Believe It You Are What You Eat

“You are what you eat” —- this often-used phrase has come to describe the belief that a person’s totality, including his health, appearance, mood, and thoughts, is shaped by the food he eats. Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote, in Physiologie du Gout, ou Meditations de Gastronomie Transcendante, 1826: “Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es.” meaning “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.” In an essay entitled Concerning Spiritualism and Materialism, 1863/4, Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach wrote: “Der Mensch ist, was er i