What is the meaning of conversion? What meaning do individuals find in their own conversion?
And what truths lurk withing the depths of the conversion experience? One might assume
these questions are related to a new book on spiritual formation. However, Food Faiths
manages to acknowledge such questions while pointing the reader to new considerations of
spiritual authority. Touting science based justifications for eating as a centralizing force
organizing people’s lives, Newell repurposes religion for scientific practices of food as true
spiritual practices themselves. Vegan and Paleo diets are framed here as primary examples of
“food faiths.” Assessing the transition to these dietary lifestyle choices, Food Faiths reveals the
extent to which conversion to a way of eating can ground us into spiritual practices based on
science rather than religion. In the end, diet is understood as a systematized way of living that
draw on spiritual practices of deep reflection for the good of the body. Clearly crafted, the
primacy of Newell’s intervention is its ability to expand our understanding of spiritual practices
and their ability to enhance life while creating ultimate meaning.

Derek S. Hicks, Wake Forest University's School of Divinity

Food Faiths brilliantly links US healthy eating trends with flavors of religious conversion. With agile prose and kitchen table familiarity, Newell delivers humorous and research-rooted insights on how embodied, virtuous foodways demonstrate “a faith in the science.” Go ahead, taste and see!

Sarah E. Robinson, University of Victoria, Canada