Decoding Diet Culture: "You Are What You Eat"

We’ve all heard them.

“Everything in moderation.”

“No pain, no gain.”

“Cheat day.”

“You are what you eat.”

These phrases are so common that we often repeat them without stopping to think about what they actually mean. While the phrases become a normal part of conversations, hearing these phrases often can do some damage to our relationship with food. They begin to shape the way we think about food and ourselves. In our new series, Decoding, we’ll explore familiar diet sayings, their origins, conventional meanings, and reframe some perspectives. We’ll do our best to answer, what is the fuller meaning?

I don’t believe we need to throw out every common nutrition phrase. Like many things, eliminating perspectives is not helpful; rather, let us see what new perspectives can be extracted. Let’s be honest, these phrases don’t seem to be going anywhere; however, our ability to reframe, critically consider, and self-regulate can shift.

Without further ado, let’s start with the all so common…

A quick look at the origin story: An 1825 Paris politician coined the phrase to highlight the undeniable link between food and identity.. The phrase did not begin as a manifesto to market a new diet. It was however used to communicate the social, religious, and cultural identities that food elicits. Read more here about the roots, if interested.

More commonly now, most people associate the phrase with an encouragement to eat healthier. The idea is straightforward: the foods you regularly eat provide the nutrients that build and maintain your body. Protein helps repair tissues. Calcium supports your bones. Carbohydrates provide energy. Vitamins and minerals allow countless systems throughout your body to function.

In that sense, there’s some truth to the phrase. Our bodies are literally built and fueled by the nutrients we consume.

But somewhere along the way, “you are what you eat” became something much harsher.

Instead of describing how nutrition supports our physical health, it began to imply that our food choices reflect our worth. Eat foods that society labels as “healthy,” and you’re disciplined, responsible, and successful. Eat foods labeled as “unhealthy,” and suddenly you’re lazy, careless, or lacking willpower.

If I could rewrite the phrase, it wouldn’t be about nutrients alone or a judgement on the morality of your choices.

Sometimes the meal on your plate represents your family’s traditions. Maybe it’s your grandmother’s soup recipe that’s been passed down through generations or a holiday dessert that instantly reminds you of home.

Sometimes food represents your relationships. It may not be obvious, but food choices often mirror the community that you grew up around or aspire to cultivate. You may find yourself opting for the food choices that your family instilled within you.

Do you celebrate around a warm, bubbling hot pot during holidays, just as your family did? Do you reminisce about the ice cream cake with the corny decorations because it reminds you of childhood birthday parties? Food is a powerful reminder of the communities we’re a part of. It is a core connection to the people who matter to us.

Sometimes food reflects your values and goals. When you head over to the neighborhood Christmas party, are you eating buttery, chocolatey cookies because you are “lazy, careless, and lacking willpower?” Or could it be that your values foster curiosity to make new friends and compassion to share what they care about?

Could it be that your goals include experiencing cultures, including through an edible lens? What you eat often tells a deep story, including how your values and goals are manifested through food choices, just not in the healthy & unhealthy/black & white story kind of way.

One of the biggest lessons I learned studying community nutrition is that food choices are shaped by much more than knowledge or motivation. The story often begins with factors beyond an individual’s control: location, accessibility, and cost.

A prime example of this is food deserts. Food deserts are defined as areas with “limited access to affordable, nutritious foods”. It would be ill-informed and plainly incorrect to say that a phrase like “you are what you eat” can fully encapsulate the intricate history and structures that lead people toward their food choices. This label fails to address that what you eat is determined by your surroundings. Thus, you are not only what you eat. You are also a product of your surroundings and the products of the system that constructed these surroundings. If this is a topic of interest to you, I welcome you to read about some interesting organizations that I came across addressing food insecurity here.

A personal experience illustrated food systems especially clearly, for me. During my time interning in Nome Alaska, a rural town in the Bering Strait region, my eyes were opened to food infrastructures vastly different from those in Saint Louis or Chicago. With two grocery stores in the community, the availability of food was largely dependent on weather and supply. Many community members relied on ways to acquire, prepare, or preserve food that had been passed down for generations. These practices too, depended on weather, time constraints, and a pretty specific lifestyle that is different from the one many of us are accustomed to with more access to resources.

When we ignore the systemic nuances sewn into food choices, phrases like “you are what you eat” can unintentionally place blame on individuals for circumstances they don’t fully control while underestimating the bigger picture that created their circumstances.

If we have to keep the phrase, I think there are so many things that make you, you. Here are some that may feel true for you today:

You are the friendships strengthened over coffee.

You are the busy student grabbing something to fuel your brain.

You are the loving parent making a dinner that will actually be eaten after a long day and within a tight budget.

You are the athlete fueling for performance in a sport that brings you joy and purpose.

You are the baker who brightens friends’ days with a fresh batch of cookies.

You are your own advocate making choices that support your needs when life is feeling hard.

Some days, you are one of those things more than the other. Every day, food continues to nourish our relationships, our cultures, our identities, our celebrations, our grief, our comfort, and our communities. There is beauty to that complexity. You kind of are what you eat, but you are also so, so much more.

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