Gandhi’s Search for the Perfect Diet

"[Slate] finds a new angle on one of the most consequential leaders of the last century, and then he fills in that angle with nuts and milk and fruit. You don’t see many portraits like this one, constructed out of all the food that made the man."

"This illustration is so simple, yet so clever. It’s so striking and playful."

"Brings a new perspective to a familiar figure through an investigation of the archive of diet."

"Will be of significant interest to Gandhi scholars and to those with a commitment to exploring the ethics, sociology, and history of food."

"A marvelous and well-written book."

"[A] deft and careful exploration of the philosophical underpinnings of Gandhi’s dietary views."

"[D]eep, wise book about the eating life of one of the moral giants of the modern world."

"Nico Slate’s fascinating account reveals Gandhi as an evidence-based, self-experimenting nutrition guru who tried one diet after another—vegan, raw, calorie restriction—in his quest for physical and spiritual health. Above all, Slate explains Gandhi’s use of fasting as a political means to inspire India to achieve independence."

"A wonderful book that focuses on the issue of Gandhi’s obsessive preoccupation with diet reform and food in general, pointing out how intricately meshed were the Mahatma’s ideas and practices concerning eating, morality, ethics, and political activism."

"Slate makes many significant contributions to the study of Gandhian embodied ethics as well as to studies of food justice and alimentary politics."

"Slate’s book is an engaging foray into the details of Gandhi’s dietary obsessions, leaving readers to judge for themselves whether a ‘perfect diet’ is attainable or even desirable."