Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), in the book Physiologie du Gout (1825), wrote “Tell me what you eat, and I shall tell you what you are,” often interpreted as “you are what you eat.” This was figurative and not meant literally; one does not become an apple or a donut or a “skinny person” by eating such things.
 
“You aren’t what you eat because if you eat a vegetarian, you are not a vegetarian….. You are a cannibal” was posted on Twitter on September 5, 2011. “Rest assured you are not what you eat. If you eat a vegetarian you do not become a vegetarian” was posted on Twitter on December 22, 2011.
 
“You aren’t necessarily what you eat. If you eat a vegetarian, you probably are not a vegetarian” was posted on Twitter on March 6, 2017.
       
       
Wikiquote: Food
Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es. Tell me what you eat, and I shall tell you what you are.
. Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, Physiologie du Gout (1825); tr. M. F. K. Fisher, The Physiology of Taste: Or Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy (1949)
. Variants:
..Der Mensch ist, was er ißt. Man is what he eats.
..Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach, Die Naturwißensschaft und die Revolution [Natural science and the revolution] (1850), repeated in Das Geheimnis des Opfers, ober der Mensch ist was er ißt [The mystery of sacrifice, or man is what he eats] (1862)
..You are what you eat.
..Victor Lindlahr, You Are What You Eat: how to win and keep health with diet (1942)
 
Twitter
Kaylie Long‏
@LaylieKong
You aren’t what you eat because if you eat a vegetarian, you are not a vegetarian….. You are a cannibal.
10:58 AM - 5 Sep 2011
 
Twitter
Khushboo Bhatia‏
@Kaleidoscopikk
Rest assured you are not what you eat. If you eat a vegetarian you do not become a vegetarian.
3:21 AM - 22 Dec 2011
 
Twitter
Jennifer Erickson‏
@JennJeanne
if you are what you eat then what are you if you eat a vegetarian? #thinkaboutit
9:50 PM - 25 Dec 2011
 
Twitter
John‏
@ExcludedMembers
philosophical tuesdays! You are not what you eat; if you eat a vegetarian, you are eating meat, ergo you are not a vegetarian
10:00 PM - 12 Nov 2013
 
Twitter
Joseph Maloney‏
@Brosef_Joseph
You aren’t necessarily what you eat. If you eat a vegetarian, you probably are not a vegetarian.
7:54 PM - 6 Mar 2017
     
just-shower-thoughts
You aren’t necessarily what you eat. If you eat a vegetarian, you probably are not a vegetarian.
4,993 notes Mar 6th, 2017
 
Twitter
Shower Thoughts‏
@Thoughts4Shower
You aren’t necessarily what you eat. If you eat a vegetarian, you probably are not a vegetarian.
#showerthoughts
7:59 PM - 6 Mar 2017
   
Reddit—Jokes
The statement “You are what you eat” isn’t really true.
submitted August 31, 2017 by beardlesshipster
If you eat a vegetarian, you probably aren’t a vegetarian.