Pure Food: Theoretical and Cross-Cultural Perspectives

Description

Food purity and nutrition has inter-disciplinary roots in anthropological, ethnological, evolutionary, psychological and applied perspectives. Pure Food presents the theoretical and cross-cultural aspects of adopting food purity. It demonstrates variations and similarities in diverse cultural beliefs, behaviours and practices in different societies that define the pure food mindset. As a subject with much contemporary relevance, Pure Food appeals to professional practitioners involved in promoting healthier food and nutrition, as well as to general readers with an interest in food purity. CONTENTS List of Illustrations Preface Introduction. Pure Food: Theoretical and Cross-Cultural Perspectives 1. The Impurities of Purity 2. ‘Pure’ Food and Food Taboos in Cross-Cultural and Human Ethological Perspective 3. Food and Order: Purity, Danger and the Bayesian Brain 4. From Concepts of Pure Food to a Healthy Diet in Greco-Roman Antiquity Eating Pure: Ethnography and Food in ‘Fitness Cultures’ 6. ‘Pure Food’ in Catering for Public Institutions: Policies and Aspirations in the City of Liverpool, England 7. Blood Used in Food: When, Where and Why Not? 8. Pure Food, Food Tourism and the Mythologising of Western Ireland 9. Bioethics and Pure Food: The Consumers’ Dilemma in West Mexico 10. The Label ‘Organic’ as a Representation of Food Purity: A Study of an Organic Beef Farm in Oxfordshire, England Epilogue. From Pure Food to Purification: A Review of Perspectives Index