Eat Pray Obey: The Worst Cult Diets in History (Part 1) episode artwork

EPISODE · May 13, 2025 · 51 MIN

Eat Pray Obey: The Worst Cult Diets in History (Part 1)

from What the Food? · host Miles, Andy and Dom

Ever fancied a spiritual journey that involves applesauce, powdered milk, and starvation so severe you hallucinate a raisin? In this week’s episode of What The Food, we tuck into history’s most deranged cult diets,  from the jungle gruel of Jonestown, to Heaven’s Gate’s death-by-pudding, to the one-grain-a-day enlightenment plan of Aum Shinrikyo.How do cults use food to control people? Why are so many of them obsessed with purification? And can you really find God on a 500-calorie salad? Join us as we rank the worst of the worst in a roundtable food fight no one asked for, and uncover why the road to salvation is often paved with beige, boiled suffering.Trigger warning: This episode contains dark themes including starvation, coercion, and mass death,  but we’ll hold your hand through it with our usual dose of British humour and sarcasm.If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe in your favourite app, leave us a rating, and share it with your mates. Follow our socials at: https://linktr.ee/WhatTheFoodPodcast or if you fancy treating us to a one-off cuppa: www.buymeacoffee.com/whatthefoodTheme music: “Celebration” by Alexander Nakarada. Available for use under the CC BY 4.0 license (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published May 13, 2025

Embed this episode

NOW PLAYING

Eat Pray Obey: The Worst Cult Diets in History (Part 1)

0:00 51:39

No transcript for this episode yet

We transcribe on demand. Request one and we'll notify you when it's ready — usually under 10 minutes.

No similar episodes found.

No similar podcasts found.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is this episode of What the Food??

This episode is 51 minutes long.

When was this What the Food? episode published?

This episode was published on May 13, 2025.

Can I download this What the Food? episode?

Yes. Use the download control on the episode player to save the publisher-provided media file.
URL copied to clipboard!