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You Are What You Eat

by Rabbi Avi Finegold · June 13th, 2007
Art, D'var Torah, Eco-Kashrut, Featured, Food Writing, Health, Jewish Learning, On The Web, Opinion, Rant!, Shabbos Meals, Spirituality

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I recently heard an interview with Native artist Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun during which he made a comment about the nature of food. He asked “When a Haida is eating a hotdog When does the hotdog become Haida (referring to the first nations band)? When it’s in his hand? When it’s in his mouth? or after he’s had a bowel movement.” Yuxweluptun was using this image as a metaphor for many cultural dilemmas. I ended up stuck on the Koan-like statement for a while trying to grapple with what about the metaphor hit me. I think it stems from the possibility of thinking about it from a literal perspective and then approach food and culture differently. When does what we eat become who we are, if it even ever does.

Stepping back from what food is, I asked myself what food does. Food aside from acting as a social gathering point, or as a staple of any economic system, gives us pleasure, and fuels what we do. I would like to focus on these last two, seeing as they more accurately define why we need food. Once we approach food in this way it is easier to think about its central role in our life. Can we take the first point and place it at the centre of our food world? Only if we want to be labeled as an epicure (see my previous blog post). Sure, we like the taste of food and I firmly believe that it is there to be enjoyed, but there must be more to it. The food-as-fuel model not only complements this approach, it also fits in nicely with what we are looking for in terms of an answer to the dilemma. Why do we say that you are what you eat and can we actually have an answer to when does the food become us.

I think it is a fair bet to say that food-as-fuel is an idea that is fairly self-evident. You eat, you feel energized, you don’t you (eventually) die. The question then is what do we do with the energy that food gives us. We can choose to use it to better ourselves, others, and the world; or we can do nothing with it, choosing to waste the day unproductively. Worse, we can even choose to use our energies towards ngative activities. As humans we care about these things because our deeds often define us. We tend to admire people whose works we approve of, and rebuff people whose actions we find unconscionable. In essence, we are what we do.

If we accept that premise then it is not difficult to see that we are what we eat. What we eat allows us to do what we do. In that sense, the hotdog (or the bok choi or the cholent) becomes us when we choose to do something with it. When our caloric intake becomes a miztva (or an hour watching TV) we have transformed the food into something that will be remembered.

Whether you want your deeds to be remembered as having started as a hotdog, or a beautiful challah I will leave for you to decide.

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3 Responses to “You Are What You Eat”

  1. Leah Koenig Says:
    June 13th, 2007 at 3:40 pm

    Avi,

    Your post is great - I’m reminded of some texts we learned at Hazon that talk about the reason we eat food. If I remember correctly, one side said it was for pleasure and nourishment and the other side said it was to serve God. I like the way you twist and nuance that idea.

    Sadly, I’m not familiar enough with the texts to quote the source of what we learned…do you happen to know what passage I’m talking about, and if I got the passage right??

  2. judi Says:
    June 17th, 2007 at 7:12 am

    These are all wonderful points, Avi. Too often, food is just something we gulp down, forgotten in an instant. But if you stop and think about it, that apple/muffin/challah/tofu stir-fry/Twinkie had a story.

    Sorry to get wishy-washy and esoteric (I’m not normally like this, I promise), but I have different feelings when I finish eating an apple that I’ve selected from a tree at the top of a bluff in a CT shoreline town, a golden apple slightly reddened from where the sun hit and tasting almost exactly like honey- than I do when I eat a generic Gala apple from Stop & Shop. Why? Same when I make a meal from organic vegetables from a local farm. I feel… energized, sustained, happy.

    Chabad (and Hassidus, in general) has an interesting paradigm: everything has a “spark” and when you eat something, its “spark” becomes part of you. I’ve heard that mostly in terms of eating meat. In theory, you “elevate” the “spark” in the meat when it becomes part of you. In my overly hyper-analytical mind, I can postulate that that’s a way of getting people to slow down with the cholent- my best-case scenario. Or it could be a way of promoting what would normally be considered an unhealthy and unethical meat-centric diet as one that actually performs a “vital” purpose. This is just part of the reason why I’d make a lousy Hasid.

  3. Amy Says:
    July 9th, 2007 at 3:37 am

    Avi, excellent presentation of what should be taken for granted. Your body IS a temple, and should not be polluted with garbage, or with unethical food.

    I think I’ll take the opportunity to use this forum as a platform for ethical animal husbandry. Six months ago, we decided to take the first step towards self-sufficiency and true consideration of the food we eat, and bought three chickens for eggs. While it was sometimes difficult not to, we have not bought one single egg since then. It was a step that seemed huge at the time, but now our flock has increased to eight (a good amount of hens for six people).

    We are STARTING to think about the possibility of keeping and slaughtering our own (my father-in-law is a shochet), as it seems increasingly difficult to countenance eating animals that have been kept in horrid conditions and die surrounded by the smell of fear and blood. The ’spark’ that Judi talked about makes you wonder… what kind of spark would such an animal possess? In my family we analyze everything to death - would any thinking person want to eat an animal that had lived and died in misery? Would eating such an animal pollute you in some way, if not physically then spiritually? Is such an animal even kosher? We are beginning to think not.

    We cannot pretend indefinitely that our food comes from the supermarket. I completely agree with Judi that you get a different feeling from eating quality food than from its bland supermarket counterpart. The first time we used the parsley we had grown ourselves we thought it might be something different, because it tasted so strong. If green has a flavor, that is it. The supermarket counterpart just can’t compare.

    Enough rambling… I could go on all day about this subject. I loved your article and look forward to others.

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