You Aren't What You Eat
I've had it with this saying, "You are what you eat." I recently saw the phrase used again in a New York Times article. I can no longer stay silent.
You aren't what you eat, at least not in any meaningful sense. What are you trying to tell me when you tell me I'm a strawberry, a kiwifruit, a mug of chamomile tea, a can of kipper snacks, and a couple of the vending-machine-size bags of Takis Fuego?
For one thing, "you are what you eat" is an insult to Takis Fuego. I am a mere human being, while Takis Fuego are a delicious blend of Corn Flour, Vegetable Oil (Soybean And/Or Canola ) And Palm Oil (Palm Oil And/Or Fractionated Palm Oil), Seasoning [Corn Maltodextrin, Sugar, Citric Acid, Potassium Choride, Rice Flour, Salt, Monosodium Glutamate, Natural And Artificial Flavours (Corn Maltodextrin, Yeast Extract, Monosodium Glutamate, Disodium Inosinate And Guanylate, Potato Starch, Gum Arabic), Hydrolyzed Soybean Protein, Dehydrated Onion, Spice Extractives (Including Red Chili Pepper), Sodium Bicarbonate, Colours, Disodium Inosinate And Guanylate, Sodium Acetate, Soybean Oil, Acetic Acid, BHA And Silicon Dioxide. Contains Barley Gluten.], and Water.
Each crisp and crunchy piece of rolled tortilla delivers a blast of flaming hot chili pepper and tangy lime that tingles your taste buds. These spicy corn chips are sure to thrill chip lovers, but beware—once you’ve tried Takis®, ordinary snack foods will never compare.
Takis Fuego compose a unique gestalt. One individual Taki Fuego, indivisible, transcends the mere identity of fractionated palm oil or guanylate, or any other particular ingredient. To suggest that my ingestion of them fuses them into some objectionable hybrid with myself annihilates the meaning of both Takis Fuego and of me. Somewhere up in Plato's heaven floats the form of the ideal Taki Fuego, eternally and quintessentially delicious and mouth-watering. Each real Taki reflects that form. I am not them, and they are not me. We are defined by our differences.
Given, the molecules from the Takis' palm oil and corn, rearranged, form the physical structure of my body and the energy derived from their chemical bonds animates those molecules. But the above story would be the case regardless of what I ate. You can say that one thing leads to another, and you can elucidate the mechanisms of such interactions forever, without telling me much. If you start a long-winded description of Taki chemistry and cellular respiration, I will have to lean even more heavily on junk food to endure it.
(I've also heard the phrase "you aren't what you poop," which says just as little. You are no more what you eat than you are not not what you poop.)
Similarly, a holistic view that reconciles Taki Fuegos and myself constitutes very little. The corn eats the sunlight, then I eat the corn, and then the bacteria eat me, et cetera, ad nauseam. Eventually, entropy builds up, until the universe caves in, after which it reinflates, and so on. Takis Fuego and I are both part of the great, endless cycle of Nature, and the ego is illusory. So what?
If you want me to eat more kale, just say it directly. "Eat more kale. It has more vitamins and it will make you feel less aggravated all the time. By eating kale you will calm your passions and come closer to the Divine, instead of demolishing spicy deep-fried tortillas with 18 percent of your recommended daily intake of sodium per serving while you get all worked up about a saying originally written by Ludwig Feuerbach which has been repeatedly and unjustifably cited as evidence of his crude materialism, which is obviously unwarranted given the context in which it was written and the ironic tone he was using. Industrial corn mono-culture is an abomination. Cheap fats rust your heart valves. We should all go back to organic farming and homemade sit-down meals. QED."
But instead, you end up saying that you want me to literally "be" kale, which doesn't even make sense. Am I supposed to be Frankenstein's monster of foodstuffs? What would you tell my loved ones once I became a bunch of uncanny kale? No one loves kale.
I love Takis, though. I don't necessarily always love what I am, but I always love Takis.
Food for thought: Feuerbach wrote, “Being is the same as Eating. Being means Eating. Whatever is eats and is eaten. Eating is the subjective, active form of Being, being eaten its objective, passive form; but the two are inseparable. The empty concept of Being is fulfilled only in Eating and the meaninglessness of the question whether Being and Non-Being are identical-that is, whether Eating is identical with Being Hungry-is hereby revealed.”
Takis Fuego rolled tortilla chips are the taste of fire. A bite of lava. Like firewalking with your tongue. Containing an intense flavor combination of hot chili pepper and lime, Takis Fuego chips are rated “Extreme.” Are they meant for you? Face the Intensity.
(For more information about the culinary geniuses behind Takis Fuego, and other great snacks, smash that Follow button at TakisUSA!)