I remember this saying from back in high school. I sat eating apples with a really great guy. Then some bully strutted over and said to my friend, "You are what you eat!"
"What does that mean?" I asked.
"He's eating a fruit isn't he! That makes him a fruit."
The bully walked away, eating a fat boy and I should have yelled at him, "You're an idiot--look what you're eating."
But instead I stayed silent, trying to convey--with my eyes--how sad I felt for my friend the apple-lover.
So what is it with food? Does it have power over who we are? Should I study everything I've eaten instead of my astrological sign? Is there a reason I was silent about the Fat Boy, is it because I love chicken?
Signing off,
E
I don't know how to answer that question. I eat very healthy food now because my hubby cooks it for me. In my earlier life, when I lived alone, I would eat stuff like Triskets and Camembert cheese for dinner. Often. Would that make me a cracker -- I sure hope not!!! Or a cheesy person, what's that? I have no answers, except to say, I was sick a lot on that old diet.
ReplyDeletehehehe ... well, I didn't know what a Fat Boy is but now i have a clear mental image ... I've known a few in my life too ...
ReplyDelete... yes, I think food has power over who we are ... but I don't stress too much about it ... there's just too much advice on how to live one's life out there ... a question of balance I think ...
Dear Elisa, all I have to do is eat several slices of bread over a few days and my body gets larger--in words of one syllable: I GAIN WEIGHT. So I do become what I eat--lumpy bread fat!!!
ReplyDeleteAs to why you said nothing when those bullies insulted the young man with whom you sat, I suspect you didn't speak up because you were a teen-ager and wanted to be liked by everyone! Pretty natural. Peace.
If you eat junk your body is going to be junk. If you eat well your body is going to be well. The hard part is separating the junk from the rest. My motto is "If it wasn't in the garden of eden you don't need to edeny(eat any)." Does that mean I never eat a cheeseburger or a chocolate chip cookie? No, but it's a reminder to eat more garden goodness than anything else. Fresh veggies and fruits and simple, natural foods are the only thing your body 'needs'. Everything else is just desire, appetite and experimentation.
ReplyDeleteYou might consider reading "Why We Get Fat" by Gary Taubes and watch "Food Matters" on Netflix.
I eat, therefore I am--fried chicken & a Diet Pepsi!!
ReplyDeleteAwesome! I'm gonna go have a hero for lunch, then head straight out to stop some bank robbers. :)
ReplyDeleteLove the last line about chicken!
ReplyDeleteKids are so cruel sometimes.
Genetics has a lot to do with it, too...and then family and the eating habits you were raised with.
We should learn to speak up against the bullies, though. True.
I eat healthy food, but I love my junk food too (at least once a week). So what am I? Hmmm.
ReplyDeleteThat question is great opening gambit. Having the opportunity to say something but not taking it is something we have all done and all regret at some point. I can think of things that I wish I had said twenty years ago and as recently as last week. Maybe I should eat rusty nails, broken glass and knuckledusters.
ReplyDeleteDamn, I like my chicken, I must be a real pansy haha. That term is kind of pointless, as what if you eat 500 things?
ReplyDeleteApples are the best. For years it was my one safe food that didn't trigger my migraines.
ReplyDeleteAs for the bully, pity him.
What an interesting post. Sorry your friend got bullied- how crazy to comment on someone eating an apple. I love healthy food- but I also love some unhealthy things!
ReplyDelete~Jess
I could not possibly be the food I ate, for over the decades that has changed, and not, ... and who is my judge?
ReplyDeleteEggs are what they are now, ... and Milk, which was once a creamy and rich, buttery drink, is now a thin blue thing, nothing like what I knew as a kid. I will not claim that one is better than the other, nor that Human children should ever have been fed the milk of cows.
It may take generations to change in full the stuff we eat and drink to be what is the best for us. We do not know what that is, of that I am certain.
My girls can't stand milk richer than Skim. Good, I suppose. May they find in their meals the nourishment they need. That is a prayer, and no scientific assertion. May my grandsons do the same, ... and their sons and daughters.
(And may it taste wonderful, and loving, and delicious and all that we ascribe to the pleasure of food, from our mothers to the grave.)
You're not a chicken. If you had said anything to "Fat Boy," he probably would have acted even worse.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
Healthy food = Healthy body as simple as that I think :)
ReplyDeleteThen I'm cheese pizza.
ReplyDelete