"You are what you eat."

[Telos]

"You are what you eat."

I remember the first time I heard this. It was on an episode of Sesame Street, and I was about 5 years old. I didn't understand it all - it sounded like complete and total nonsense. When I ate cereal, I did not turn into cereal. When I ate broccoli, I did not turn into broccoli. Everyday I looked in the mirror and it was the same old me, whether I ate cereal or broccoli.

I understood the general idea, though, which was too eat healthy foods. But was of no relevance to me, as I didn't have a choice over what foods to eat (my parents decided that for me).


This post is not a recommendation of what you should and should not eat. It is not about the merits of vegetarianism, raw food diets, fasting, or eating in moderation. I have no right to make assumptions about what your body needs, or to tell you that you shouldn't eat ALL of the food that you want.

Rather, this post is about an exercise that I used to do while in high school. During my senior year, I decided to quit sports in favor of other pursuits. However, I didn't change my diet, which was a typical one of a teenage boy, and I gradually gained weight. I didn't like what was happening. I remembered the lesson from Sesame Street, and still thought it was confusing, mixing it with philosophical questions... "what am I, really? A soul? Or a bag of flesh? Am I food made manifest?"

If you have similar philosophical questions, and are unsettled by your weight, then challenge yourself to the following exercise. You do not have to change what you eat at all. You don't have to write anything down or do any affirmations, or change when and how often you eat. You also do not have to do it often - you may only have to do it once.

Prepare your meal. Find a comfortable spot. Place a mirror in front of you. And, just as you would watch a television, watch the mirror as you eat.

Be comfortable. This not the time the time to criticize yourself. If you're not comfortable, pretend it's not you. Watch the mirror as pleasantly as  you watch your favorite show on TV. Look for interesting things, but let your mind relax. Enjoy the tastes you have prepared. Take your time, if you'd like, or eat quickly if you are in a hurry. But do not take a sip, or a bite, without looking in the mirror.

You needn't do it grimly. It's supposed to be satisfying! You're extinguishing your hunger and quenching your thirst. You are giving yourself energy for the day. There's nothing contemptible about this. You know that soft rush of endorphins, when the bubbles of your soda first hit your mouth? You smile when you do it! It pleases you, and there's nothing wrong with that. Don't feel awkward when you see that smile, for that is you smiling.

So, do not look at your food, thinking "I am what I eat," as though you are your food. That metaphor is a bit of a stretch. Instead, look in the mirror as though it were you, because it is more you than what's on your plate, and think "I am what I choose to be."

When you watch someone eat, you are watching them make a choice on what they choose to be. You are witnessing them create who they are. It does not concern you what other people eat, for that is their business. It's impolite to watch people eat, anyways. But that means that you are not accustomed to what it looks like when someone is choosing to become something, in this particular way. Morever, you are not accustomed to what you look like when you choose to become something. It is not that appearances matter so much, it is that you are oblivious.

You may watch yourself make choices from behind your eyes, but when you are in that perspective, who is making the choices? Who is responsible? Is it a spirit, God, or a devil? It is mysterious. And you really don't have a clue.

But in the mirror, there are clear observations made. Notice how when you swallow, your neck muscles contract, just as you feel them contract. Where is the food going? Is it going into your essence, feeding your emotions and feelings? In the mirror, it's going down through your chest and into your stomach, amidst all the mechanical and biological processes there. And it feels good when that happens! When you look in the mirror, and see the food disappear after its mastication, you notice that that appearance has a feeling - and that feeling has an appearance.

Every feeling you have has an appearance.

Every inner choice you make has an outer creation.

You are wise enough to know that appearances are not everything, so do not feel compelled to repeat this ritual as a rule or feel obligated to do it every time you eat. Do it only enough so that you realize the above statement. You do not have to change your diet if doing so does not suit you. Many jolly and good people have plentiful appetites, and you are well within your right to have plenty.

But when you look at food, do not focus solely on your inner satisfactions, for that's just as bad as focusing solely on your appearances. Realize there is a connection. They are one in the same. And you will heal.

[Eol007]

Good points

Diet and nutrition and attention to our intake of food is essential to health and therefore well being.

For one perspective of Natural health you might find theories on Food Combining interesting.

See Dr. Stanley S. Bass's work for instance: www.drbass.com/books.html

Best,


Stephen

[Tom]

It sounds like a specific example of the general statement that it is impossible to continue to create negative or harmful results when doing it fully consciously. I got that idea from Bill Harris. He isn't famous, but I just want to make clear that the idea is not my own. It is still taking time to get used to it.

[Banjoshee]

And I parallel the "You are what you eat" phrase with one by Aristotle that goes: "We are what we repeatedly do."

I'm pretty literal so I too had trouble with the phrase you are what you eat.  Just like I could never get my mind around the religious concept of eating the body and drinking the blood of God/Jesus  I'm way too literal to have ever got comfortable with that one.

Aristotle's works better for me (maybe because I came across later on). If I sit and watch tv and don't do anything else, that's what I become--a great but flabby tv watcher. If I work my brain, I end up with a good brain. If I keep active, I end up with a fit and healthy body. If I focus on meditating or astral journeys or...