10 Books that Changed my View on Eating

If you never want to see another celery stick again or can’t face one more boring slog on the treadmill, get to your nearest library. These books helped me off the diet merry-go-round and changed the way I look at health. I don’t take any of them as gospel because none of them has The Answer, but here’s what I got from them:
1. Intuitive Eating by Elysse Resch and Evelyn Tribole. This is the big one that really helped me free myself from food obsession. Resch and Tribole are both nutritionists fed up with the dieting approach because their patients never kept the weight off. They advise reconnecting with your body’s natural signals and eating whatever you want, along with emphasis on respecting your body and finding exercise you enjoy. The chapter on emotional eating was especially important for me and offers some great insight and solutions for finals-week cupboard raids.
2. The Skinny by Melissa Clark and Robin Aronson. This one builds off the idea of Intuitive Eating but with a few extra guidelines to prevent pigging out, likes system of checks and balances. For example, if you eat a big breakfast, eat a light lunch. If you have a brownie at lunch, try skipping the dinner roll, and so on. I like this because it emphasizes moderation, which I think it the key to health.
3. Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink, M.D. If you’re constantly wondering “Who ate my movie popcorn?” you might want to read this. W, a professor of … examines the reasons for overeating, such as external eating cues, convenience, and distraction, and emphasizes the importance of eating without distraction and adds a few tips to trick you’re brain out of overeating, such as eating off a smaller plate.
4. When Women Stop Hating their Bodies: Freeing Yourself from Food and Weight Obsession by Jane R. Hirschmann and Carol H. Munter. A gem of anti-dieting literature, this book rallies for total body acceptance regardless of shape or size. …examines the reasons food is emotionally charged and offers tips for getting over emotional eating. It advises “on demand” eating, which is a more extreme version of intuitive eating and while it works in theory, carrying around a bag of food for when I get hungry and watching my family eat dinner while I wait for a stomach growl was a bit unrealistic, but I now I carry snacks in my purse and if I’m not hungry at dinner, I’ll eat less.
5. Stick Figure: The Diary of my Former Self by Lori Gottlieb. This first-hand insight to the mind of an anorexic girl is eye-opening and horrifying. Eleven-year-old Lori goes from a brilliant, healthy girl to an emaciated skeleton facing feeding tubes in a hospital. If you have kids, this one is a must-read because this story emphasizes parental pressure to be thin.
6. French Women Don’t get Fat by Mireille Guiliano. Wine isn’t the secret to those skinny French bodies. The French love food, but they seek only the best, and just enough to satisfy their palette, and they walk everywhere. They rarely snack, and their restaurant portions are a fraction of our super-sized American ones. Guiliano’s love of food and life shines through in her description of outdoor European markets and freshly prepared food. For a new look at decadence, give this a try.
7. The Truth about Beauty by Kat James. James presents the science behind our food in a clear, easy-to-read fashion. She specifies the difference between organic and conventional produce, meats, and dairy products, the harmful effects of sugar and simple carbohydrates, and the differences between healthful and harmful fats. Though some of her recommendations are highly processed, like nutrition bars and protein shakes, she includes a resources guide on natural foods and health products.
8. Healthy Living from the Inside Out by Mariel Hemingway. I first picked up this book because it was written by Ernest Hemingway’s granddaughter, but Mariel has conquered her obsessive eating habits and settled on something that suits her. I could never eat just like she does because she eats no sugar or grains, but she emphasizes the importance of finding something that works for your body without being obsessive.
9. The End of Overeating by David A. Kessler MD. Kessler explains how the food and restaurant industry engineers food to have a specific ratio of fat, sugar and salt, because this tastes in a particular combination make us crave more so that we end up overeating and still purchasing more. Although I’ll still order my oooey gooey desserts, it’s nice to be aware of what’s going on with your food before you decide to order.
10. Secrets of a Former Fat Girl by Lisa Delaney. Delaney describes her journey from a pudgy couch potato to a sleek runner in this funny memoir. She warns against diets but still follows a set of rules set for herself, which I think are still detrimental, but I love to get different stories of what works for different people, because something different works for everyone.