The actual phrase emerges from a gastronome named Anthelme Brillat-Savarin as he wrote in Physiologie Du Gout Ou Meditations, 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). Later on, in an essay entitled Concerning Spiritualism and Materialism, 1864, Ludwig Feuerbach wrote: 'Der mensch ist, was er isst' (You are what you eat). For those who have missed; our detective likes to eat Veal Parmesan (sauteed veal cutlet in a breadcrumb and cheese coating served with tomato sauce). As far as I know; the dish originated about 400 years ago, in Italy, famously known as Veal Bolognese. Well, no, I'm not gonna give the recipe of it as I don't wanna insult your intelligence (we all have access) or bring up an ethical dilemma by suggesting that 'Meat is murder' though I strongly support the view. But freedom of choice, the most precious of gifts granted to human beings matters and applies here. Anyway Feuerbach believed that religion is the dream of the human mind. In his words; we have created God as an image of perfection, all loving and all powerful; all the things we would like to be but are not. Feuerbach by coining the phrase 'You are what you eat' provided the intellectual backbone to a whole generation of free thinkers so that Friedrich Engels put it, late in life, 'We were all Feuerbachians'. As a follower of Kant and critic of idealism, Feuerbach was in fact attacking Christianity (Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you; John 6:53) hence his proverb has become the very essence of philosophical materialism. On the other hand, according to the book 'Dr. Kushner's Personality Type Diet' there are seven personality patterns related to your eating preferences and one of them is Set Routine (exercising the same routine over and over). Goren likes Veal Parmesan enough to order it five nights in a row at Sal's Restaurant:) Allright, seriously, can what you eat tell you something about your personality? Probably not. Those readings are very similar to horoscope readings, I think. Anyway the below is a scene from the episode A Person Of Interest (S02E23). Bobby staring at his Veal Parmesan in pleasure. You really didn't see it coming! I mean the Wicked Witch of the West:) Next scene please!
