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Gandhi?s Search for the Perfect Diet: Eating with the World in Mind
Mahatma Gandhi redefined nutrition as fundamental to building a more just world. What he chose to eat was intimately tied to his beliefs, and his key values of nonviolence, religious tolerance, and rural sustainability developed in tandem with his dietary experiments. His repudiation of sugar, chocolate, and salt expressed his active resistance to economies based on slavery, indentured labor, and imperialism.
Gandhi's Search for the Perfect Diet sheds new light on important periods in Gandhi's life as they relate to his developing food his student years in London, his politicization as a young lawyer in South Africa, the 1930 Salt March challenging British colonialism, and his fasting as a means of self-purification and social protest during India's struggle for independence. What became the pillars of Gandhi's diet―vegetarianism, limiting salt and sweets, avoiding processed food, and fasting―anticipated many twenty-first-century food debates and the need to build healthier and more equitable global food systems.
Gandhi's Search for the Perfect Diet sheds new light on important periods in Gandhi's life as they relate to his developing food his student years in London, his politicization as a young lawyer in South Africa, the 1930 Salt March challenging British colonialism, and his fasting as a means of self-purification and social protest during India's struggle for independence. What became the pillars of Gandhi's diet―vegetarianism, limiting salt and sweets, avoiding processed food, and fasting―anticipated many twenty-first-century food debates and the need to build healthier and more equitable global food systems.
264 pages, Hardcover
Published February 25, 2019
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About the author
Nico Slate
10 books3 followersNico Slate is Professor of History at Carnegie Mellon University.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 21, 2022
Very interesting read.
What the book does not mention is that clearly Gandhi had orthorexia, an eating disorder that involves an unhealthy disorder with healthy eating. He was doing it for the most ethical of reasons. He wanted to find ways for the poor in India to have a healthier diet, and experimented with this by limiting his own diet. He also fasted as protest against both personal problems with his family and current events.
Kichdi is mentioned many times as Gandhi's favorite food. If you are interested in trying it, there is a recipe in Dada Eats Love to Cook It: 100 Plant-Based Recipes for Everyone at Your Table.
What the book does not mention is that clearly Gandhi had orthorexia, an eating disorder that involves an unhealthy disorder with healthy eating. He was doing it for the most ethical of reasons. He wanted to find ways for the poor in India to have a healthier diet, and experimented with this by limiting his own diet. He also fasted as protest against both personal problems with his family and current events.
Kichdi is mentioned many times as Gandhi's favorite food. If you are interested in trying it, there is a recipe in Dada Eats Love to Cook It: 100 Plant-Based Recipes for Everyone at Your Table.
March 2, 2025
writing felt too formulaic at times.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews