Eating Ethically: Religion and Science for a Better Diet

by Jonathan K. Crane

Overview

Few activities are as essential to human flourishing as eating, and fewer still are as ethically fraught. Eating well is particularly confusing. We live amid excess, faced with conflicting recommendations, contradictory scientific studies, and complex moral, medical, and environmental consequences that influence our choices. A new eating strategy is urgently needed, one grounded in ethics, informed by biology, supported by philosophy and theology, and, ultimately, personally achievable.

Eating Ethically argues persuasively for more adaptive eating practices. Drawing on religion, medicine, philosophy, cognitive science, art, ethics, and more, Jonathan K. Crane shows how distinguishing among the eater, the eaten, and the act of eating promotes a radical reorientation away from external cues and toward internal ones. This turn is vital for survival, according to classic philosophy on appetite and contemporary studies of satiety, metabolic science as well as metaphysics and religion. By intertwining ancient wisdom from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam with cutting-edge research, Crane concludes that ethical eating is a means to achieve both personal health and social cohesion. Grounded in science and tradition, Eating Ethically shows us what it truly means to eat well.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231545877
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	12/19/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	49 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Jonathan K. Crane is the Raymond F. Schinazi Scholar in Bioethics and Jewish Thought at the Emory University Center for Ethics. He is the author of Narratives and Jewish Bioethics (2013); editor of Beastly Morality: Animals as Ethical Agents (Columbia, 2015); and coeditor of The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Ethics and Morality (2013).

Table of Contents

Contents
Preface
Part I: Eating Unwell
1. Full of Ourselves
2. Deprivation and Gluttony
Part II: I Eat Therefore I Am
3. The Eater
4. The Eaten
5. Eating
Part III: Eating Well
6. Eating’s Genesis
7. Satisfaction
8. Just Right
Part IV: I Eat Therefore I Am Tasteful
9. Savoring
10. Sacrificing
11. Sharing
Part V: Conclusion
12. Go Ahead, Refrain
Notes
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

★ 10/09/2017
Fusing philosophical ethics, religious wisdom, and science, Crane (Narratives and Jewish Bioethics) has designed a regimen for what he calls “the heartiest, healthiest, and holiest way to eat: eat less than one can consume on a regular basis, saving one’s feasting for feasts.” Crane weaves together various perspectives to illustrate that eating is not simply a physiological act but one with moral, economic, ecological, social, and political ramifications. He comes at the philosopher Jacques Derrida’s question of how should one eat well from multiple angles, deploying cutting-edge studies of metabolism, ancient philosophers’ musings on food, and religious reflections from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam to bolster his position of refrained consumption. Some readers will be disappointed that Crane skips non-Western systems such as Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions. Crane’s accessible prose and principled approach to eating make this a worthy addition to the ongoing discussion of how humans should consume food. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

In Eating Ethically, Crane masterfully demonstrates that eating well is both a good thing to do and personally achievable. It complements what many of us are calling for—a better, smarter, and more sustainable way of eating.

John Mackey

Eating Ethically provides both compelling and novel insight regarding the modern global obesity epidemic. Crane brilliantly and creatively integrates evidence from science, philosophy, culture, and religion to support that eating “just right” is important for personal, spiritual, and societal health.

Laurence Sperling

The delight and value of the book is the wild and thought-provoking ride that Crane takes us on to get to his core argument for moderation in eating. His seemingly thin advice has resonance and power by the end of the book.

Reading Religion

An accomplished ethicist and philosopher, Crane crafts a careful argument for what it means to eat well. Following a trajectory set by Michael Pollan and others, Eating Ethically is set apart by its interdisciplinarity, using biblical scholarship, nutritional science, biochemistry, and medicine to effectively buttress the idea that eating is an activity that resonates in both personal and social contexts.

Benjamin Zeller

In our modern world, eating can be a conundrum. We have so many choices but often the thought of making one about food is burdensome. Jonathan Crane looks to some conventional wisdom mixed with contemporary perspective to ask some provocative questions about food and our relationship with it. He explores the notions of what it means to eat well, to eat poorly, and everything in between. Yes, humans rely on food for survival and nourishment, but we also grow relationships, community, and reflect our cultural and geographical context through food. Eating Ethically is a compelling look into the complex network of food, religion, science, and culture in a unique way that will leave you with plenty of 'food for thought.'

Steven Satterfield

This entertaining and provocative book draws on biblical and philosophical sources to argue that eating is an act of ethics, and that we would all be happier and healthier if we adhered to the Bible’s dietary advice—eat enough, but not too much. Anyone interested in food will be fascinated by the stories Jonathan Crane tells here.

Marion Nestle

Highly recommended.

Articles and more.... - Anna Maria Polidori