"You Are What You Eat"

Whenever I’ve heard of “you are what you eat,” it’s usually from a position of caution. My dad used to repeat this mantra whenever I would go into the kitchen pantry, scavenging for snacks. However, I’m not exactly sure what this phrase means. Maybe I’m looking at it too literally. If I take out a bag of Cheetos and starts chowing it down, does that automatically make me a Cheeto? I don’t think so.

What people probably mean when they say this phrase is something more metaphorical. If you continually eat unhealthy food, such as cake, ice cream, and chips, that must make you an unhealthy person. If you eat your fruits and veggies, on the other hand, that makes you a healthy person. Something you should strive to become.

But can this phrase be looked at from other angles? Probably. What if the true meaning of “you are what you eat” is related to personality?

Surely we’ve all seen those Buzzfeed tests online, where you choose your favorite foods and it’ll tell you what Harry Potter character you are. What if these tests were based on “you are what you eat?”

If I see someone try frog legs, I’m going to assume they have an adventurous personality. That they’re bold and brave, and nothing ever phases them. If I see someone order bubble gum ice cream, I’m going to assume they have a bright and bubbly personality. And if you only eat rice, beans, and chicken for lunch, I’m going to assume that you’re probably a gym rat who’s on the cut.

So even though my dad always told me this phrase to steer me away from the “junk food,” maybe I was simply born to feast on chocolate cake and popsicles.

Comments

The Elephant in the Room

In 2018, The Washington Post stated that school shootings were "a uniquely American crisis," and they're absolutely right. An old proverb states that "fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me." But is there any proverb for a country that's been fooled more than 1,300 times? The United States is one of the only countries in the world where our leaders time and time again do not understand the benefits of gun control. In April 1996, Australia had one of its worst mass shooting events ever, in which a man killed 35 people and wounded 18 others at the popular tourist location of Port Arthur. And what happened after? The country created the National Firearms Agreement (NFA), which banned the ownership of automatic and semi-automatic and ended up destroying more than a million firearms. Just recently, in 2019, New Zealand banned semi-automatic weapons and magazines with more than ten rounds after the Christchurch mosque shootings. However, none of t...

The Cookie Cutter Model: Preying Off America's Weak

One eating environment that I grew up relatively familiar with was Burger King, the infamous "home of the Whopper." Before I continue with the rest of this piece, one thing I would like to praise Burger King for is its relative honesty. The moment you step into the front doorway, you get exactly what you are paying for. There's no sense of false pretentiousness about it. Take one look around, and you can immediately tell that you have stepped right into a microcosm of corporate America. You're greeted by the sight of workers and cashiers, many of whom are being forced to survive on the minimum wage. Take a peek into the kitchen and you can see, firsthand, the standardization of the food that will be served to you. Pop a patty on the grill and pull it out to serve the people. This process is repeated innumerable times every single day. In fact, it's repeated everywhere as well. Every Whopper made here, in Troy, Michigan, is the same as a Whopper made in Kenya or A...

Talking Tamil

In class last week, we looked at two different interpretations on what it felt like to be an outsider society. We read Firoozeh Dumas's piece on what it meant to have a foreign name in America, and David Sedaris talked about how it felt to not understand French in a French class (with a scary teacher as well). I also feel that in some ways, I can relate to these two authors. I grew up speaking Tamil, just as the rest of the members of my family had done. I never went to daycare like other children did, so my only exposure to English for the first four years of my life was the television. With this in mind, you can probably tell I never really had an American accent growing up. In fact, when watching old videos of myself, the first thing that stands out is the heavy Indian accent I had. I never really saw it as a bad thing. One thing you should know about me as a child is that I loved talking. I didn't care who I was talking to or what I was talking about, all I knew was that I...

Nothin' but Nihil

Search This Blog