ALF (for “Alien Life Form”) was a science fiction television sitcom that ran from 1986-1990. ALF was a meat-eater who wise-cracked: “Vegetables aren’t food. Vegetables are what food eats.” The words “salad” and “lettuce” are often used in the saying, replacing “vegetables.”
 
“Vegetables Are What Food Eats” has been printed on T-shirts and has been popular long after the television show ALF went off the air.
 
   
Wikipedia: ALF (TV series)
ALF is an American science fiction sitcom that originally ran on NBC from 1986 to 1990 and was created by Paul Fusco. The title character was Gordon Shumway, a friendly extraterrestrial nicknamed ALF (for Alien Life Form), who crash lands in the garage of the suburban middle class Tanner family.

The series stars Max Wright as father Willie Tanner, Anne Schedeen as mother Kate Tanner, and Andrea Elson and Benji Gregory as their children, Lynn and Brian Tanner. The character of ALF was portrayed by a live-hand puppet operated primarily by Fusco.
   
Zazzle.com
Vegetables Are What Food Eats
T-shirt
     
Google Groups: la.eats
Newsgroups: la.eats
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Marty Tabnik)
Date: 1996/02/19
Subject: how much?
 
Lettuce isn’t food, it’s what food EATS!
   
Google Groups: soc.culture.scottish
Newsgroups: soc.culture.scottish
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Maggie)
Date: 1996/08/08
Subject: Re: A Very Delicate Question
 
Or as my spouse claims - Salad isn’t food.  It’s what food eats!
 
Google News Archive
23 October 1996, Lodi (CA) News-Sentinel, “Carnivore’s cry: Don’t tread on meat” by Meghan Johnston, pg. 7, cols. 3-4:
For the ultimate expert opinion, one needs only to consult ALF. The lovable, wisecracking burnt-sienna alien enchanted us in the late ‘80s before the real truth about extraterrestrial life was discovered by Jeff Goldblum, Mulder, and Scully on ‘The X-Files”, and ALF’s views on vegetables and salad were clear-cut.
 
‘That’s not food—it’s what food eats!” he proclaimed, and everywhere young Americans nodded their heads. This was right. Meat was good. Then again, ALF ate cats, but the idea—the principle—was there.
 
8 October 1999, Doylestown (PA) Intelligencer, “Shoe” comic, pg. D28:
Shoe: I’LL HAVE A BIG OL’ STEAK…
Waitress: SURE. THAT COMES WITH YOUR CHOICE OF VEGETABLES.
Shoe: VEGETABLES AIN’T FOOD.
Waitress: YOU DON’T EAT VEGETABLES?
Shoe: VEGETABLES ARE WHAT FOOD EATS.
     
Manna Cabana
Leo
10-26-2005, 10:19 AM
Anyway, in the words of ALF (from the tv show that was on a few years ago) “Vegetables are not food. Vegetables are what food eats!”
   
i am bored
OldOllie
Wednesday, March 10, 2010 1:35:49 PM
To paraphrase Alf, “Salad isn’t food, salad is what food eats.”
         
Z on TV
May 25, 2010
Finally, respect for ‘ALF’—at the expense of ‘Lost’
(...)
COMMENTS
Great post (even though I loved Lost). But I still say an ALF quote every time someone offers me a salad. ALF (a carnivore like myself) said, “That’s not food. That’s what food eats!”
I get a laugh everytime I say it’s from ALF. Truly a show ahead of its time.
Posted by: Mikepcfl | May 26, 2010 11:19 AM