Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin was a 17th century French lawyer and politician, who, as the author of The Physiology of Taste, gained fame as an epicure. His book has not been out of print since it first appeared in 1825.
Brillat-Savarin was heavily into designing better diets and is often deemed as the father of the low-carbohydrate diet. He considered sugar and white flour to cause obesity and he suggested protein-rich ingredients.
He wrote, translated from French, “Sure enough, carnivorous animals never grow fat [consider wolves, jackals, birds of prey, crows, etc.].” Can’t argue with that. Of course, maybe Brillat-Savarin never thought about the reason that wolves never grow fat is the amount of calories they burn chasing and catching rabbits in the forest.
He promoted a diet that avoided starch, grains, and sugar. He recommended meats, root vegetables, cabbage, and fruit. Brillat-Savarin also wrote what has become classic “meme.” In French: “Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es.” In English, “Tell me what you eat, I’ll tell you what you are.”
One commentator writes 1,000 words that the food we eat depends on everything “that shapes and fashions the culture and customs of any given society” including religion, location, and economics. Actually, all Brillat-Savarin meant was that the food one eats has a bearing on one’s state of mind and health, which is much less philosophical.
But the simple Western mind in the 20th century reduced his thought to “you are what you eat,” which probably requires 5,000 words of philosophical mumbo-jumbo to explain. However, in this day of mass media and instant “knowledge,” perhaps a better brilliant quote would be, “You are what you read.”
We eat what “tastes good” to us as individuals, both physically and psychologically. When Westerners come to Asia, many of them cringe when they are presented with a beautiful plate of cooked shrimp or fish with the heads still on. They refuse to learn the culinary delight of sucking the meat and juice from a shrimp head, let alone eating the eyeball of a fish. And Filipino papaitan would be out of the question, so don’t even try.
Studies show that people gain information the same way, preferring to read news and views that support their well-established thinking and bias. Ask them and they will tell you that “their” news source is both accurate and totally objective.
The US, which runs on a very polarized political two-party system, reveals this. Democrats overwhelmingly think that Republicans are “biased” as Republicans think that Democrats are the super unfair community. About 40 percent of Americans watch Fox News, and 40 percent of Americans watch CNN. But only 24 percent of Republicans watch CNN, and equally, only 23 percent of Democrats watch Fox News. “Liberals” distrust Fox; “Conservatives” distrust CNN.
Ad Fontes Media is a Colorado-based media watchdog organization known for rating media sources in terms of political bias and reliability. They are heavily criticized by “progressives” and “the right,” so they are probably doing something legitimate. They rate CNN as “skew left” and Fox as “skew right.”
However, regardless of its perceived partisan bias, CNN is noted as “Better than not reading news at all,” while it “Confirms existing biases” when it comes to actual news reporting. The most left-wing bias without being “click bait” is the New York Times newspaper with the New York Post on the right.
“Opinion” is entitled to be as prejudiced as the author wishes. But the two best sources of factual news and genuine analysis are the Wall Street Journal and the Economist with minimal partisanship. Watch your food and news diet. It’s healthier.
E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stock-market information and technical analysis provided by AAA Southeast Equities Inc.