»Matrix Food«

Red pills, blue pills, steak, tea, cookies, candy, chocolate cake, really good noodles...

"I have these memories from my life, and none of them happened. What does that mean?"
"That the Matrix cannot tell you who you are."
"But an Oracle can?"
"That's different."

Does all of the food IN the Matrix create an effect or download data into someone plugged in? I've been considering this for some time, and I've come up with a conclusion of sorts -- bear with me.

Obviously, red pills disrupt the input/output signal from a person plugged into the Matrix. Interesting how it must be ingested. This is the first of two specific examples where some type of food was given to someone in the Matrix and a certain change took effect in the person. The second example is the chocolate cake given to the Merovingian's female friend, which caused the big O.

Now, imagine that all the food ingested inside the Matrix carries instructions or data or even upgrades. I figured that Agent Smith spiked the steak so Cypher would be more compliant. It might have been designed to ellicit a nostalgic response, or perhaps the steak was created to break down Cypher's defenses. Maybe the tea that Seraph was drinking was specifically designed to help him mimic the fighting and defensive skills of his opponent. Perhaps those really good noodles that Neo enjoyed in his previous life were designed to curb his appetite for hacking, thus the better they tasted, the more he ate them.

At this point, I'm sure you've been wondering, where am I getting all this from...? This answer can be found during the scenes with Neo and the Oracle. They had three meetings, one during each movie, and the Oracle fed him something during the first two meetings.

First, it was, "here, take a cookie. Before you know it, you'll feel right as rain." Neo did have some of the cookie as he left the apartment. Was there some sort of code embedded in the cookie which caused a change or an upgrade in Neo? I say it's possible, even probable. As we know, Neo was not ready to take on the responsibility, the burden of being the One. The Oracle, expecting this, designed the cookies to give the person eating them a perceptible upgrade. Remember, Neo was faced with a horrible choice ("One of you is going to die... which one, will be up to you") and eating this cookie gave him the upgrade required to save Morpheus. Perhaps the cookie upgrade gave Neo confidence in himself, allowing him to begin to believe he could be the One.

During the second meeting, the Oracle offered Neo a candy, similar in appearance to a red pill. The dialogue that ensues is quite revealing when thinking about it in terms of this topic.
Oracle: "Candy?"
Neo: (after a pause) "Do you already know if I'm going to take it?"
Oracle: "Wouldn't be much of an Oracle if I didn't..."
Neo: "But if you already know, how can I make a choice?"
Oracle: "Because you didn't come here to make the choice, you've already made it. You're here to understand why you made it."
<Neo sits and stares briefly, then takes the candy.>

Completely ignoring the notion of fate and prophecy in this dialogue, let's connect the dots by replacing the word "candy" with another word -- "upgrade" or "power". The Oracle may have been offering Neo another upgrade, or a new nudge towards being the One and taking the full weight of that on his shoulders. Neo's hesitation comes sharply into focus here, because he had already expressed doubts about the Oracle being able to tell him who he was. And the telling sign was that although he took the candy, Neo did not eat it.

During their last encounter together, the Oracle again offered Neo candy, and that time, he politely refused. Remember the Oracle's reaction? She was surprised. "You sure did surprise me, and you still do..." The Oracle found that Neo no longer needed any upgrades in character to bolster his strength of will. Perhaps Neo decided that his efforts were best served without "program tweaking."

I welcome relevant, thoughtful comments or additions to this theory/opinion. Also, if anyone knows of other instances of food within the Matrix, please post them.

yeah, i think some food can have an extra "code" in it, like the cake of the menovingian and the pills, but i dont think all food has, except that they manipulate your feelings for "hunger" (you will feel less hungry if you eat something), to make "eating" more natural. But i only think that food with an other purpose than "food" (like the pills and the cake) have an extra code to give a different reaction than to your hunger.