Food Faiths: Diet, Religion, and the Science of Spiritual Eating

Food Faiths: Diet, Religion, and the Science of Spiritual Eating explores how individuals internalize scientific knowledge about health and diet and incorporate it into their lives as a personal spiritual practice. It examines how science is used to justify dietary lifestyles and investigates the world of "spiritual eating," which is based on diverse sciences and viewed as a lifestyle, path to enlightenment, and point of "health."

Format: Hardback
Length: 264 pages
Publication date: 15 September 2023
Publisher: Lexington Books

Food Faiths: Diet, Religion, and the Science of Spiritual Eating delves into the captivating realm of how individuals internalize scientific knowledge about health and diet, and subsequently integrate it into their lives as the foundation of a personal spiritual practice. In this insightful book, Catherine L. Newell explores the fascinating ways in which science is employed to justify dietary lifestyles, while also delving into the enigmatic world of "spiritual eating," which is characterized by practitioners who identify themselves not through a specific religion but rather through their dietary choices. These diets are rooted in a diverse array of scientific disciplines, including anthropology, ecology, systems biology, nutritional studies, biomedicine, and physiology. Adherents of spiritual eating view their diet as a holistic lifestyle, a pathway to enlightenment, and a vaguely defined point of "health." This, in turn, enables them to establish connections with their community, draw upon older religious traditions infused with spiritual practices, and comprehend their praxis within the broader context of the biosphere. While on one level, this project explores how food, health, and diet can serve as a source of spiritual fulfillment, on another level, Food Faiths showcases how science and religion seamlessly blend together to shape an individual's lived spiritual practice.

Food Faiths: Diet, Religion, and the Science of Spiritual Eating delves into the captivating realm of how individuals internalize scientific knowledge about health and diet, and subsequently integrate it into their lives as the foundation of a personal spiritual practice. In this insightful book, Catherine L. Newell explores the fascinating ways in which science is employed to justify dietary lifestyles, while also delving into the enigmatic world of "spiritual eating," which is characterized by practitioners who identify themselves not through a specific religion but rather through their dietary choices. These diets are rooted in a diverse array of scientific disciplines, including anthropology, ecology, systems biology, nutritional studies, biomedicine, and physiology. Adherents of spiritual eating view their diet as a holistic lifestyle, a pathway to enlightenment, and a vaguely defined point of "health." This, in turn, enables them to establish connections with their community, draw upon older religious traditions infused with spiritual practices, and comprehend their praxis within the broader context of the biosphere. While on one level, this project explores how food, health, and diet can serve as a source of spiritual fulfillment, on another level, Food Faiths showcases how science and religion seamlessly blend together to shape an individual's lived spiritual practice.

Weight: 513g
Dimension: 239 x 160 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781793620064