The Anti-Diet book by Christy Harrison, RD, is a recent book taking a stance against diet culture and exposing all the ways it destroys people’s well-being and offering insight into how to reclaim your body, mind, and life so you can focus on the things that truly matter!
This is a MUST READ for everyone! As a Registered Dietitian, as a woman, and as a human being, I could not LOVE this book more! Christy dives into the roots of diet culture, and how it steals our time, money, well-being, and happiness. She uses scientific research (#facts), along with her personal experiences and stories of her patients and colleagues, to dive into the details on each individual topic. She holds nothing back!
As a Registered Dietitian following along and being {somewhat} immersed in the topics of Health at Every Size, body positivity, and non-diet approaches to nutrition coaching, I greatly appreciate how Christy presents the information in a clear, concise, informative, and non-judgmental way. For anyone who hasn’t yet heard of HAES, intuitive eating, or diet culture; I would suggest this book as an excellent starting point into these topics.
My favorite parts of this book began in the “How Diet Culture Steals Your Happiness” chapter (Chapter 6). The personal accounts of how diet culture and weight stigma actively holds people hostage from enjoying their life is heartbreaking. I think reading this book could be really powerful and eye opening for people to realize they are not alone in their feelings and experiences and to help more people understand the widespread and severe effects that diet culture has on people.
Along with Chapter 6, I also loved Part 2 of this book: Life Beyond Diet Culture. (Again, for those not as familiar or immersed in this information, Part 1 will be quite eye opening and informative, I promise!). Part 2 begins with “Enough is Enough” where Christy talks about getting angry and how that is an important part of the healing process. It’s true – this book made me angry at times! I was not angry at the author or at the information, but at diet culture and how horrible it is what people have gone through because of weight stigma and weight bias and about this ginormous problem we have created as a society! Can you imagine someone in a larger body going to the doctor for strep throat and being told to lose weight rather than being prescribed antibiotics to clear the infection?! It’s insane!
Christy touches on topics such as self-compassion (which I LOVE!), setting boundaries, and creating an environment for yourself that feels safe and healing rather than hurtful and triggering. Then she dives into Intuitive Eating, the importance of enough, reconnecting with your hunger and fullness, and dealing with food insecurity. She also tackles topics around nutrition science and research and what the limitations are regarding studies around food and nutrition as well as why the media continues to publish information that reinforces the messaging of diet culture (hint: diets sell! {They just don’t work}).
Don’t worry, this book does NOT make you feel like giving up on health or on life or make you feel like there’s nothing you can do if you don’t feel great in your body. Again, the focus is shifted from weight loss to healthful behaviors, including self-care, and prioritizing the whole person’s health including physical, mental, emotional, relational, etc. There are lots of ways to take care of yourself and prioritize yourself without trying to change the physical shape of your body.
“Instead of devoting your time on this planet to finding the perfect diet, work to make peace with food and your body so that you can free your mind for the things that truly matter in life.” – Christy Harrison, Anti-Diet.
She provides helpful and realistic insight into other Intuitive Eating and Health at Every Size topics and ways to cope with diet culture in every day life. She provides lots of resources and references also to dive deeper into individual topics. I personally cannot wait to dive into some of her resources! I love learning more about this topic and ways that we can begin to shift diet culture and help those with disordered eating, body image issues (aka EVERYONE!), and create social justice for people in bodies of all shapes and sizes.
“With all the weight stigma that’s baked into diet culture, larger bodies could use some glorifying. And when we lift them up as beautiful, worthy, powerful, and human, we lift up people of all sizes. We help create a more just and peaceful world for everybody in every kind of body.” – Christy Harrison, Anti-Diet.
Thank you Christy Harrison for writing the Anti-Diet book. It is truly a MUST READ for everyone. It is well-researched, well-written, thoughtful, kind, and considerate of everyone in every size, shape and type of body. Please go get your copy today!!
{This post is NOT sponsored or affiliated in any way. I purchased the book on my own and for my own knowledge and resource. All thoughts are my own.}
