“You are what you eat.” That’s a familiar quotation to most people, but few know its origin. In 1826, Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote, “Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es.” in Physiologie du Gout, ou Meditations de Gastronomie Transcendante. The translation means “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.” It usually is unnecessary for me to tell what I eat because it is only too obvious to anyone who casts a cursory glance my way since I often wear what I eat.
Even when I’m being careful, I often end up with drops or splatters of food and beverage on my clothing. My morning coffee seems to be the worst offender, but that stands to reason since I have a cup every morning on my 45 minute drive. The paved portion of the road I travel has
its share of bumps, and the gravel road is a sartorial catastrophe waiting to happen. However, my experience this morning tops anything I’ve done in the past.
I was about 20 minutes into my drive when I hit one of the aforementioned bumps just as I was taking a sip of coffee which caused a surge of liquid that I struggled to keep in my mouth. Unfortunately, a tiny bit slipped down my throat before I was ready to swallow. It is amazing that so much dialogue can pass between your conscious brain and your involuntary nervous system in a nanosecond. (more…)