What makes food pure?
Last semester I took an ecological philosophy class and absolutely fell in love. I became very interested in what makes a food (or any substance actually) “natural” or “unnatural”. I had always thought that a food could be constituted as “natural” if it was in its most pure form- i.e. came directly from the earth without man manipulating it. While browsing the internet I stumbled upon this article; “Purity Through Food: How Religious Ideas Sell Diets” which really intrigued me. It is different in the sense that it is slightly philosophical, but I hope that you all find the first part very interesting.
Growing up Jewish, I have noticed that often times on religious Holidays, we are asked to eat certain foods that represent certain aspects of what had occurred in biblical times. In addition to being told that certain foods must be eaten because they symbolize values or traditions, we are also taught not to eat specific things because they are not pure (unkosher). These are just a few examples of what sparked my interest for this topic. I chose this reading because I would be interested to hear what your take on it is. Can certain foods make a person holy and unholy?
*The article posted is only relevant for my presentation up until right before the words in bold: “I refuse to even participate in this conversation. We don’t even need to think about food this way”. Feel free to keep reading past that, but I will only be talking about the first portion.*
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/05/the-puritanical-approach-to-food/392030/
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