In the course of my life, I have often had to eat my words, and I must confess that I have always found it a wholesome diet.

Churchill wryly reframes the idiom “to eat one’s words” (to retract a statement proved wrong) as something beneficial rather than humiliating. The “wholesome diet” metaphor suggests that being forced by events to revise one’s opinions can be morally and intellectually healthy: it disciplines vanity, encourages flexibility, and keeps judgment tethered to reality. The humor also signals a political temperament that treats error as inevitable in public life, and correction as a mark of resilience rather than weakness. In this reading, the line becomes a compact defense of pragmatism—learning from experience, adapting to new facts, and valuing truth over pride.