Book review of What’s Eating Us by Cole Kazdin

In What’s Eating Us: Women, Food, and the Epidemic of Body Anxiety, writer and four-time Emmy Award-winning tv journalist Cole Kazdin declares there’s hope for individuals who have tried and didn’t give up food regimen tradition. As solely somebody with firsthand expertise can, Kazdin explains in unflinching element simply how damaging weight-reduction plan may be to our psychological and bodily well being. Although What’s Eating Us facilities on Kazdin herself—a journalist decided to succeed in restoration for her consuming dysfunction—this isn’t only one girl’s story. Neither is it only a fact-based report aimed toward discovering solutions. It’s each of this stuff: private and illuminating, subjective but relatable. Citing medical analysis alongside real-life testimonies, with a stability of private candor and well-executed evaluation, this e-book will resonate with anybody who’s ever been essential of their reflection in a mirror.

From physique positivity to neutrality to liberation, Kazdin explores the totally different approaches to redefining {our relationships} with our our bodies. For most individuals, this journey begins once we problem our understanding of weight, well being and weight-reduction plan, that are matters mired in misinformation. Separating weight and well being, Kazdin explains, turns into much more troublesome once you issue within the ways in which food regimen firms misleadingly model themselves as holistic well being and wellness applications. 

But maybe the actual feat of Kazdin’s e-book is its potential to propel the reader into desirous about their physique in a manner that feels linked to society—to gender, race and financial class—which makes the person burden really feel rather less heavy. The methods wherein the scientific and medical communities have failed people relating to dietary well being, Kazdin argues, is usually rooted in systemic buildings round racism, sexism and prejudice towards bigger our bodies. For instance, the toxicity of food regimen tradition impacts everybody however particularly girls of shade, whose well being considerations typically go unheard or ignored by docs.

Folded inside the e-book’s narrative are statements which will appear radical however are literally evidence-based and supported. Yes, folks of all sizes may be wholesome. No, an individual’s weight isn’t all the time inside their management. And sure, weight-reduction plan to shed some pounds sometimes results in gaining it again once more. With empathy and understanding, Kazdin provides the reader every thing they should higher perceive this troublesome subject. There are the daunting, disheartening information; the levity of shared incredulity; and eventually, the neutrality wanted to see the quantity on the size as simply that: a quantity.