Ravenous: A Food Lover’s Journey from Obsession to Freedom

Ravenous: A Food Lover’s Journey from Obsession to Freedom

by Dayna Macy (Author)

Synopsis

What should I eat? How much should I eat? What does it mean to be nourished? How can I, a food lover and lifelong overeater, learn to be satisfied? These are the questions Dayna Macy asks in her debut memoir, Ravenous. Like many of us, Macy has had a complicated relationship with food. In order to transform this relationship, she embarks on a year-long journey to uncover the origins of her food obsessions. From her childhood home in upstate New York and back up the California coast, Macy travels across the USA, meeting with farmers, food artisans, butchers, a Zen chef, a forager, a chocolatier and others to understand where her meals come from, why she craves certain foods, and what food means to her. She looks at how nostalgia is deeply embedded in food, and how the powerful forces of family and tradition shape our food choices. Rather than head straight for the diet manuals, she chooses to change her relationship with food from the inside out. She delves deeper into the spiritual underpinnings of eating, examines what it means to be satisfied, and ultimately forges her own path to balance and freedom. Far more than a book about how to lose weight, it offers comfort and understanding for those who are also struggling or hoping to mend one of the most important of life's relationships - to the food we eat.

$25.74

Quantity

1 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Publisher: Hay House UK
Published: 07 Mar 2011

ISBN 10: 1848503083
ISBN 13: 9781848503083
Book Overview: A richly evocative journey of discovery into our relationship with food

Media Reviews
Food as protection, comfort, pleasure, and love, a defense against deprivation, a buffer against pain--so many of us will recognize our insatiable hungers in Dayna Macy's quest to understand her own. But the real appeal of Ravenous is Macy's voice: her candor and humility, her curious mind and storyteller's clarity, and the open, generous heart she brings to her tale of learning to find peace with her appetite and her body. -- Kate Moses, author of Cakewalk


This rich, compelling book follows a woman's search for balance, and ultimately, freedom, in her relationship to food. Macy's writing is strong and beautiful, every page filled with risk and integrity. I truly loved Ravenous. It's a real accomplishment. -- Kim Chernin, author of In My Mother's House


Ravenous is the journey of a courageous, smart, beautiful woman who learned that there is no final answer--but that the inquiry itself, the work of being and growing and accepting, is the salve that heals the heart. Macy's writing is the perfect blend of humor, irony, and wit. Her warmth and earnestness is so lovable that I found myself rooting for her all along. I couldn't put it down! -- Stephanie Snyder, yoga instructor and creator of Yoga for Strength and Toning


Ravenousis among the most engaging, fun, and insightful books about appetite you'll ever read. A wonderful melange of memoir (what a family!), recipes (you can taste them), the exploration of food production (slow, local, artisanal, organic) topped off by uncommonly delicious writing. -- Sue Halpern, author of Can't Remember What I Forgot

Author Bio
Dayna Macy's essays have appeared in Self, Salon, Yoga Journal and other publications, and in several anthologies. For the last decade she has worked at Yoga Journal as Communications Director, and now also as the Managing Editor for International Editions. She lives in Berkeley, California with her husband, the writer Scott Rosenberg, and their two sons. Ravenous is her first book.