Canadian Medical News

“You are what you eat.” Have you ever considered the meaning of these commonly spoken words? They serve as a simple message to remind us if we consume foods that have been provided by nature in its unrefined form, we will grow to be strong and healthy. Conversely, if we consume foods that are highly processed, refined, denatured and adulterated, we should expect the opposite. 

The most memorable movie dialogue of my childhood occurs in the movie, Superman II, right after Clark Kent enters a diner. A customer sitting at the counter, named Rocky, yells to the waitress, “Gimme another plate of this garbage!”

Clark responds, “Gee, that’s funny. I’ve never seen garbage eat garbage before.” Rocky utters an insult and punches Clark. Clark, who recently regained his powers as Superman, throws Rocky across the room into a pinball machine. All the diner employees and truck driver customers are stunned by his power to quell an obnoxious patron buy Cialis. He calmly hands the owner of the diner a wad of cash and says, “I’m, uh, terribly sorry about all the damage, Sir. Oh, I’ve been, uh… uh, working out.”

As a child, I believed that scene was hilarious because Clark Kent called Rocky, a human being, garbage. He implied Rocky was filthy, putrid and annoyingly disgusting by equating him to a rotting pile of trash. The creative repetition of the word “garbage” rang like a musical echo to my ears. I found myself utterly amused at the potential for a superhero to poetically forewarn an imminent pummeling.

When I grew up I asked: What if people really ate garbage? What would happen to us? Would Superman be there to straighten us up, guide us to a healthy lifestyle and teach us how to be strong and free of illness?

Much of our society’s manufactured waste, thrown into landfills, is toxic to humans. Who in their right mind would consume a food or substance that contains toxins? Food manufacturers create products that contain many toxins. They aren’t lethal, which means they won’t kill us immediately. But they contain preservatives, pesticides and other chemical substances that are known to cause cancer and other disease. When we know how commercially made products are bad for us and what the long-term ramifications are, we’re motivated to avoid them. Food manufacturers use incomplete nutritional labels and employ various labeling gimmicks. They deceive us into believing that we are garbage pails with hairy lids on top, so that we continue to feed ourselves the rubbish they produce. We must learn to differentiate a nourishing whole food from the processed garbage that masquerades as food products in grocery store aisles.