Down with Diet Culture

Books that discuss diet culture, the harm it can inflict, and how to overcome it.
Updated October 2, 2022
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Every Body Yoga: Let Go of Fear. Get On the Mat. Love Your Body.
Jessamyn Stanley
From the unforgettable teacher Jessamyn Stanley comes Every Body Yoga, a book that breaks all the stereotypes. It's a book of inspiration for beginners of all shapes and sizes: If Jessamyn could transcend these emotional and physical barriers, so can we. ...
The F*ck It Diet
Caroline Dooner
"The F*ck It Diet is not only hilarious, it is scientifically and medically sound. A must read for any chronic dieter." -Christiane Northrup, MD, New York Times bestselling author of  Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom From comedian and ex-diet junkie Caroline Dooner, an inspirational...
Health At Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight
Linda Bacon
Fat isn't the problem. Dieting is the problem. A society that rejects anyone whose body shape or size doesn't match an impossible ideal is the problem. A medical establishment that equates "thin" with "healthy" is the problem. The solution? Health at Every Size. Tune...
The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love
Sonya Renee Taylor
"To build a world that works for everyone, we must first make the radical decision to love every facet of ourselves...'The body is not an apology' is the mantra we should all embrace." --Kimberle Crenshaw, legal scholar and founder and Executive Director, African American Policy Forum<...
Fitness for Every Body: Strong, Confident, and Empowered at Any Size
Meg Boggs
From body-positive Instagram influencer and content creator Meg Boggs, an inclusive and empowering fitness and lifestyle guide to inspire readers of every shape and size. For years, Meg Boggs believed the narrative told to her by society: she thought that as a plus...
Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works
Evelyn Tribole
First published in 1995, Intuitive Eating has become the go-to book on rebuilding a healthy body image and making peace with food. We've all been there--angry with ourselves for overeating, for our lack of willpower, for failing at yet another diet. But the problem is...
Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia
Sabrina Strings
Winner, 2020 Body and Embodiment Best Publication Award, given by the American Sociological Association Honorable Mention, 2020 Sociology of Sex and Gender Distinguished Book Award, given by the American Sociological Association How the female body has...
Body Talk: How to Embrace Your Body and Start Living Your Best Life
Katie Sturino
Learn to love yourself and your body with this interactive guide from the "shame-free, fun, cheerful, and no-nonsense" (Bustle) body acceptance advocate and influencer who founded Megababe beauty. "Brilliant, hilarious, adorably illustrated."-Goop Can...
More Than A Body: Your Body Is an Instrument, Not an Ornament
Lexie Kite
"An indispensable resource for women of all ages, this is a guide to help us better connect to ourselves, to value ourselves, to love ourselves, and ultimately, to be ourselves." --Chelsea Clinton Positive body image isn't believing your body looks good; it is...
The Eating Instinct: Food Culture, Body Image, and Guilt in America
Virginia Sole-Smith
An exploration, both personal and deeply reported, of how we learn to eat in today's toxic food culture. Food is supposed to sustain and nourish us. Eating well, any doctor will tell you, is the best way to take care of yourself. Feeding well, any human will tell you, is the...
Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture
Virginia Sole-Smith
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A Book Riot best book of 2023 A Science Friday best book of 2023 An Audible best well-being audiobook of 2023 By the time they reach kindergarten, most kids believe that "fat" is bad. By middle...
Reclaiming Body Trust: A Path to Healing & Liberation
Hilary Kinavey
A holistic and powerful framework for accepting and liberating our bodies, and ourselves. Have you ever felt uncomfortable or not "at home" in your body? In this book, the founders of Body Trust, licensed therapist Hilary Kinavey and registered dietician Dana Sturtevant, invite...
How to Raise an Intuitive Eater: Raising the Next Generation with Food and Body Confidence
Sumner Brooks
With the wisdom of Intuitive Eating, a manifesto for parents to help them reject diet culture and raise the next generation to have a healthy relationship with food and their bodies. Kids are born intuitive eaters. Well-meaning parents, influenced by the diet culture that...
Body of Truth: How Science, History, and Culture Drive Our Obsession with Weight--and What We Can Do about It
Harriet Brown
Over the past twenty-five years, our quest for thinness has morphed into a relentless obsession with weight and body image. In our culture, "fat" has become a four-letter word. Or, as Lance Armstrong said to the wife of a former teammate, "I called you crazy. I called you a bitch. But I never...
Body Respect: What Conventional Health Books Get Wrong, Leave Out, and Just Plain Fail to Understand about Weight
Linda Bacon
Mainstream health science has let you down. Weight loss is not the key to health, diet and exercise are not effective weight-loss strategies and fatness is not a death sentence. You've heard it before- there's a global health crisis, and, unless we make some changes,...
Body Positive Power: How to stop dieting, make peace with your body and live
Megan Jayne Crabbe
A body-positive call to arms that's as inspirational as it is practical, from Instagram star Megan Jayne Crabbe For generations, women have been convinced that true happiness only comes when we hit that goal weight, shrink ourselves down, and change ourselves to fit a rigid and...
Eat Up: Food, Appetite and Eating What You Want
Ruby Tandoh
TOP TEN SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER Think about that first tickle of hunger in your stomach. A moment ago, you could have been thinking about anything, but now it's thickly buttered marmite toast, a frosty scoop of ice cream straight from the tub, some creamy, cheesy scrambled eggs or a fuzzy, perfectly...
You Have the Right to Remain Fat
Virgie Tovar
This revolutionary and "viscerally accessible" manifesto isn't about body positivity--it's about a fat revolution (Joy Nash). "In this bold new book, Tovar eviscerates diet culture, proclaims the joyous possibilities of fatness, and shows us that liberation is possible."--Sarai Walker,...
Big Girl: How I Gave Up Dieting and Got a Life
Kelsey Miller
A hilarious and inspiring memoir about one young woman's journey to find a better path to both physical and mental health. At twenty-nine, Kelsey Miller had done it all: crash diets, healthy diets, and nutritionist-prescribed "eating plans," which are diets that you pay more...

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