You Are What You Eat : On Jews & Food

 

"You are what you eat."  

It’s a very well-known saying, but where does it come from?  Let’s go to the internet.

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 - Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.”

In an 1863 essay entitled Concerning Spiritualism and Materialism, 1863, Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach wrote:

"Der Mensch ist, was er ißt - man is what he eats.”

The actual phrase didn't emerge in English until later.  In the 1920s and 30s, the nutritionist Victor Lindlahr, who was a strong believer in the idea that food controls health, developed the “Catabolic Diet.”  An advertisement for the program appearing in a 1923 edition of the Bridgeport Telegraph mentioned "Ninety per cent of the diseases known to man are caused by cheap foodstuffs.  You are what you eat."  In 1942, Lindlahr published You Are What You Eat: How to Win and Keep Health with Diet, and a new popular saying was born!

A recent study has proven “you are what you eat” to be scientifically accurate.

Researchers from the University of Utah collected discarded hair from barbers and hair salons from 65 cities across the United States.  From the chemical traces in the cuttings the scientists found that American diets are dominated by animal-derived protein like meat and dairy.  This type of hair analysis could be a useful tool to assess a community's dietary patterns and health risks, the researchers said.

Our Jewish relationship with food is a recurring theme in Parshat Re’eh.  The Torah reviews the types of animals and birds which are kosher as well as the prohibition against eating blood.  We are also introduced to the permissibility to eat meat (Devarim 12:20):

כִּי־יַרְחִיב ה' אֱ-לֹהֶיךָ אֶת־גְּבוּלְךָ כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר־לָךְ וְאָמַרְתָּ אֹכְלָה בָשָׂר כִּי־תְאַוֶּה נַפְשְׁךָ לֶאֱכֹל בָּשָׂר בְּכָל־אַוַּת נַפְשְׁךָ תֹּאכַל בָּשָׂר׃

When the Lord enlarges your territory, as He has promised you, and you say, “I shall eat some meat,” for you have the desire of your soul to eat meat, you may eat meat whenever you wish.

The commentators based on the Talmud note the juxtaposition of desire with the permission to eat meat.  Some note that this means eating eat (unless connected to a sacrifice or religious obligation) is less than ideal. 

Rabbi Shlomo Efraim Lunschitz, author of K’li Yakar, views the rules of slaughter as placing an impediment in the way of hassle-free meat consumption.  For the sake of self-discipline, it is far more appropriate for man not to eat meat.  Only if there is a strong desire for meat does the Torah permit it, and even this only after engaging in the necessary procedure of slaughter and then kashering.  Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook wrote that the permission to eat meat “after all the desire of your soul” was a concealed reproach and an implied reprimand, and he wrote about a vegetarian ideal that can be found in the Jewish tradition.

We all know that Judaism and food go hand in hand.  In contemporary society, there is a huge industry and growing popularity for all kinds of foods – gourmet, organic, Beyond Beef, Impossible Burger, and more - let’s not forget sourdough!  Throughout the quarantine months, people have tried and mastered all kinds of recipes.  (“People,” not me.) 

The Torah reminds us that food is great and, within the laws of Kosher, there is much that is permitted and positive.  Our souls have a desire and need for physical sustenance.  At the same time, the Torah warns us to be aware of the power of our heart’s desire and that, when it comes to food and eating, we run the risk of overindulging – not just in a quantitative sense, but also that there is a soul to our desire, a spiritual side to our physical eating.

B’tayavon!