Food is not rational. Food is culture, habit, craving and identity.

The statement argues that eating cannot be reduced to a purely logical calculus of nutrients, costs, or even ethics. What we choose to eat is shaped by inherited traditions, daily routines, emotional desires, and the way food signals belonging—family, nation, religion, class, or personal self-conception. By calling food “not rational,” the speaker highlights why debates about diet (including vegetarianism, veganism, and “healthy eating”) so often become charged and resistant to evidence: they touch identity and memory as much as appetite. The line invites readers to treat food choices as culturally embedded practices, and to recognize that changing them typically requires more than information—it requires renegotiating habits and self-understanding.