By IFEDD Member Christy Harrison, MPH, RD

Reviewed for IFEDD by Robyn Goldberg

Anti-Diet is a book written by Christy Harrison, MPH, RD.  Christy has written a fantastic book that is well referenced and researched on everything that a person needs to know about diet culture, the problems with it and how to challenge it.  This book is useful for both professionals in their practice and the general public in their personal life.

In Anti-Diet, Christy has many of our peers who work from a weight inclusive approach share their story regarding how they became “anti-diet” after their own journey’s through diet culture.  She provides information that helps a person reflect on their own belief system and what it will take to remove oneself from diet culture with having the courage to take a different stance.

This is book is a must read for all clinicians who practice in any discipline as Christy is honest about what it will take to approach food, their body and recovery differently. She describes the current trends about “wellness” and the other names that are used as it is supposed to represent the “picture of health”.  Christy is straight forward about all the terms synonymous with the “healthism” and how they all avoid the facts that our psychological well-being is being impacted by this.

I really appreciate Christy’s picture describing diet culture, the wellness diet and food activism with describing them all in addition to offering clues for identifying terms that are code names for a diet.

Her chapter titles are catchy as chapter after chapter Christy backs her statements about how diet culture steals our time, money, well being and happiness and what a person’s life can be like without diet culture. Every chapter has various peers woven into it as the example fit precisely like a key fitting into a lock.

I love that Christy not only has guidelines for health care providers to prevent weight stigma and disordered eating as she has many wonderful references listed at the back of the book. She wraps up the book with discussing the importance of having a community or tribe that is supportive who can see the “Life Thief” and support the individual to remove themselves from body negativity, food shaming and unrealistic cultural ideals.

https://www.amazon.com/Anti-Diet-Reclaim-Well-Being-Happiness-Intuitive/dp/0316420352