Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating

So I have been listening to Harrison's podcast for a bit at the suggestion of a therapist. I think she has some good things to say.However, it is difficult for me to accept that there is a one-size-fits-all solution to all eating issues and that everyone will benefit similarly. Gretchen Rubin's "be Gretchen" slogan comes to mind and her recognition that there are many personality types and many different ways to effectuate change and you need to select the techniques most suited to your personality type.Harrison’s solution to all eating issues is “intuitive eating.” Sounds simple, what is it? Unclear, but it can apparently include sending yourself into anaphylactic shock:For example, if you can’t eat peanuts without reaching for your EpiPen, you probably won’t be gravitating toward them as you recover from diet culture... Ultimately, though, your body is yours to do with as you wish: if you find yourself with, say, a persistent craving for crab despite a raging shellfish allergy, you’re allowed to eat it if you want—your body, your choice. You really do have full permission to eat anything you desire. (Just please have your EpiPen handy.) [Kindle Location 4929]WTF?!?!? This is beyond irresponsible especially because after using an EpiPen you should call 911 and go to an ER. Further, most second and subsequent reactions to an allergy get worse, so this is just. No. No. No.

I was given this as a belated Christmas gift from a family member due to my size (I'm currently sitting at around 350 lbs). Frankly, this book seems to be aimed at reassuring people like me that it's ok to eat ourselves to death just so the author can make a quick buck. It's disgusting. I know my current lifestyle isn't healthy, and good vibes aren't going to keep me from having a heart attack if I stay the way I am. What people like me need are hope and encouragement, not lies and excuses. Shame on you.

I found Christy's book and enjoyable and enlightening read. It wasn't really a how-to book though. Probably look to her intuitive eating courses for that. The book really spells out how entrenched our culture is with diet and health. Christy drives home the idea that health and it's pursuit is not a moral obligation. It is very often not within a person's ability to pursue and often not the focus of an individual's life. As she points out, there is so much more to life. If you are struggling with weight and food and you need help removing that burden from your life, this is a good book for you. I'm sure for a lot of people her ideas will be too radical-I think they make perfect sense and are wonderfully liberating!

This should be required reading worldwide. I have followed Christy’s work for a while, and it is amazing to have it all together in one book with many new insights and new research presented.

I just got my copy yesterday and am nearly finished with the book - it’s that good! Smart, highly researched, incredibly engaging and paradigm-busting. Be ready to have your mind blown.

I have listened to Christy's podcast for a few months and was super excited to have this book to be able to share all of her wisdom about eating and making peace with food, as well as have a reference guide for myself! As an LGBT psychologist, I love the inclusivity of not only the language of the book, but also thought thought behind how trans and non-binary individuals may have their own particular difficulties with food and eating. I will love having this book to share with my colleagues and clients!

A must read for anyone who is or has struggled with dieting! Tracing the cultural aspects of diet culture is so interesting in contrast to the way we view bodies today. It’s packed with so much great advice and stories of people you can see yourself in. Anyone saying it “misses the point about fat being unhealthy” is actually the one missing the point of the book. As she points out many times, we still don’t have a way to keep weight off for the vast majority of a population without damaging our relationship to food and our bodies. Definitely read this over any diet book out there!

I was VERY disappointed in this book. First of all the title claims to "find happiness through intuitive eating", the book does not help you at all with intuitive eating. I was also very disappointed with the colorful language, really, your don't need foul language to get your point across. I will be donating my copy to the library.

What an absolute gem of a book!! Loved every page and wish everyone could read this!! I have been following intuitive eating for a few years now but still get sucked into the life thief (aka diet culture) and obsess over my body ..well no more. I am well and truly done. Thank you Christy! This book is so well written and has made me realise that I'm a bit of a victim to the diet culture and need to work a bit harder to let these ingrained beliefs truly melt away forever. This is a life changing book. I have been listening to Food Psych for a few years now and this book was always a definite for me and I am so glad I got it. If you want to get away from dieting and all the BS that goes with it then give this book a go. You won't regret it, I promise :)

Christy Harrison changed my life. No, seriously. Through her podcast and now her book she drags diet culture kicking and screaming into the light of day with carefully reasoned, uncompromising scrutiny. Her arguments are well researched, while maintaining a lot of warmth and compassion. She combines her training as a dietician with a keen awareness of social justice issues to tackle our culture's obsession with food, weight and health head on. She also offers plenty of intelligent solutions on how we can do better – both for ourselves and for each other.

I have struggled for the last 18 months with distorted views on eating and dieting, this has lead to low self esteem. I came across this book whilst searching for podcasts and discovered Christy's Food Psych Podcast.This book has helped me so much, I am now thinking about food in a completely different way and listening to what my body wants. I loved the history as this helped me to understand where the diet culture emerged from and it was very interesting learning about how others fall into the diet trap and how it makes us feel. I have told all my friends about this book and I listen to the podcast weekly. Thank you Christy, you have helped me so much! Highly recommend!

This book has taught me a lot about the origins of diet culture and is really positive in terms of body acceptance and the benefits of giving up ruining your body with weight cycling on various fad diets. However I can't really get on board with the assertion that being morbidly obese has no proven health impact whatsoever (instead links between obesity and health problems are blamed entirely on stress caused by body shaming and lack of acceptance in society) , or that dieting is the only cause of emotional eating. It has helped me to start trying to accept my body and feed it enough rather than being on an endless cycle of being hungry then bingeing.

This book comes at diet culture and our culture’s obsession with fatphobia from an angle that leaves out NO aspect of societal injustice, no human rights injustice, no aspect of intersectional oppression and no marginalised group. Christy is brutally honest about everything in this book, she references almost every statistic (if not all), and even though she has extensive experience, she is unbiased.It has changed my life, and I think it holds the key to opening our eyes, and the eyes of our culture as a whole, to the invisible, chronically misunderstood system of oppression that is causing so much destruction and harm, to our individual lives, and to the lives of all of the people and the generations that are yet to come. Thank you Christy.