ABOUT THIS BOOK

A sober engagement with the diverse meanings of intermittent fasting in human culture.

Fasting from food is a controversial, dangerous, and yet utterly normal human practice. In Why Fast?, Christine Baumgarthuber engages our fascination with restrictive eating in cultural history. If fasting offers few health benefits, why do people fast? Why have we always fasted? Does fasting speak to something deep and immutable within us? Why are our bodies so well adapted to intermittent fasting? And, what might this ancient, ascetic ritual offer us today? Thoughtful and considered, Why Fast? is a sober reconsideration of a contentious practice.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Christine Baumgarthuber is the creator of The Austerity Kitchen, a one-of-a-kind culinary history blog, and author of Fermented Foods, also published by Reaktion Books. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

REVIEWS

"Fasting is deeply embedded in most of the world's major faiths. This book makes a modern argument offering a new form of transformation and redemption."

— Ken Albala, University of the Pacific

"This multifaceted, clear-eyed account explores issues around fasting, including its health benefits and risks, why we are so well adapted to undergo it, and how we can balance its benefits with the demands of our busy lives.”

— The Bookseller (UK)

"To fast, or not to fast? That is a question many people ask when considering healthier wellbeing options. Christine Baumgarthuber answers this question, along with much more information on the history and benefits of fasting."

— Culinary Historians of Canada Newsletter

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 A Hunger for More: Fasting and Its Purposes from Antiquity to the Present
2 Food for Thought: Fasting Throughout the Ages
3 The Physician Within: Fasting for Health
4 Seeing Less of You: The Promise of Fasting for Weight Loss
5 The Wages of Thin: The Dangers of Fasting for Weight Loss
EPILOGUE Of Apps and Appetite: The Future of Fasting

References
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Index

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