Throughout American history, ingestion (eating) has functioned as a metaphor for interpreting and imagining this society and its political systems. Discussions of American freedom itself are pervaded with ingestive metaphors of choice (what to put in) and control (what to keep out). From the countryÕs founders to the abolitionists to the social activists of today, those seeking to form and reform American society have cast their social-change goals in ingestive terms of choice and control. But they have realized their metaphors in concrete terms as well, purveying specific advice to the public about what to eat or not. These conversations about Òsocial change as eatingÓ reflect American ideals of freedom, purity, and virtue. Drawing on social and political history as well as the history of science and popular culture, Dangerous Digestion examines how American ideas about dietary reform mirror broader thinking about social reform. Inspired by new scientific studies of the human body as a metabiomeÑa collaboration of species rather than an isolated, intact, protected, and bounded individualÑE. Melanie DuPuis invokes a new metaphorÑdigestionÑto reimagineÊthe American body politic, opening social transformations to ideas of mixing, fermentation, and collaboration. In doing so, the author explores how social activists can rethink politics as inclusive processes that involve the inherently risky mixing of cultures, standpoints, and ideas.

"A Geography of Digestion explores the legacy of the Kellogg Company, one of America's most enduring and storied food enterprises. In the late nineteenth century, company founder John H. Kellogg was experimenting with state-of-the-art advances in nutritional and medical science at his Battle Creek Sanitarium. At the same time, he was involved in overhauling the form and function of the broader landscapes in which his health practice was situated. Innovations in food-manufacturing machinery, urban sewer infrastructure, and agricultural technology came together to forge an extensible geography of his patients' bodies, changing the way Americans consumed and digested food. In this novel approach to the study of the Kellogg enterprise, Nicholas Bauch asks his readers to think geographically about the process of digesting food. Beginning with the stomach, Bauch moves outward from the sanitarium through the landscapes and technologies that materialized Kellogg's particular version of digestion. Far from a set of organs confined to the epidermal bounds of the body, the digestive system existed in other places. Moving from food-processing machines, to urban sewerage, to agricultural fields, A Geography of Digestion paints a grounded portrait of one of the most basic human processes of survival--the incorporation of food into our bodies--leading us to question where exactly our bodies are located"--Provided by publisher.

Disgusting Digestion is full of the stinkiest, smelliest and most revolting facts about the human digestive system. Readers can find out which people used to eat their dead relatives, how food can painfully poison you and the sickening science of spew. Redesigned in a bold, funky new look for the next generation of HORRIBLE SCIENCE fans.