Book picks similar to
Losing It: False Hopes and Fat Profits in the Diet Industry by Laura Fraser
nonfiction
non-fiction
fat-studies
health
Body Talk: 37 Voices Explore Our Radical Anatomy
Kelly Jensen - 2020
Just as every person has a unique personality, every person has a unique body, and every body tells its own story. In Body Talk, thirty-seven writers, models, actors, musicians, and artists share essays, lists, comics, and illustrations—about everything from size and shape to scoliosis, from eating disorders to cancer, from sexuality and gender identity to the use of makeup as armor. Together, they contribute a broad variety of perspectives on what it’s like to live in their particular bodies—and how their bodies have helped to inform who they are and how they move through the world. Come on in, turn the pages, and join the celebration of our diverse, miraculous, beautiful bodies!
Me, My Hair, and I: Twenty-seven Women Untangle an Obsession
Elizabeth Benedict - 2015
Ask a whole bunch of women about their hair, and you could get a history of the world. Surprising, insightful, frequently funny, and always forthright, the essays in Me, My Hair, and I are reflections and revelations about every aspect of women’s lives from family, race, religion, and motherhood to culture, health, politics, and sexuality. They take place in African American kitchens, at Hindu Bengali weddings, and inside Hasidic Jewish homes. The conversation is intimate and global at once. Layered into these reminiscences are tributes to influences throughout history: Jackie Kennedy, Lena Horne, Farrah Fawcett, the Grateful Dead, and Botticelli’s Venus. The long and the short of it is that our hair is our glory—and our nemesis, our history, our self-esteem, our joy, our mortality. Every woman knows that many things in life matter more than hair, but few bring as much pleasure as a really great hairdo.
Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol
Holly Whitaker - 2019
Either way, it will save your life.”—Melissa Hartwig Urban, Whole30 co-founder and CEOWe live in a world obsessed with drinking. We drink at baby showers and work events, brunch and book club, graduations and funerals. Yet no one ever questions alcohol’s ubiquity—in fact, the only thing ever questioned is why someone doesn’t drink. It is a qualifier for belonging and if you don’t imbibe, you are considered an anomaly. As a society, we are obsessed with health and wellness, yet we uphold alcohol as some kind of magic elixir, though it is anything but.When Holly Whitaker decided to seek help after one too many benders, she embarked on a journey that led not only to her own sobriety, but revealed the insidious role alcohol plays in our society and in the lives of women in particular. What’s more, she could not ignore the ways that alcohol companies were targeting women, just as the tobacco industry had successfully done generations before. Fueled by her own emerging feminism, she also realized that the predominant systems of recovery are archaic, patriarchal, and ineffective for the unique needs of women and other historically oppressed people—who don’t need to lose their egos and surrender to a male concept of God, as the tenets of Alcoholics Anonymous state, but who need to cultivate a deeper understanding of their own identities and take control of their lives. When Holly found an alternate way out of her own addiction, she felt a calling to create a sober community with resources for anyone questioning their relationship with drinking, so that they might find their way as well. Her resultant feminine-centric recovery program focuses on getting at the root causes that lead people to overindulge and provides the tools necessary to break the cycle of addiction, showing us what is possible when we remove alcohol and destroy our belief system around it.Written in a relatable voice that is honest and witty, Quit Like a Woman is at once a groundbreaking look at drinking culture and a road map to cutting out alcohol in order to live our best lives without the crutch of intoxication. You will never look at drinking the same way again.
The Body Never Lies: The Lingering Effects of Hurtful Parenting
Alice Miller - 2004
Using the experiences of her patients along with the biographical stories of literary giants such as Virginia Woolf, Franz Kafka, and Marcel Proust, Miller shows how a child's humiliation, impotence, and bottled rage will manifest itself as adult illness—be it cancer, stroke, or other debilitating diseases. Never one to shy away from controversy, Miller urges society as a whole to jettison its belief in the Fourth Commandment and not to extend forgiveness to parents whose tyrannical childrearing methods have resulted in unhappy, and often ruined, adult lives. In this empowering work, writes Rutgers professor Philip Greven, "readers will learn how to confront the overt and covert traumas of their own childhoods with the enlightened guidance of Alice Miller."
Our Bodies, Ourselves for the New Century
Boston Women's Health Book Collective - 1970
A guide to women's health, including information on breast cancer, AIDS, pregnancy and childbirth, and medical practices and procedures.
Hooked: Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions
Michael Moss - 2021
Our bodies are hardwired for sweets, so food giants have developed fifty-six types of sugar to add to their products, creating in us the expectation that everything should be cloying; we've evolved to prefer fast, convenient meals, hence our modern-day preference for ready-to-eat foods. Moss goes on to show how the processed food industry--including major companies like Nestlé, Mars, and Kellogg's--has tried not only to evade this troubling discovery about the addictiveness of food but to actually exploit it. For instance, in response to recent dieting trends, food manufacturers have simply turned junk food into junk diets, filling grocery stores with "diet" foods that are hardly distinguishable from the products that got us into trouble in the first place. As obesity rates continue to climb, manufacturers are now claiming to add ingredients that can effortlessly cure our compulsive eating habits. An account of the legal battles, insidious marketing campaigns, and cutting-edge food science that have brought us to our current public health crisis, Moss lays out all that the food industry is doing to exploit and deepen our addictions, and shows us why what we eat has never mattered more.From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Salt Sugar Fat comes a powerful exposé of how the processed food industry exploits our evolutionary instincts, the emotions we associate with food, and legal loopholes in their pursuit of profit over public health.
Nourish: How to Heal Your Relationship with Food, Body, and Self
Heidi Schauster - 2018
Eat clean. Avoid these foods. Eating is a life-giving pleasure, but confusing messages from the diet and nutrition industries may leave you wondering what to eat. Do you find yourself:Eating food that doesn't nourish or energize you? Munching mindlessly or emotionally? Flipping between feeling "good" and "bad" about your eating? Thinking about food and your body more than you'd like? Discover how to trust your body, and to eat with love and common sense:Eat without deprivation or overeating Accept your body and trust its wisdom Deal with setbacks, destructive thoughts, and self-defeating attitudes Create healthy habits to nurture yourself Ditch dieting so you free yourself to live a life you love. Nourish will guide you to transform your eating from self-control to self-love, using a 10-step healing process. In this book, Heidi Schauster, MS, RDN, CEDRD-S, founder of Nourishing Words Nutrition Therapy, shares 20 years of wisdom from her Boston-area practice treating disordered and emotional eating.
The Woman in the Body: A Cultural Analysis of Reproduction
Emily Martin - 1987
Contrasting the views of medical science with those of ordinary women from diverse social and economic backgrounds, anthropologist Emily Martin presents unique fieldwork on American culture and uncovers the metaphors of economy and alienation that pervade women's imaging of themselves and their bodies. A new preface examines some of the latest medical ideas about women's reproductive cycles.
Eating in the Light of the Moon: How Women Can Transform Their Relationship with Food Through Myths, Metaphors, and Storytelling
Anita Johnston - 1999
By weaving practical insights and exercises through a rich tapestry of multicultural myths, ancient legends, and folktales, Anita Johnston helps the millions of women preoccupied with their weight discover and address the issues behind their negative attitudes toward food.
Life Inside the "Thin" Cage: A Personal Look into the Hidden World of the Chronic Dieter
Constance Rhodes - 2003
Daily they endure destructive self-talk such as “I can’t eat that or I’ll get fat” or “If I could just lose a few more pounds everything would be better.” Chronic dieters may be any shape or size but they have one thing in common: They are often left to suffer alone with an undiagnosed “sub-clinical” eating disorder. Such sub-clinical disorders include eating habits that are unusual, even unhealthy, but do not fit the technical classifications of anorexia or bulimia. Addressing the many dimension of “chronic dieting,” Life Inside the “Thin” Cage offers a wake-up call and practical steps to those who need healing. Readers will find personal stories, insights into their secret patterns and habits, reassurance that they are not alone, checklists, self-tests, and, best of all, a new road to emotional, physical, mental and spiritual freedom.
How to Feel the Fear and Eat It Anyway: How to Eat Everything (and Stop Worrying About it)
Eve Simmons - 2019
Our mindless obsession with eating 'right' is such that we're now more concerned about what our Instagram followers think of a poorly lit picture of our dinner than we are of its effect on our own palate. Or, indeed, our happiness. We seem to be living in a time where we no longer eat with our hearts, emotions or heritage - but with what our waistlines (and followers) in mind.Not Plant Based are on a mission to help you love food again. The principle is very simple: eat what you like and don't worry about it. It's a menu that's especially delicious, 'guilt-free' and requires a hell of a lot less money spent in health food shops. Throughout the book, Laura and Eve call on experts to debunk myths and provide a balanced exploration of our attitude towards food, with some delicious recipes thrown in along the way. They discuss their own experiences of eating disorders and offer personal tips and coping mechanisms to help rid you of anxiety linked to food. No one is saying healthy eating is bad; there is simply a lot of misleading information out there. More to the point, food is so much more in the grand scheme of life than health: it's family, friends, enjoyment and memories. So go on, take a bite out of How To Eat Everything and learn to love your food all over again. It's SO mouth-wateringly good - we bet you'll be back for seconds.
Period Repair Manual
Lara Briden - 2015
Half the population will menstruate in their lifetime, and 1 in 2 women will struggle with their period health. Lara's book, previously self-published, has already garnered rave reader reviews because of its willingness to deal with this important aspect of women's health openly and compassionately. Containing invaluable advice for women of every age and circumstance, and detailing natural treatments from nutritional supplements to a healthy diet, this book promises to help women change their relationship with their menstrual cycle. Topics include how to come off hormonal birth control; what your period should be like; what can go wrong; how to talk to your doctor; treatment protocols for all common period problems, including PCOS and endometriosis. Thoroughly researched and written in clear and accessible language, Period Repair Manual is the ultimate guide to better periods.
Radical Belonging: How to Survive + Thrive in an Unjust World (While Transforming It for the Better)
Lindo Bacon - 2020
This isn't your personal failing; it means that our culture is failing you.We are in the midst of a cultural moment. #MeToo. #BlackLivesMatter. #TransIsBeautiful. #AbleismExists. #EffYourBeautyStandards. Those of us who don't fit into the "mythical norm" (white, male, cisgender, able-bodied, slender, Christian, etc.)—which is to say, most of us—are demanding our basic right: To know that who we are matters. To belong.Being "othered" and the body shame it spurs is not "just" a feeling. Being erased and devalued impacts our ability to regulate our emotions, our relationships with others, our health and longevity, our finances, our ability to realize dreams, and whether we will be accepted, loved, or even safe.Radical Belonging is not a simple self-love treatise. Focusing only on self-love ignores the important fact that we have negative experiences because our culture has targeted certain bodies and people for abuse or alienation. For marginalized people, a focus on self-love can be a spoonful of sugar that makes the oppression go down. This groundbreaking book goes further, helping us to manage the challenges that stem from oppression and moving beyond self-love and into belonging.
Medical Medium Thyroid Healing: The Truth behind Hashimoto's, Graves', Insomnia, Hypothyroidism, Thyroid Nodules Epstein-Barr
Anthony William - 2017
Across age groups, from baby boomers and their parents to millennials and even children, more and more people—women especially—are hearing that their thyroids are to blame for their fatigue, weight gain, brain fog, memory issues, aches and pains, tingles and numbness, insomnia, hair loss, hot flashes, sensitivity to cold, constipation, bloating, anxiety, depression, heart palpitations, loss of libido, restless legs, and more. Everyone wants to know how to free themselves from the thyroid trap.As the thyroid has gotten more and more attention, though, these symptoms haven’t gone away—people aren’t healing. Labeling someone with “Hashimoto’s,” “hypothyroidism,” or the like doesn’t explain the myriad health issues that person may experience. That’s because there’s a pivotal truth that goes by unnoticed: A thyroid problem is not the ultimate reason for a person’s illness. A problematic thyroid is yet one more symptom of something much larger than this one small gland in the neck. It’s something much more pervasive in the body, something invasive, that’s responsible for the laundry list of symptoms and conditions attributed to thyroid disease.In Medical Medium Thyroid Healing, Anthony William, the Medical Medium, reveals an entirely new take on the epidemic of thyroid illness. Empowering readers to become their own thyroid experts, he explains in detail what the source problem really is, including what’s going on with inflammation, autoimmune disease, and dozens more symptoms and conditions, then offers a life-changing toolkit and many new recipes to rescue the thyroid and bring readers back to health and vitality. It’s an approach unlike any other, and as his millions of fans and followers will tell you, it’s the approach that gets results.MORE on BOOK 3 of the MEDICAL MEDIUM SERIES:If you’ve struggled with any chronic health issue, you’re not alone—you are one among millions confronting the mysterious symptoms that medical communities have begun to connect with thyroid illness. Like so many, you want the greater truth about the thyroid.We’ve already waited 100-plus years for real insights from medical communities into thyroid problems, and they haven’t come. Even the most recent expert opinions don’t yet have a handle on what’s really behind your suffering. Hashimoto’s is not the body attacking itself. There’s more to thyroid cancer than we’re being told. You’re not hopeless if you don’t have a thyroid anymore. Thyroid illness should not be blamed on your genes. Today’s thyroid diagnoses do not explain your years of suffering with mystery symptoms.You shouldn’t have to wait another 10, 20, 30, or more years for scientific research to find the real answers. If you’re stuck in bed, dragging through your days, or feeling lost about your health, you shouldn’t have to go through one more day of it, let alone another decade. You shouldn’t have to watch your children go through it, either.The meaning behind today’s widespread thyroid illness is so much bigger than anyone has yet discovered—what you’re about to read is unlike any information you’ve ever seen. It’s time for you to take control and become a true thyroid expert. Discover the real reasons and the healing path for dozens of symptoms and conditions, including:ACHES AND PAINSANXIETY AND DEPRESSIONAUTOIMMUNE DISEASEBRAIN FOG AND FOCUSCANCEREPSTEIN-BARR VIRUSPREGNANCY COMPLICATIONSFATIGUEMONONUCLEOSISFIBROMYALGIA AND CFSHAIR THINNING AND LOSSHASHIMOTO’S THYROIDITISHEADACHES AND MIGRAINESHEART PALPITATIONSVERTIGOHYPERTHYROIDISMHYPOTHYROIDISMMENOPAUSAL SYMPTOMSMYSTERY WEIGHT GAINSLEEP DISORDERSTINGLES AND NUMBNESS“Since reading Medical Medium Thyroid Healing, I have expanded my approach and treatments of thyroid disease and am seeing enormous value for patients. The results are rewarding and gratifying.”— from the foreword by Prudence Hall, M.D., founder and medical director of The Hall Center
A Mind of Your Own: The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives
Kelly Brogan - 2016
It is a symptom.Recent years have seen a shocking increase in antidepressant use the world over, with 1 in 4 women starting their day with medication. These drugs have steadily become the panacea for everything from grief, irritability, panic attacks, to insomnia, PMS, and stress. But the truth is, what women really need can’t be found at a pharmacy.According to Dr. Kelly Brogan, antidepressants not only overpromise and underdeliver, but their use may permanently disable the body’s self-healing potential. We need a new paradigm: The best way to heal the mind is to heal the whole body.In this groundbreaking, science-based and holistic approach, Dr. Brogan shatters the mythology conventional medicine has built around the causes and treatment of depression. Based on her expert interpretation of published medical findings, combined with years of experience from her clinical practice, Dr. Brogan illuminates the true cause of depression: it is not simply a chemical imbalance, but a lifestyle crisis that demands a reset. It is a signal that the interconnected systems in the body are out of balance – from blood sugar, to gut health, to thyroid function– and inflammation is at the root.A Mind of Your Own offers an achievable, step-by-step 30-day action plan—including powerful dietary interventions, targeted nutrient support, detoxification, sleep, and stress reframing techniques—women can use to heal their bodies, alleviate inflammation, and feel like themselves again without a single prescription.Bold, brave, and revolutionary, A Mind of Your Own takes readers on a journey of self-empowerment for radical transformation that goes far beyond symptom relief.