katharina90's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

"It's not possible to heal our relationship with food and body while trying to control the size and shape of our body."
-Dana Sturtevant

Decent resource on the harmful nature of diet culture, disordered eating and compulsive exercise.

Includes topics like:
-Why diets don't work
-The health risks associated with weight stigma, weight cycling, etc.
-Social determinants of health
-Working towards a balanced relationship with food through intuitive eating and health at every size. ("Self care instead of self control.")

The author sadly fails to acknowledge that moral values absolutely factor into our food choices (even if we're unaware). Allergies are not the only situation in which someone might avoid or eliminate certain foods for non-diet culture reasons.

Yes, labeling foods good/bad is problematic and often linked to oppressive ideas. AND so are many other deeply held beliefs that impact what we eat. You can stop demonizing donuts and still uphold oppression and supremacist beliefs through your food choices. 

What I find irritating is when people talk about social justice and body liberation and then pick and choose what bodies that applies to. 

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sweetchocolatez's review against another edition

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informative slow-paced

4.5


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blackcatkai's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

CW: eating disorders and disordered eating in general, fatphobia/body shaming, mentions of body and gender dysphoria, racism and colonisation, sexism/misogyny, ableism

"you are allowed to eat for any reason you freaking well feel like it, any time you want"

this book was absolutely astounding. i like the way Christy Harrison sectioned everything as well as how information was overall presented. i know that studies/history will always cater to cis-normative language, but seeing Harrison not only do her best to use truly inclusive language when writing from her own self (as in: not quoting someone else) as well as speaking to marginalised individuals and at least one professional in the trans healthcare field was so amazing to read. as an afab nonbinary person myself, it's often so hard to read books about anything in the science or healthcare sectors without feeling like deflated over all the cis-normative language. a nice change of pace that i, for one, am so grateful for.

Harrison not only goes over the history of diet culture as a whole, but also gives time to issues of: racism, abelism, classism, and other systemic issues that are either forgotten about when the topic arises or completely ingrained within the culture itself. her mentioning how food insecurity and wealth disparities have a huge impact on what people can even hace access to is so important in this conversation and that needs to be noted and remembered.

Harrison also talks about her own journey in her field as well as her history with eating disorders. we get practical ways to engage in the conversation, potential ways to begin advocating for ourselves and others as well as ways to start weaving these ideas into social justice work, if that's a thing one wanted to do. there really is just so much information, practical and otherwise, that i highly recommend it if you wish to go on your own journey away from Diet Culture and western beauty standards.

note that this book does talk about intuitive eating itself, as the subtitle implies, but it isn't as huge a topic as you might think. there are tips as well as information about IE, but there may be other more in-depth books specifically that may be better for anyone JUST looking for that. a strictly intuitive eating guide this is not, but Harrison does mention what IE is, isn't, and some misconceptions people have had about it over time. so i'd say it's still worth a read overall, for you!

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bookedinmn's review

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informative reflective medium-paced

3.75


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hbrown's review

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informative medium-paced

4.0


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cathuluu's review

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hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

4.5


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