Drawing on research based on Rudolf Steiner's spiritual science, this book by Gerhard Schmidt, M.D. looks at nutrition, offering a new dynamic view of man and the world — and of food as a community-building force. Concerned with the problems resulting from the modern viewpoint of nutrition and the research of modern science, this book examines the fundamental and general aspects of nutrition. Schmidt makes the case that continued healthy human development will require us to reconceptualize our understandings of nutrition, to find “a new light of consciousness to illumine our conception.”

Topics covered include:

• Basic questions of nutrition: the expansion of nutritional research through Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual science
• What is the purpose of nutrition?
• General aspects of the physiology of nutrition
• Smell and taste: spices and aromatic substances
• Rhythm in nutrition
• Raw and cooked foods
• Foods-dietary substances — medicinal substances
• Nutrition from the realm of plants, nutrition from the realm of animals
• Nutrition and spiritual life
• Nutrition and soul life
• Community-building through the meal
• The history of human nutrition
• The development of nutrition in the age of technology: contemporary nutritional hygiene

Excerpts:
“The image of man which can be verified when we take into account the results of modern science, which emphasize the uniqueness of the human brain as an instrument of consciousness, can clarify the recognition of the significance of thinking in man and also confirm the statement of the spiritual scientist: ‘The whole body of man is formed so that its crowning point is the spiritual organ, the brain.’ But, ‘the structure of the human brain can only be understood when it is considered with reference to its task: to provide the bodily foundation for the thinking spirit.’ Should we not here ask the question: Of what should human food consist to serve this task? How should the human brain be nourished? What actually nourishes the brain?”

“Everything in us is moving continually, is fluctuating continually, and here it is more evident what we mean by ‘dynamic nutrition.’ Without understanding these events, we will be unable to comprehend the nutritional process down to the consequences of nutritional quality and the daily problems of nutrition. We will not understand what man actually needs for his nutrition.”

Author: Gerhard Schmidt
Paperback: 243 pages
Publisher: Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association (1980)
Dimensions: 9 x 6 inches