We Are What We Eat

Food is not merely fuel. The dietary choices we make and the way we handle situations that revolve around food can say a lot about what kind of person we are and the image we wish to present to others.

Take, as a random example, the dietary habits of a one D. Trump, that are extremely limited and deemed unhealthy for both the body and the mind. Most American dogs eat healthier than Trump. His poor diet, obesity and lack of exercise should have killed him long ago.

So far, no such luck.

Beyond the health considerations are the personality attributes one’s choice of diet suggests.

Trump’s constant diet of junk food reflects childish tastes and a spoiled child personality. His refusal to comply with well known guidelines of basic, healthy eating reveals an extremely narrow mindset mirrored in his refusal to do what is healthy for the nation and the world. His insistence on having his way, consequences to himself or others be damned, reveals the level of maturity of a toddler. Along with this, Trump is the ultimate ugly American, unable to appreciate and respect the value of foreign cultures as embodied in their languages, customs, religions and, of course, cuisines.

Given the lack of fruits and vegetables in his diet, I suspect that the President is chronically constipated. This explains his foul mood and his being full of s***. As far as his weight goes, look at a 6′ 3,” 224 pound football player next to Trump and tell me fat Donald doesn’t weigh at least fifty pounds more. His butt alone must weigh fifty pounds.

What I find interesting and perplexing is the fact that, although my diet, lifestyle and, I hope, personality are diametrically opposed to Trump’s, it’s unclear whether these ultimately benefited my longevity. I was raised in a home where all the food was prepared from scratch, learning from an early age to enjoy a wide variety of foods. I swear, I actually liked spinach as a kid. Within the limitations of the nutritional science during my childhood, the food I was given was quite healthful. We ate lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and seeds. The only aspect of our diet that probably today would be considered less than optimal was that we consumed more red meat than is now considered prudent.

Since I was raised in my grandmother’s home during my formative years, I started out with an open mind about international cuisine, and, for that matter, all things international. She was an immigrant from Eastern Europe and continued to cook many of the dishes of her former homeland. My mother adopted more typical American style cuisine, but she regularly served dishes she had learned to cook from her mother. We sometimes dined in Italian and Chinese restaurants, and I learned to enjoy those styles of cooking as well. Sweets were not a huge component of my daily fare. Often after dinner, we would sit around the table talking about current events, politics, history, philosophy and religion while cracking open peanuts for dessert.

Of course, I was still an American kid. Growing up in Philadelphia I consumed my share of its iconic steak sandwiches and hoagies and scarfed down more than a few burgers and fries, but as an adult I partook of such dishes sparingly.

Over the course of my adult life, I became a decent cook and learned how to prepare a variety of international style dishes, including Italian, French, Middle Eastern, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Moroccan and Indian as well as some of the dishes my grandmother used to make. In accordance with my upbringing, the focus of my cooking was on fresh ingredients, prepared from scratch, that included all of what were considered the healthy food groups of the times. For decades, all summer through fall, I fed our family organic vegetables from our home garden. Sandy and I dabbled in vegetarianism and the Paleo diet, but for the most part, we followed the golden mean —a little bit of everything and nothing in excess. That included responsible use of alcohol. We never got into recreational drugs. For us, McDonalds and the like were not viewed as places to eat, just bathroom stops when we were on car trips.

Because eating healthy and ethnically diverse foods enhanced my appreciation and enjoyment of life, I’m glad I went to the trouble of exploring various cuisines and the cultures they represent. Also, I’m glad that, unlike Trump, I engaged in regular exercise (apologies golfers, unless you walk the course, golf is not exercise.) I felt and functioned like a person far younger than my years. Until I contracted ALS. Now, here I am, the same age as Trump and sick, almost unto to death, while he appears to thrive.

Food for thought.

Take it as another piece of evidence confirming that life truly is not fair. As the Jews say, “people make plans, God laughs.”