“You are what you eat—minus what you excrete”

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. 
   
“We are what we eat minus what we excrete” was cited in print in 1988, and “You are what you eat, minus what you excrete!” was cited in 1990. “Melissa Hahn once said: You are what you eat (minus what you excrete)” was posted on Twitter on August 7, 2011, but no evidence before this date credits Hahn.
   
     
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)
         
Google Books
Nutrition During Infancy
Issue 976
1988  
Pg. 58:
From the perspective of body and electrolyte content, it would be more accurate to say that we are what we eat minus what we excrete.
   
Google Books
Recovering the Past
By Richard A. Gould
Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press
1990
Pg. 62:
As a student in one of my classes remarked, “This brings new meaning to input-output studies in anthropology.” Another classroom wit suggested that “you are what you eat, minus what you excrete!”
 
Google Groups: misc.health.diabetes
Is Nutrasweet a health hazard?
James Handsfield
1/25/99
Mary T wrote in message <78hs5t$hfr$1…@news.ptialaska.net>

...
>—-A healthy diet makes a major difference—- You are what you eat.
 
Actually, this is only half.
 
You are what you eat minus what you excrete. 8-)
   
Google Groups: alt.slack
Vegan jokes
Bobdiddley
10/8/02
nu-monet wrote:
>Nah, vegetables just aren’t funny.
>
>And you are what you eat.
- minus what you excrete.
 
This refers to a previous post about examining your turds. I always have a look at what I eat, and frequently take a gander at the output. The difference is me.
 
Twitter
get REAL for kids‏
@getREALforkids
Stool and urine are two ways to dump our junk (toxins). And what’s more important than that? We are what we eat, minus what we eliminate.
3:30 PM - 3 Oct 2010
 
Twitter
Roncel Nebre‏
@RonsNebre
Melissa Hahn once said:
You are what you eat (minus what you excrete).
8:54 PM - 7 Aug 2011
   
Google Groups: rec.music.makers.guitar.acoustic
arthritis in your hand
hank alrich
9/23/11
(...)
We are what we eat, minus what we excrete.
 
Twitter
Carlo Butalid‏
@butalidnl
@jane_sds @Daily_Good @pcdnetwork technically, we are what we eat, minus what our body discards. Hehe 😊
5:24 AM - 27 Oct 2011
 
Twitter
David Tallan‏
@david_tallan
Replying to @jtorrescomics
@jtorrescomics It’s like that old saying: “You are what you eat… minus what you excrete.”
4:59 AM - 11 Jan 2012
 
Twitter
Tom‏
@TheNotoriousT0m
You are what you eat minus what you shit
6:46 PM - 18 Feb 2014
 
Reddit—Shower Thoughts
We are not what we eat. We are what we eat minus what we shit.
submitted November 5, 2017 by markleung