Paul Fieldhouse

Food is central to daily religious practice and holiday celebrations the world over. For instance, Orthodox Jews keep kosher, Muslims feast after fasting during the holy month of Ramadan, and Hindus leave food offerings in the temple for the dieties. For many, food is seen as nourishment for the body and soul. This cookbook illuminates the food practices of followers of the world's major religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Shintoism. The narrative and nearly 300 recipes give a flavor of what is often eaten for sacred occasions and why. This volume will be useful for a range of cooks and purposes. It is targeted to middle school age to adults. Those looking for more and different recipes for religion class assignments and International Week Food Festival or even for browsing will be richly rewarded with a one-stop resource. Each chapter covers a religion or two with similar food practices. A brief overview of the religion is followed by a discussion of any dietary restrictions. Then the recipes are organized by holiday or special occasion, featuring from appetizers to desserts. Recipes are culled from a variety of countries and cultures where the religion is practiced. The recipes are contextualized and have clear instructions for the novice cook. A final section in some chapters allows readers to recreate what the religion's founder or major figures might have eaten during their lifetime. A glossary defines what might be unfamiliar cooking terms and food and kitchen items. An introduction, list of recipes, conversion measurements, bibliography, index, and illustrations round out the cookbook.

As someone who was trained in the clinical sdentific tradition it took me several years to start to appreciate that food was more than a collection of nutrients, and that most people did not make their choices of what to eat on the biologically rational basis of nutritional composition. This realiza- tion helped tobring me to an understanding of why people didn't always eat what (I believed) was good for them, and why the patients I had seen in hospital as often as not had failed to follow the dietary advice I had so confidently given. When I entered the field of health education I quickly discovered the farnaus World Health Organization definition of health as being a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease. Health was a triangle -and I had been guilty of virtu- ally ignoring two sides of that triangle. As I became involved in practical nutrition education initiatives the deficiencies of an approach based on giving information about nutrition and physical health became more and more apparent. The children whom I saw in schools knew exactly what to say when asked to describe a nutritious diet: they could recite the food guide and list rich sources of vitamins and minerals; but none of this intellectual knowledge was reflected in their own actual eating habits.