Synopses & Reviews
Reclaim your time, money, health, and happiness from our toxic diet culture with groundbreaking strategies from a registered dietitian, journalist, and host of the "Food Psych" podcast.
68 percent of Americans have dieted at some point in their lives. But upwards of 90% of people who intentionally lose weight gain it back within five years. And as many as 66% of people who embark on weight-loss efforts end up gaining more weight than they lost. If dieting is so clearly ineffective, why are we so obsessed with it?
The culprit is diet culture, a system of beliefs that equates thinness to health and moral virtue, promotes weight loss as a means of attaining higher status, and demonizes certain ways of eating while elevating others. It's sexist, racist, and classist, yet this way of thinking about food and bodies is so embedded in the fabric of our society that it can be hard to recognize. It masquerades as health, wellness, and fitness, and for some, it is all-consuming.
In Anti-Diet, Christy Harrison takes on diet culture and the multi-billion-dollar industries that profit from it, exposing all the ways it robs people of their time, money, health, and happiness. It will turn what you think you know about health and wellness upside down, as Harrison explores the history of diet culture, how it's infiltrated the health and wellness world, how to recognize it in all its sneaky forms, and how letting go of efforts to lose weight or eat "perfectly" actually helps to improve people's health — no matter their size. Drawing on scientific research, personal experience, and stories from patients and colleagues, Anti-Diet provides a radical alternative to diet culture, and helps readers reclaim their bodies, minds, and lives so they can focus on the things that truly matter.
Review
"If you've ever wondered how we landed in this current wellness-obsessed, sugar-and-gluten-fearing moment of entrenched food anxiety, Anti-Diet is a must-read. Christy Harrison traces the history of modern diet culture, busts deeply rooted myths and exposes the inherent biases of modern weight research. She also offers clear, practical advice for all of us trying to disentangle ourselves from diets and make peace with food."
Virginia Sole-Smith, author of The Eating Instinct
Review
"Most diet and wellness books claim to address mind, body and spirit, but in fact they are just about body. Thank goodness for Christy Harrison, whose empathetic book reveals oppressive diet culture for what it truly is, and offers a genuinely holistic alternative."
Alan Levinovitz, author of The Gluten Lie
Review
"As compassionate as it is scholarly, Christy Harrison's Anti-Diet goes deep to expose the sordid underbelly of the diet culture but it doesn't leave you there. With healing-oriented strategies that address our physical, emotional, and social selves, you will finish this book armed with ways to reclaim all that dieting has taken from you, and gain a new perspective that is empowering and sustainable."
Jenna Hollenstein, MS, RDN, CDN, author of Eat to Love
About the Author
Christy Harrison, MPH, RD, is a registered dietitian nutritionist, certified intuitive eating counselor, and journalist who writes about food and nutrition. She is the founder and host of the Food Psych podcast, which has helped tens of thousands of people around the world stop dieting, recover from disordered eating, and develop happier and healthier relationships with food. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, SELF, BuzzFeed, Refinery29, Gourmet, Slate, the Food Network, and many other publications, and her work is regularly featured in national print and broadcast media.