“Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es.”
I’ll wait while you dust off your Intro to French Language textbook from back in your sophomore year of school.
Actually, we’ll just run the first sentence through the power of the internet and get ourselves the translation. Ready? Here it is:
“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.”
It comes from the book Physiologie du Goût (The Physiology of Taste), written in 1826 by the French politician and lawyer Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin. While Brillat-Savarin followed the family tradition of going into law, his heart seems to have always stayed in the kitchen. He was filled with culinary curiosity and loved to learn unique cooking methods and try unusual foods. But both his professional and kitchen pursuits were interrupted by the French Revolution, and he fled to the United States to escape The Reign of Terror. While in the States, he supported himself by playing the violin for an orchestra in New York. Upon returning to France in 1795, he was legendary for the epic dinner parties he would create and for his writing on food.
He sounds amazing. (And exhausting. But still.)
Later years and later writers brought us variations on Brillat-Savarin’s theme, like Ludwig Feuerbach’s “Der Mensch ist, was er isst” (Man is what he eats) all the way to the phrase we know today as “You are what you eat.”
But is there any scientific data behind these oft-quoted lines?
Actually, yeah. A lot.
Here are three of the top areas where what you eat matters a lot in your long-term health. And they are three that might just surprise you.
Cognitive Health: With Alzheimer’s/dementia diagnosis Alzheimer’s disease kills more people annually than breast and prostate cancer combined, and the death rate from Alzheimer’s has doubled since the year 2000.1 By simply including more leafy greens and whole grains in the diet, a study group was found to lower their risk of cognitive decline by 4%.2 Another study showed that in 600 individuals who followed the MIND diet, their brains showed less plaque, a symptom associated with Alzheimer’s and dementia.3 Another study revealed that individuals who followed a strict Mediterranean diet had thicker cortical brain regions, which seems to be protective against cognitive decline.4 While more research is needed to better understand these connections, dietary health can play an important role in protecting cognitive health.
Longevity: It’s important to make a distinction here. There’s clicking through birthdays on the calendar and then there’s having a lot of life in your length of life. While, yes, Americans are living longer (although there has been a drop in recent years in the average life span), those years are not always ones filled with vitality. Nutrition can keep your years filled with greater independence, better health, and an overall wellness.
Mental Health: If your diet includes a lot of processed foods and refined sugar, you are more at risk for depression.5 What you eat also impacts your gut health which, you guessed it, is connected to your brain health. Foods that cause inflammation in the gut or interrupt the biome of the gut will ultimately impact your mood, clarity, and other key brain chemistry.
And in the categories that you likely expected diet to play a factor, those who eat healthier have overall lower risks for cancer, cardiac events, stroke, and diabetes.6
So what can you do to make sure you’re eating what you want to be?
In America today, it thankfully doesn’t have to be all that complicated to improve your nutrition. Include a few more helpings of vegetables on your dinner plate. Instead of your nightly bowl of ice cream, substitute grapes or a banana a few times a week. You know the drill; instead of fried, sub out for baked. Ditch the daily chips. It doesn’t mean your diet needs to be all or nothing. Moderation and intention are key. Amber Howles says, “As a registered dietitian, my philosophy really is that all foods fit. The trick is you just have to eat everything in moderation and control your portion sizes.”7
All told, your long-term diet does shape your long-term health. Making and keeping simple nutrition habits that last will carry you further than crash juice fasts, completely eliminating treats, or ignoring the foods that bring vitality to your brain and body. What you eat today might not make as big an impact tomorrow, but what you do every day will show up in the next ten years and the next. Make today’s bites count for a better life for your senior self.
1 https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/facts-figures#:~:text=One%20in%203%20older%20Americans%20dies%20with%20Alzheimer%27s%20or%20another%20dementia.%20It%20kills%20more%20than%20breast%20cancer%20and%20prostate%20cancer%20combined.
2 https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2024/12/healthy-eating-linked-better-brain-health#:~:text=They%20also%20had%20slower%20rates%20of%20cognitive%20decline.%20People%20who%20most%20closely%20stuck%20to%20the%20MIND%20diet%20had%20a%204%25%20reduced%20risk%20of%20cognitive%20problems%20compared%20to%20those%20who%20ate%20a%20very%20different%20diet.
3 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36889921/
4 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29574441/
5 https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/nutritional-psychiatry-your-brain-on-food-201511168626#:~:text=Diets%20high%20in,as%20depression.
6 https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/how-dietary-factors-influence-disease-risk
7 https://www.k-state.edu/media/newsreleases/jul14/fourthdiet7314.html#:~:text=MANHATTAN%20%E2%80%94%20This%20Fourth,sizes%2C%22%20Howells%20said.