Food and LoveLike peanut butter and jelly--or perhaps tofu and stir fry--health and spirituality themes make a nourishing, satisfying publishing combination. In recently released and upcoming titles, publishers are linking faith-based books with everything health related, from alternative medicine through the latest diet plan and cookbooks to the role of prayer in healing illnesses.

As boomers age, they become more interested in both spiritual issues and health, according to Inner Traditions publisher and founder Ehud Sperling, who credits that demographic for some of the 7% growth his company expects this year. Inner Traditions has more than 235 health-related titles; new releases include Shaman, M.D.: A Plastic Surgeon's Remarkable Journey into the World of Shapeshifting (Jan. 2002) by Eve Bruce.

Health issues garnered enough attention in the evangelical Christian market to cause Stephen Strang, president of Strang Communications, to launch the Siloam Press imprint two years ago. It was a good gamble: more than 1.2 million units combined of the 18 Siloam Press's Bible Cure series of booklets alone have sold through the trade and as premiums for television ministries.

To cross over into other retail outlets, publishing houses like Inner Traditions, Penguin Putnam, Siloam Press and HarperCollins work with Nutri-Books, a distributor to health food stores, according to R.C. Willbanks, director of sales and marketing for Nutri-Books. Dale Wilstermann, key accounts manager at Strang, reports that Siloam Press began trying this alternative channel for its books this summer: "so far, the response has been positive, and we're getting reorders."

Heaven Can Weight

When people of faith become unhappy with their health, they often turn to religion-based programs to find help. In honor of the 30th anniversary of Carol Showalter's faith-based diet program, Paraclete Press will release an updated edition of her 3D: Diet, Discipline and Discipleship (Jan. 2002). Showalter's program, which she says "puts the weight issue in perspective," has attracted more than one million people in 20 countries since its inception in 1971.

W Publishing Group offers a grace-oriented approach to permanent weight loss in Thin Within by Judy and Arthur Halliday (Jan. 2002), and is backing its 75,000 first printing with a $100,000 advertising and promotional budget as well as a special 10-week Bible study networked through churches and other organizations.

Piggybacking on the popularity of prayer, Kensington Publishing/Citadel Press created The Prayer Diet by Matthew Anderson (Sept.), a multifaith program showing how readers can attain slimness and self-esteem through the power of a special prayer. Ruth McGinnis, a celebrity personal trainer and violinist, will promote Living the Good Life (Baker/Revell, Sept.) through appearances at the Mills Corporation malls nationwide.

Under its Focus on the Family imprint, Tyndale House will offer Loving Your Body by Deborah Newman (Apr. 2002) based on a Focus on the Family poll of women that found low self-esteem is often linked to negative body image. And for those "looking for a refreshing alternative to a never-ending barrage of diet and beauty campaigns," according to the publisher, there is God Knows You'd Like a New Body by Carl Koch and Joyce Heil (Sorin, July).

Faith in the Kitchen

What Would Jesus Eat?Publishers are exhorting readers to pay attention to what's on their plates, how to cook it and why it was put it there in the first place. In March 2002, Thomas Nelson will publish What Would Jesus Eat?: The Ultimate Program for Eating Well, Feeling Great, and Living Longer by Don Colbert, who offers a comprehensive eating plan based on the diet Jesus likely followed. Nelson is planning a first printing of about 85,000 backed by an approximately $40,000 marketing campaign. A companion cookbook is slated for summer 2002.

Tyndale House has high expectations for Gary Smalley's Food and Love, which released this September with a 100,000 first printing and a $300,000 marketing budget. Coming in July is the Food and Love Cookbook, which will include Smalley's personal recipe collection interspersed with his "love recipes" for healthy marriages.

Beautiful presentation of good food is front and center in the revised and updated edition of Pamela Smith's Healthy Living Cookbook (Jan. 2002) for Siloam Press. For those wanting more of a Buddhist spin, Kensington Publishing/Citadel Press offers Zen Macrobiotic Cooking (Oct.) by Michel Abehsera, an introduction to the Zen art of food selection and preparation. The ethical implications of food we eat are tackled in Good Eating: The Bible, Diet and the Proper Love of Animals (Brazos, Oct.) by Stephen Webb, which will be promoted to the academic market as well as general and Christian channels.

I Say a Little Prayer for You

The power of faith in healing is as old as civilization, but publishers keep finding new connections. Among the most recent titles is Dee Simmons's Surviving Cancer (Harrison House, Oct.), which has 26,000 copies in print so far. Simmons, a breast cancer survivor who has been featured on QVC, Fox and ABC-TV, is the founder of Ultimate Living International Inc., a nutritional product manufacturer.

After noting a void in spirituality titles that addressed problems common to chronic medical conditions, Patient Press created Living Better: Every Patient's Guide to Living with Illness (Jan. 2001) by Carol and Doug Langenfeld as "an empowering, practical resource for the 90 million Americans who live with chronic, life-changing illness." A companion guide, Living Better: A Christian Group Study Guide (Jan. 2002) by the same authors, is designed for support groups. Faith and Illness: Reflections on God's Sustaining Love (Jan. 2002) is a compilation of prayers, reflective questions and prose by Nancy Groves, a medical social worker. "These books are responsive to the trend toward holistic health and increasingly informed and proactive patients," says Doug Langenfeld, Patient Press president.

Snow Lion, still basking in the glow of NBC's three-part documentary in January 2001 featuring Healing from the Source (2000) by the Dalai Lama's former personal physician, Yeshi Dhonden, plans to offer a new title in May 2002, Healing with Form, Energy and Light by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. Shambhala's Healing Beyond the Body: Medicine and the Infinite Reach of the Mind (Oct.) by Larry Dossey (Prayer Is Good Medicine) is a collection of essays on consciousness and spirituality in modern medicine, designed to prod readers into examining their health in fresh ways. And there's down-to-earth, practical information in Kensington/Citadel's Go Within or Go Without (Sept.) by Gloria Benish, which combines anecdotes about healing with practical information for beginning healers.

In February 2002, Jossey-Bass will publish Honoring the Body: Meditations on a Christian Practice and Honoring the Body Study Guide, both by Stephanie Paulsell, who offers a practical resource for recovering and maintaining an appreciation of ourselves as physical beings from a Christian perspective. Jossey-Bass plans print advertising in such magazines as Christian Century and Today's Christian Woman, as well as trade advertising through seminary bookstores and consumer catalogues.

Add Daily Word for Healing: Blessing Your Life with Messages of Hope and Renewal (Nov.) to Berkley's successful Daily Word series, and you have five titles with a combined 160,000 copies in print. Senior editor Christine Zika tells PW that the idea for the series was generated by Daily Word magazine, published by Silent Unity, which has more than two million subscribers. The series is coauthored by three of the magazine's editors: Colleen Zuck, Janie Wright and Elaine Meyer.

Healing Prayer: Spiritual Pathways to Health and Wellness (Sept.), from Servant's Charis imprint, is registered nurse Barbara Shlemon Ryan's firsthand account of her experiences with prayers that heal. Servant did a 2,000-piece postcard mailing to promote the book, which is targeted to Catholics with application for a general readership. Hay House has slated a 50,000 press run for You Can Heal Your Life:Companion Guide (Feb. 2002) by Louise Hay, based on You Can Heal Your Life (1984), which has sold more than three million copies, helped along by an Oprah appearance in 1987. More connections between spirituality and healing are explored in John Wiley's God, Faith, and Health by Jeff Levin (Apr. 2001).

Geared toward African-American women is Ballantine's Sacred Woman: A Guide to Healing the Feminine Body, Mind, and Spirit (Nov.) by Queen Afua. The author, whose writing is rooted in ancient Egyptian temple teaching, aims to bring women into harmony with the Earth and the cosmos. It's already a Blackboard bestseller and a selection of the Black Expressions Book Club.

Zondervan has found success with its analytical look at herbal remedies and alternative therapies in Alternative Medicine (May 2001) by Dónal ó'Mathúna and Walt Larimore, which is already in its third printing. A $40,000 marketing budget and endorsement by the Christian Medical Association smoothed the way for the book, which Sue Brower, director of marketing, says has been "surprisingly successful"--more than half its sales of 50,000 units were in the general market. "Consumers are currently spending more on herbal remedies and alternative therapies than they spend on prescriptions," Brower notes.

The twinning of religion and health is also sparking interest in academia, which prompted Templeton Foundation Press to release a September paperback edition of Realized Religion by Theodore Chamberlain and Christopher Hall (2000). Templeton also plans to release Spirituality and Patient Care by Harold Konig and Parish Nursing: Stories of Service and Care by Harold Konig and Verna Benner Carson, both next May.

And if just reading the list of recent and upcoming spirituality and health titles strains your mind, in January you can turn to High Energy Living (New American Library) by Robert Cooper for ideas on stimulating memory and getting more done.