon serving. Standard brown sugar has 30.

So far I’ve swirled the Golden Monk Fruit Blend into oatmeal, sprinkled it atop baked squash and sweet potatoes, and thoroughly enjoyed the results. Next, I’m going to use it to create a cinnamon butter (using a fat-free butter spray, of course) to spread on toast.

Once my sample bag of the Better Body Foods blend runs out, I plan to purchase more on my own. But before you start any plans of your own, here’s something you should know: The blend is more erythritol than monk fruit, and pure erythritol can be purchased for about half as much.

Since I don’t taste a difference between the two in the high-protein snacks I make that contain cocoa and either fat-free cottage cheese or protein powder, I’ll stick with erythritol when I make those and save a few bucks.

Hammer Phood Meal

Replacement Drink

If your typical morning leaves little time for a sit-down breakfast, you need to try Hammer Phood’s Meal Replacement Drink. Just ask my brother.

When I gave him a glass of chocolate variety and asked him to guess what it was, he said, “No way is this is a protein shake. It’s too creamy and chocolatey.”

Since I buy a slew of Hammer Nutrition’s supplements, they sent me a free sample of their meal replacement drink. When I read the ingredients, however, I knew not to try it.

I knew it would be thicker, creamier, and better tasting than the chocolate protein powder I normally drink. Since the Hammer product is designed to replace a meal and keep you full until the next one, about half the calories come from medium chain triglycerides, a healthy fat that can serve as an immediate energy source.

But I’m not looking to replace meals and my brother often has no time for even a bagged lunch between business meetings, so he became the taste tester and gave it two thumbs up.

He plans to keep a shaker bottle and few packets of Phood in his car and never miss lunch again.