Fasting from food is a controversial, dangerous, and yet utterly normal human practice. Christine Baumgarthuber discusses our fascination with restrictive eating in cultural history from her new book, Why Fast? 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?
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Episode 227: Mac 'n Cheese: Black Chefs in The White House
Episode 226: How Big is Your Plate? Redesigning How We Eat
Episode 225: Evolution of Military Rations & Their Influence on Our Diet
Episode 224: Folklore of Food
Episode 223: Chicago: A Food Biography
Episode 222: Sugarplums and Gingerbread: A History of Christmas Sweets
Episode 221: Mastering the Art of Italian Cuisine
Episode 220: Savoring Gotham
Episode 219: Libyan Jewish Cuisine in Rome
Episode 218: New Orleans Food History
Episode 217: Nordic Cuisine
Episode 216: Frederick Douglass Opie on Zora Neale Hurston
Episode 215: What America Ate Project – Food of the Great Depression
Episode 214: 100 Years of Pyrex: How it Changed the Way America Cooks
Episode 213: What’s in a Name: Chinese Dishes
Episode 212: The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African-American Cookbooks
Episode 211: Early American Heirloom Vegetables with William Woys Weaver
Episode 210: Manuscript Cookbooks
Episode 209: Scottish Cuisine: “Beyond Haggis” with Rachel McCormack
Episode 208: Sugar and Sweets Around the World
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