We’re in the thick of diet season y’all. The beginning of the year is synonymous with many pursuits of weight loss only to fizzle out come mid-February. And too often it’s in the name of getting health ‘back on track.’ So taking the jump into a discovering health free of weight obsessive diets and BS wellness culture while being surrounded those very things can feel like anything but feasible or even realistic. One idea to get you started is to detox your bookshelf from all books diet-related. And give it life with body positive anti-diet books. The kinds of books that empower you to find food freedom, reconnect with your body, transform your relationship with your body and live a healthy life well-nourished.
Once and for all throw away every single diet book that’s weighing YOU and your bookshelf down. There’s an insane amount of books out there that spout unfounded nutrition advice, guides to overhauling health, secrets to easy weight loss and false promises to a new happier you. So I thought I’d share with you a few body positive and health promoting books that I’ve found to be inspiring resources that can help you as you navigate your path towards authentic health.
10 Body Positive & Health Promoting Books to Add to Your 2021 Bookshelf
Intuitive Eating – by Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD & Elyse Resch, MS, RD
A must read for all! This book is bible if we’re talking intuitive eating. The original Intuitive Eating book written by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch was first published in 1995 and is on it’s 4th edition. This “self-care eating frame-work is rooted in science and informed by clinical experience.” It’s evidence based with a validated assessment scale with 120 scientific studies showing benefits.
Eat to Love – by Jenna Hollenstein
This book offers a mindful Buddhist approach to overcoming the insanity of dieting and the suffering that comes with it. It challenges the messages and beliefs that form relationships with food, eating and body to help heal and liberate those relationships.
Health At Every Size – by Lindo Bacon, PHD
A wealth of knowledge right here. Contemplating just one more diet to lose weight? Read this book first. Lots of evidence based information that challenges weight myths and teaches how to treat bodies with genuine respect. I also highly recommend his other book, Body Respect.
Body Kindness – by Rebecca Scritchfield, RDN
A practical guide to self-care and feeling good in your body, based on kindness and compassion rather than shame.
The Body is Not an Apology – by Sonya Renee Taylor
A book on radical self-love for everybody and Every Body. A liberating read full of inspiration and reflection prompts. Explores the messages we receive that transform our understanding of how we think about our bodies and the systems of oppression that perpetuate and inflict shame and thrive on our powerlessness to find a peaceful relationship with our own bodies.
Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family – Ellyn Satter, MS, RD, LCSW, BCD
Easily a vital book for any parent out there looking to raise a family of healthy eaters while also developing healthy positive relationships with food and eating. This book celebrates eating, provides practical food and cooking lessons and how to involve kids in the kitchen.
The Eating Instinct – by Virginia Sole-Smith
This book highlights stories of how we struggle with food – shame, guilt, fear – and how they’re products of our modern food culture. She shares her own personal story and offers insight into how the most basic human action can be relearned.
Healthy Eating for Life – by Cara Harbstreet MS, RD, LD
This guided workbook offers simple exercises that approach healthy eating from a place of self-care, non-judgement and compassion to help form long lasting behaviors.
Eat Up: Food, Appetite and Eating What You Want – by Ruby Tandoh
This book is part manifesto, part advice to help you find the joy in food and eating. Ruby Tandoh, a British baker and food writer, talks about everything from how food nourishes our bodies, helps us celebrate life, introduces us to new cultures and connects us as humans to recipe ideas and shopping tips.
Just Eat It – by Laura Thomas, PHD
A guide to intuitive eating and other non-diet approaches that cuts through the confusion and tells it like it is from a social justice and nutrition science lens. Full of tools and techniques so you can develop a healthy, trusting relationship with food and your body.
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Great article!!