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WHAT'S EATING US

Women, food, and the epidemic of body anxiety.

by Cole Kazdin ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 7, 2023

Kazdin’s painful honesty is leavened with humor and irony. Hopefully, this book will reach the people who need it.

Eating disorders are a massive yet often hidden problem, writes the author, who speaks with the insight of experience.

Early on, Kazdin, a four-time Emmy Award–winning TV journalist, cites some remarkable, frightening statistics. “Over 90 percent of women in the United States are dissatisfied with their bodies,” she writes, and nearly 30 million people “suffer from an eating disorder.” Furthermore, eating disorders have the second-highest mortality rate of any mental illness, on a par with opioid deaths, and the problem crosses socio-economic lines. Kazdin has struggled with a disorder herself, and her book is as much her personal story as an examination of body anxiety. The author discusses how diet and weight-loss businesses are rebranding themselves as being about good health, a misleading ploy to continue to grow an industry approaching a valuation of $300 billion. “Weight stigma is deeply embedded into our culture,” she writes. The idea that thinness equals personal worth and social success is everywhere. Kazdin examines the wide range of diets on the market and concludes that they simply do not work. Some will lead to temporary weight loss, but it always comes back. The author’s own obsessive drive to be thin involved starvation-level diets, punishing exercise routines, and, ultimately, self-induced vomiting. All this made her feel in control—at least until the larger health consequences began to appear. Through therapy and support, she managed to build something like a normal life, but she wonders if she will ever completely recover. “My eating disorder never left,” she writes. “It’s always there, lying in wait like a trained assassin.” The author also describes new research suggesting that eating disorders may stem from physical problems in the brain rather than from behavioral issues, which would fundamentally change treatment options. The real solution, she writes, is to get past the social pressure and achieve self-acceptance.

Pub Date: March 7, 2023

ISBN: 978-1-250-28284-2

Page Count: 256

Publisher: St. Martin's Essentials

Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022

CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES | HEALTH & FITNESS | SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | SELF-HELP | WOMEN & FEMINISM | ISSUES & CONTROVERSIES

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THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS

by Rebecca Skloot ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 9, 2010

Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and...

A dense, absorbing investigation into the medical community's exploitation of a dying woman and her family's struggle to salvage truth and dignity decades later.

In a well-paced, vibrant narrative, Popular Science contributor and Culture Dish blogger Skloot (Creative Writing/Univ. of Memphis) demonstrates that for every human cell put under a microscope, a complex life story is inexorably attached, to which doctors, researchers and laboratories have often been woefully insensitive and unaccountable. In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, an African-American mother of five, was diagnosed with what proved to be a fatal form of cervical cancer. At Johns Hopkins, the doctors harvested cells from her cervix without her permission and distributed them to labs around the globe, where they were multiplied and used for a diverse array of treatments. Known as HeLa cells, they became one of the world's most ubiquitous sources for medical research of everything from hormones, steroids and vitamins to gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, even the polio vaccine—all without the knowledge, must less consent, of the Lacks family. Skloot spent a decade interviewing every relative of Lacks she could find, excavating difficult memories and long-simmering outrage that had lay dormant since their loved one's sorrowful demise. Equal parts intimate biography and brutal clinical reportage, Skloot's graceful narrative adeptly navigates the wrenching Lack family recollections and the sobering, overarching realities of poverty and pre–civil-rights racism. The author's style is matched by a methodical scientific rigor and manifest expertise in the field.

Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2010

ISBN: 978-1-4000-5217-2

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2010

GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | HEALTH & FITNESS

More by Rebecca Skloot

BOOK REVIEW

edited by Rebecca Skloot and Floyd Skloot

F*CK IT, I'LL START TOMORROW

by Action Bronson ; photographed by Bonnie Stephens ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 20, 2021

The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.

The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.

“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”

Pub Date: April 20, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5

Page Count: 184

Publisher: Abrams

Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021

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Cole Kazdin — What’s Eating Us (Book Review)

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jan 20, 2023 | LEARN: Chronic Illness | 0 comments

Cole Kazdin combines memoir and narrative nonfiction in her upcoming book, What’s Eating Us: Women, Food, and The Epidemic of Body Anxiety . It’s an excellent reflection of life with an eating disorder. But it’s also much more. For example, Kazdin investigates aspects of the weight loss industry. She also dives into common emotions most women feel about their bodies. It’s a multi-faceted and thought-provoking book.

Like many women, I started worrying about my body at a young age. Most of my thoughts began as comments from my mother—either about her body or mine. Kazdin’s perspective on her body led her to disordered eating behaviors. While mine didn’t lead me down that path, I know many women who have experienced this. And most are still dealing with it every day, as Kazdin explains.

I hoped to better understand the situation by reading What’s Eating Us. And that’s precisely what Kazdin delivered. Now I know more about eating disorders’ mental and emotional aspects, which many people don’t readily share with others. I also learned about the sorry state of treatment options. Kazdin repeatedly reminds us that women die because of eating disorders while explaining how casually they’re treated in the mental health community. It’s chilling.

In addition, Kazdin clarifies the thin lines between wellness, weight loss, body image, and eating disorders. This topic made me increasingly aware of these topics in my own life. For example, a 70-year-old woman centers her food conversations on what is and isn’t healthy. Presented with a delicious meal, she worries about eating too many carbs instead of enjoying the meal and the company. And every day, I hear at least one woman bemoan the shape and size of her body.

My conclusions

Kazdin reminds us how constant the media’s messages about body image are. That doesn’t even count what social media “influencers” post. Through it all, she retains humor with a hearty side dose of snarky comments. The lightness is necessary since the topic regularly veers into sadder moments.

What’s Eating Us isn’t a book readers are meant to enjoy. Instead, you’ll think deeply about your body, meals, and how women are negatively impacted by the ever-present message that they aren’t good enough. I appreciate Kazdin for delving into the topic with such grace and clarity.

Pair with Girls on the Brink: Helping Our Daughters Thrive in an Era of Increased Anxiety, Depression, and Social Media by Donna Jackson Nakazawa. Together, the two books can save lives.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press / St. Martin’s Essentials, and the author for a digital advanced reader’s copy in exchange for this honest review. The expected publication date for this book is March 7, 2023.

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What's Eating Us: Women, Food, and the Epidemic of Body Anxiety Hardcover – 7 Mar. 2023

• ISBN-10 1250282845
• ISBN-13 978-1250282842
• Publisher St Martin's Essentials
• Publication date 7 Mar. 2023
• Language English
• Dimensions 16.51 x 2.16 x 24.13 cm
• Print length 256 pages
• See all details

Product description

About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ St Martin's Essentials (7 Mar. 2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1250282845
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250282842
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 16.51 x 2.16 x 24.13 cm
• 313 in Eating Disorder Biographies
• 1,370 in Family & Lifestyle Eating Disorders
• 1,600 in Psychology & Eating Disorders

About the author

Cole kazdin.

Cole Kazdin is a writer, Emmy Award winning television journalist, and author of What's Eating Us: Women, Food, and the Epidemic of Body Anxiety. She has written for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine, The Daily Beast, Cosmopolitan, and was a regular contributor to VICE. Kazdin has been featured on NPR as part of The Moth Radio Hour, and is a contributing author to the bestselling book, The Moth Presents All These Wonders: True Stories About Facing the Unknown. Cole is a graduate of Northwestern University and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She lives in Los Angeles.

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What's Eating Us: Women, Food, and the Epidemic of Body Anxiety

Description.

" What’s Eating Us is a feat of reporting in the hope of helping people repair their relationship with their bodies and food." –– Shondaland Blending personal narrative and investigative reporting, Emmy Award-winning journalist Cole Kazdin reveals that disordered eating is an epidemic crisis killing millions of women.

Women of all ages struggle with disordered eating, preoccupation with food, and body anxiety. Journalist Cole Kazdin was one such woman, and she set out to discover why her own full recovery from an eating disorder felt so impossible. Interviewing women across the country as well as the world’s most renowned researchers, she discovered that most people with eating disorders never receive treatment––the fact that she did made her one of the lucky ones.

Kazdin takes us to the doorstep of the diet industry and research community, exposing the flawed systems that claim to be helping us, and revealing disordered eating for the crisis that it is: a mental illness with the second highest mortality rate (after opioid-related deaths) that no one wants to talk about. Along the way, she identifies new treatments not yet available to the general public, grass roots movements to correct racial disparities in care, and strategies for navigating true health while still living in a dysfunctional world.

What would it feel like to be free? To feel gorgeous in your body, not ruminate about food, feel ease at meals, exercise with no regard for calories-burned? To never making a disparaging comment about your body again, even silently to yourself. Who can help us with this? We can.

What's Eating Us is an urgent battle cry coupled with stories and strategies about what works and how to finally heal—for real.

About the Author

Cole Kazdin is a writer, performer and four-time Emmy Award winning television journalist. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine, The Daily Beast, Cosmopolitan, NPR, and more. Cole is a graduate of Northwestern University and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She lives in Los Angeles.

Praise for What's Eating Us: Women, Food, and the Epidemic of Body Anxiety

Praise for Cole Kazdin: "Cole’s book really resonated with me––one of my parenting fears is passing on my messed-up 1980s food issues to my children. Reading about her journey, and now about how she thinks about reframing and repairing those issues in these moments, is both calming and helpful." ––Emily Oster, New York Times bestselling author of Expecting Better

"Reading What’s Eating Us is like sitting down with one of your best friends, who also happens to be an incredible journalist. Through her own personal story, told with humor, vulnerability combined with unflinching reporting, Cole Kazdin reveals shocking truths about the woefully neglected eating disorder epidemic gripping our county, and has done much of the heavy lifting for anyone in search of real, tangible information and hope. A must read for women, no matter what their relationship is with food and their bodies." ––Jennifer Grey, New York Times bestselling author of Out of the Corner: A Memoir

"Part research, part memoir, What's Eating Us is a dynamic exploration into the world of eating disorders. Cole's journalistic background lays the foundation for so much of the data and research on the subject, while being cleverly woven into her own personal narrative. With a refreshing voice of honesty, compassion, sarcasm and wit, Cole goes on a quest demanding answers to why so many folks struggle with their relationships with their bodies and sets out to find the pathways to liberation." ––Amanda Crew, HBO's Silicon Valley

"As much a personal story as an examination of body anxiety...Kazdin’s painful honesty is leavened with humor and irony." –– Kirkus (starred review)

"Personal and illuminating, subjective yet relatable. Citing medical research alongside real-life testimonies, with a balance of personal candor and well-executed analysis, this book will resonate with anyone who’s ever been critical of their reflection in a mirror…With empathy and understanding, Kazdin offers the reader everything they need to better understand this difficult topic." –– BookPage

" What’s Eating Us is a feat of reporting in the hope of helping people repair their relationship with their bodies and food." –– Shondaland

"This book is both a memoir and a study of how disordered eating has become both normalized and encouraged in American culture...Her insightful discussions with researchers emphasize areas of eating disorders that are typically ignored, encouraging readers to think about aspects of diet culture they may not have considered...will appeal to readers who enjoy memoirs and general nonfiction, but Kazdin's conversational tone and writing style make this book accessible to all readers." –– Library Journal

"A must read. Kazdin recounts her own struggle, and surrounds it with robust research and stories on the incredible prevalence and toll of body dissatisfaction, preoccupation with food, and eating disorders. She beautifully and tragically encapsulates how almost all of us are negatively affected by the toxic diet culture that we live in, how that makes full recovery so elusive to most, and how we can start to fight back." ––Kristina Saffran, co-founder and CEO of Equip Health and co-founder of Project HEAL

" What's Eating Us takes seriously the lethality of eating disorders, a fact that is distressingly absent from most of the discourse on the subject. With disarming honesty and sparkling wit, Kazdin shares her own history with disordered eating, setting it alongside the experience of women she interviewed across the country. What the stories collectively demonstrate is that while the billion dollar diet industry will never have our backs, there is hope in new treatments and in stories like Kazdin's. What's Eating Us is a vital contribution to the literature on disordered eating, and a must-read for anyone hungry for real data and hard-boiled hope on the subject of eating, diets, and wellness." ––Christie Tate, New York Times bestselling author of Group

"For anyone who has ever struggled with body image, for those who have ever wanted to change anything about their appearance, for anyone who has ever wondered what it would be like to eat a plate of food and not feel guilty, this book is for you." –– Brattleboro Reformer

"You think you know everything about dieting and food disorders and then this book comes along! The picture Kazdin paints is shocking. If you think this does not apply to you, you should know that ninety percent of women in America are dissatisfied with their bodies. In fact, this dissatisfaction is so prevalent scientists have called it “normative discontent”. So, there is a ninety percent chance the information in this book applies to you. You will find that diets don’t work––they are designed to fail and then the companies have repeat customers. Kazdin explores why huge amounts of government and private money goes into the “obesity epidemic”, but hardly any goes into eating disorders. This is a lively and informative book." ––Catherine Gildiner, author of Good Morning Monster

"Kazdin courageously practices radical honesty in sharing her experience with an eating disorder. Honesty does to eating disorders what water did to the Wicked Witch of the West––it melts them. Otherwise they terrorize you and hold you hostage. Eating disorders are messy. Fessing up to that mess is the first step in putting the pieces back together." ––Cynthia Bulik, Distinguished Professor of Eating Disorders, University of North Carolina

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Book details

What's Eating Us

Women, Food, and the Epidemic of Body Anxiety

Author: Cole Kazdin

1Rules and Rebellion I cannot keep ice cream … or bread or … anything too rewarding in the house. —GLORIA STEINEM1 When I was young, my father traveled for work. He was a fledgling professor and researcher, and there were always lectures and conferences he was flying off to during those early years. Of course, I missed him, but there was an upside. When my father went out of town, my mom made macaroni and cheese. He was always watching his cholesterol, which meant the whole family was watching his cholesterol, as well as our own. Even as a toddler, I could list which foods were “bad for you,” among them: cheese, butter, fast food, processed meats, and all sweets. It was the 1970s, when people still smoked cigarettes to relax, but new research was emerging that egg yolks were killers (a position that has since been reversed, incidentally). Food and food restriction dominated our lives. The messaging was inside and outside my home, everywhere and impossible to ignore. Certain foods, bad ones, which also happened to be delicious—could literally kill you. My mom wasn’t fully buying it. I could hear my dad’s car pulling out of the driveway for a two-day work trip, and already she was gathering ingredients from the cupboards to start a roux. Real butter (we had butter in the house?) and flour. Whole milk. When I was very small, she’d grate the cheese, and when I got older and could be trusted not to shred my fingers, I was permitted to press the block of Cracker Barrel up and down along the grater, until all that remained was a tiny end piece, warm from my little hands, that all went into the bubbling pot. Stirring was very important, my mom instructed. I’d stand on a chair next to the stove, wooden spoon in one hand. “Keep stirring!” she called over her shoulder, as she prepared a rum and Coke for herself. I don’t know where the soda came from; I never saw it in the house. Sometimes she added peas and onions. The pasta was always elbows. Never baked in the oven, no crumb topping. Just the rich, fatty, velvety sauce. Hearty, salty, and comforting. Sitting at the small table in the kitchen across from my mother, I didn’t realize that we were also participating in a quiet rebellion. Unbound from any food rules. Free. My parents were both relatively health conscious, which was unique for the time (at least compared to my friends, who, I discovered at my first sleepover, were allowed Cocoa Puffs for breakfast). In our home, bread was whole wheat; my mom sometimes shopped the crammed, narrow aisles of the town’s health food store, its pungent vitamin smell sticking to my clothes. My father was young, sharp, followed nutrition science closely, and had a family history of high cholesterol that concerned him. I remember him carefully telling me more than once, You can eat cheese, but I can’t because of cholesterol. He didn’t want to burden me, I’m sure. But I must have understood even then that we were related, so it might be an issue for me, too. His concerns were echoed by messages in the world around us, the nightly news, the cover of Time magazine in the grocery store, as we waited to check out. Cart filled with frozen vegetables and Spoon Size Shredded Wheat. When I was around four, home alone during the day with my mother, I once watched in horror as she prepared an egg salad sandwich for herself. It went like this: hard-boiled eggs WITH YOLKS (THAT WAS THE WORST PART!), celery, onion, and mayonnaise. Toasted (WHITE!) Pepperidge Farm bread. “Would you like half?” she offered. I don’t know, I thought, would I like to DIE TODAY? I shook my head no, jaw dropped. I watched as she cut the small sandwich diagonally and ate it with a cup of coffee. She chewed slowly, savoring each bite. I recall feeling genuinely worried, as if something terrible would happen to her in that very moment. But nothing did. In fact, she was smiling. Good Foods and Bad Foods The notion that foods can be good or bad has been hammered into all of us for decades by parents, friends, relentless cultural messaging in the form of food advertising, weight loss programs, nutritionists, the medical community, even the US government (more on that in a moment). Seventy-seven percent of Americans believed back in the 1990s that there were “good” and “bad” foods, according to the American Dietetic Association, and it holds true today.2 The concept makes sense. It’s difficult to argue that nutrient-rich kale isn’t a “good” food, and that a pepperoni pizza, dense with saturated fats, isn’t a “bad” one. Right? Not entirely. “Pizza is often demonized as ‘bad’ because it is high in fat, high in refined carbohydrates and easy to overindulge” with, wrote Chris Mohr, cofounder of the nutrition consultation company Mohr Results.3 “But if that pizza isn’t an everyday occurrence and it brought friends together, encouraged conversation, laughing and connection, the otherwise ‘bad’ food becomes nurturing for your soul. Food inherently is not good or bad.” Marry me, Mr. Mohr. Starting with informally polling friends, then expanding my outreach, I found it nearly impossible to find a woman who hasn’t made at least one or two rigid food rules for herself, or actively restricts or eliminates a particular food group for either perceived health reasons or weight management. “Do you know anyone I can talk to who has a healthy relationship with food?” I asked my friend Lauren, adding, “You look fantastic, by the way.” She did. What was she doing? “Thanks! I gave up sugar,” she said. I file it away. Note to self: stop eating sugar, I guess? She continued, “No bread, no wine, no bananas…” Wait, bananas are bad now? “And no,” she added, “I can’t think of anyone for you to talk to.… Sorry.” The most common food restriction I’ve witnessed among friends and in American culture at large is bread. At any one time I have a minimum of three friends who are “off gluten for health reasons,” even though no doctor was involved in the decision.4 Poor bread! Who did this to her? (Answer: the publicity machine behind the Atkins Diet.) And despite evidence to the contrary, that bread is fine to eat, the “gluten-free” nonsense sticks. I’ve subscribed to it myself. I cannot count the number of times in my adult life I’ve stopped eating bread, genuinely believing I feel “lighter and better” (direct quote from me to myself) when I’m not eating bread. If I really do feel lighter and better without bread, then what about Paris? Why did I feel consistently fantastic during the ten days my husband and I were in France on vacation eight years ago, eating a minimum of two baguettes plus one croissant per day? Incidentally, I didn’t gain a pound on that trip. “I met with a nutritionist the other day,” my friend Joanie tells me. “She asked what I ate for breakfast, and when I told her ‘toast,’ she said that was the absolute worst thing I could be eating.” Joanie blew air through her lips and I could feel the anger coming. “Fuck her,” she said. “Why can’t I eat toast?” Many women who suffer or have suffered from an eating disorder trace the origins of their illnesses to a particular food restriction. For Daphne, growing up in Wiltshire, England, cheese on toast was one of her favorite childhood snacks. Then she stopped, concerned about carbs, fat, and so-called healthy eating. “When I suffered from anorexia for ten years, I could not eat cheese, nor could I eat bread, so cheese on toast was a complete no-go area for me,” she told me. She continued to avoid cheese and bread for years after her recovery, and then very gradually began working them back into her diet. Today there is an enormous body of scientific research disputing the notion that foods can be classified as good or bad at all. The ADA’s position is that “all foods can fit into a healthful eating style,” and that “classifying foods as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ may foster unhealthy eating behaviors.”5 Black-and-white thinking about particular foods can cause unnecessary stress, preoccupation with food, and lay groundwork for developing an eating disorder, like chronic food restriction, bingeing, or purging.6 I reread that list and tick each off in my mind. I still feel stress around eating, and even without retreading old eating disorder ground like starving or purging, which I no longer do, I’m still frequently preoccupied with food and what I should and shouldn’t be eating. It’s such familiar territory, I’m not fully aware of how much stress it’s causing me. In recent years, a new disorder has emerged, orthorexia, essentially an obsession with so-called healthy eating. There is not yet a clear set of criteria to diagnose orthorexia, and it’s not formally recognized as an eating disorder by the American Psychiatric Association (catch up, APA!), but the National Eating Disorders Association includes it in its list of disordered eating behaviors, and many psychotherapists treat orthorexia as a form of anorexia and/or obsessive-compulsive disorder. Healthy Labels The other complication in thinking of foods as good or bad is that it’s a moving target. The criteria change constantly. Like when your friend breaks up with someone and, to be supportive, you say, “I always hated that asshole,” and then two weeks later they’re back together. That’s exactly what happened to fat. Fats have been demonized in the United States since the 1950s, after coronary heart disease was revealed as the leading cause of death a decade earlier. In what became known as the diet-heart hypothesis, researchers proposed that diets high in saturated fats and cholesterol were a major cause of coronary heart disease. In her stellar paper “How the Ideology of Low Fat Conquered America,”7 published in the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Ann La Berge, a professor at Virginia Tech, tracks how this one hypothesis spurred a complete overhaul of the country’s dietary guidelines and eventually led to all of us bingeing on SnackWell’s cookies thirty years later. Initially, a low-fat diet was recommended for people at risk for heart disease. The American Heart Association published a report on diet and lowering heart disease risk, cautioning, “It must be emphasized that there is as yet no final proof that heart attacks or strokes will be prevented by such measures.”8 Despite that, the US government put the diet-heart hypothesis front and center on the national agenda, creating new dietary guidelines and promoting a low-fat diet not only for people with a high heart disease risk, but for everyone except babies. “The diet-heart hypothesis remained a hypothesis,” La Berge writes, “but, as if already proven, it became enshrined in federal public health policy and was promoted by health care practitioners and popular health media.… From 1984 through the 1990s, dietary fat was increasingly blamed not only for coronary heart disease but also for overweight and obesity.”9 And just like that, health and weight became intertwined and a window opened up for some money to be made. “Here was a chance for the food industry to profit from scientific research,” writes La Berge. Suddenly grocery store aisles became glutted with foods bearing the “low-fat” label, most processed foods having swapped out the fat for an increased amount of sugar. The AHA launched a low-fat campaign, including the introduction of a “heart-healthy” label indicating the association’s seal of approval. Food companies could pay the AHA to label their foods as “heart-healthy,” thereby officially declaring them Good Foods. Among the so-called heart-healthy foods La Berge found in her research: Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes, Fruity Marshmallow Krispies, and Low Fat Pop-Tarts. (You know which foods never snagged the healthy label? Fruits and vegetables. They were excluded from the program altogether, as if they were irrelevant.) The AHA clarified its position on fat in a 2015 white paper, writing, “Contrary to what has been reported in the media and likely perceived by many health care professionals and consumers, the AHA does not advise a low-fat diet for optimal heart health [italics mine] … and recognizes that the overall dietary pattern is more important than individual foods. The recommended dietary pattern emphasizes fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.”10 Fats? Not so bad. Over the years, other well-funded campaigns followed the low-fat one, each with its own agenda and set of food rules: high protein, low-carb, Whole30, paleo, and on and on. Cloaked in the pretext of health guidance, all of these crusades share two important characteristics: (1) someone (not you) is getting rich and (2) the rules will drive you mad. They can send you spiraling in the opposite direction: the more you try to control your food, the more out of control you may feel. You can’t help but want to rebel. When I was thirteen, all of the deeply engrained healthy-eating structure from my parents went to hell: I got a job at Wendy’s. This was in response to my father informing me that I had to work. He grew up in a struggling immigrant family and started working young. To him, me getting a job at thirteen was part of life. Unfortunately, the state of Pennsylvania didn’t agree—it was a violation of child labor laws. Still, he was firm. If I wanted to spend money, he said, I needed to make it myself. So I took the bus downtown to the Department of Labor and filled out special paperwork for families to override the policy, and my father happily signed off. I wasn’t qualified for much; my main skill at the time was performing the choreography from the movie Flashdance, which wasn’t super marketable. My father was so pleased that I landed an after-school job, that he didn’t blink at my working at a fast-food restaurant, whose menu was only comprised of “Foods That May Kill You,” by our family’s standards. Bacon double cheeseburgers, french fries, and the Frosty—remember the Frosty? Did it not occur to him that I’d be eating the food? Too young for the grill or frier, I was assigned to make sandwiches. I stood next to Dwayne, who manned the grill and was probably around twenty. He passed me patties to assemble. My first week, there was a power outage on the entire block and we stood in the dark in the hot kitchen compulsively eating french fries that we knew would have to be thrown out once the power came back on. It was a decadent hour. Working at Wendy’s, I ate a lot of fast food but I kept it healthy by sticking to Taco Salads. That is, until Dwayne saw me eating one and schooled me on the chili that topped the dish. The chili—which for legal reasons I’ll presume was a quirk of this particular franchise, now closed—simmered in a giant industrial-sized stockpot on a back burner of the grill ALL DAY. Perhaps long ago it once was chili, like a sourdough starter made generations ago to get things going. But while I was there, the chili pot seemed one tier above the trash. Everything went in: overdone fries, burnt ends of burgers, onion skins, pickles, discarded buns. I once watched someone throw in half of a Frosty, followed by a few shakes of chili powder. I stopped eating the Taco Salads, switching my preshift meal to fries and a Coke. It was all delicious, of course, but in addition to all that salt, there was another taste: Freedom. Like macaroni-and-cheese weekends with my mother. Times a million. During the Wendy’s months, I picked up smoking, experienced sexual harassment at work for the first time, and probably gained at least fifteen french fry–Frosty pounds. I felt like a grown-up. I was making my own money, savoring short smoke breaks in the parking lot, winter air hitting my face. I had my own time, my own space, my own workplace world. For a few hours after school I didn’t have to answer to parents, and I could eat whatever I wanted. No rules. Long after that job was over, I equated (and still often do) freedom and independence with eating whatever I want, and the radical idea of eating for pleasure. It is pleasurable. Salty, tangy, crispy, creamy, and chewy. But some days I’m afraid I’ll lose control. It never occurred to me that rules about good foods and bad foods would be the very thing that set me up for those feelings of failure later in life. Copyright © 2023 by Cole Kazdin

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" What’s Eating Us is a feat of reporting in the hope of helping people repair their relationship with their bodies and food." –– Shondaland Blending personal narrative and investigative reporting, Emmy Award-winning journalist Cole Kazdin reveals that disordered eating is an epidemic crisis killing millions of women. Women of all ages struggle with disordered eating, preoccupation with food, and body anxiety. Journalist Cole Kazdin was one such woman, and she set out to discover why her own full recovery from an eating disorder felt so impossible. Interviewing women across the country as well as the world’s most renowned researchers, she discovered that most people with eating disorders never receive treatment––the fact that she did made her one of the lucky ones. Kazdin takes us to the doorstep of the diet industry and research community, exposing the flawed systems that claim to be helping us, and revealing disordered eating for the crisis that it is: a mental illness with the second highest mortality rate (after opioid-related deaths) that no one wants to talk about. Along the way, she identifies new treatments not yet available to the general public, grass roots movements to correct racial disparities in care, and strategies for navigating true health while still living in a dysfunctional world. What would it feel like to be free? To feel gorgeous in your body, not ruminate about food, feel ease at meals, exercise with no regard for calories-burned? To never making a disparaging comment about your body again, even silently to yourself. Who can help us with this? We can. What's Eating Us is an urgent battle cry coupled with stories and strategies about what works and how to finally heal—for real.

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St. Martin's Essentials

9781250282842

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Praise for Cole Kazdin: "Cole’s book really resonated with me––one of my parenting fears is passing on my messed-up 1980s food issues to my children. Reading about her journey, and now about how she thinks about reframing and repairing those issues in these moments, is both calming and helpful." ––Emily Oster, New York Times bestselling author of Expecting Better "Reading What’s Eating Us is like sitting down with one of your best friends, who also happens to be an incredible journalist. Through her own personal story, told with humor, vulnerability combined with unflinching reporting, Cole Kazdin reveals shocking truths about the woefully neglected eating disorder epidemic gripping our county, and has done much of the heavy lifting for anyone in search of real, tangible information and hope. A must read for women, no matter what their relationship is with food and their bodies." ––Jennifer Grey, New York Times bestselling author of Out of the Corner: A Memoir "Part research, part memoir, What's Eating Us is a dynamic exploration into the world of eating disorders. Cole's journalistic background lays the foundation for so much of the data and research on the subject, while being cleverly woven into her own personal narrative. With a refreshing voice of honesty, compassion, sarcasm and wit, Cole goes on a quest demanding answers to why so many folks struggle with their relationships with their bodies and sets out to find the pathways to liberation." ––Amanda Crew, HBO's Silicon Valley "As much a personal story as an examination of body anxiety...Kazdin’s painful honesty is leavened with humor and irony." –– Kirkus (starred review) "Personal and illuminating, subjective yet relatable. Citing medical research alongside real-life testimonies, with a balance of personal candor and well-executed analysis, this book will resonate with anyone who’s ever been critical of their reflection in a mirror…With empathy and understanding, Kazdin offers the reader everything they need to better understand this difficult topic." –– BookPage " What’s Eating Us is a feat of reporting in the hope of helping people repair their relationship with their bodies and food." –– Shondaland "This book is both a memoir and a study of how disordered eating has become both normalized and encouraged in American culture...Her insightful discussions with researchers emphasize areas of eating disorders that are typically ignored, encouraging readers to think about aspects of diet culture they may not have considered...will appeal to readers who enjoy memoirs and general nonfiction, but Kazdin's conversational tone and writing style make this book accessible to all readers." –– Library Journal "A must read. Kazdin recounts her own struggle, and surrounds it with robust research and stories on the incredible prevalence and toll of body dissatisfaction, preoccupation with food, and eating disorders. She beautifully and tragically encapsulates how almost all of us are negatively affected by the toxic diet culture that we live in, how that makes full recovery so elusive to most, and how we can start to fight back." ––Kristina Saffran, co-founder and CEO of Equip Health and co-founder of Project HEAL " What's Eating Us takes seriously the lethality of eating disorders, a fact that is distressingly absent from most of the discourse on the subject. With disarming honesty and sparkling wit, Kazdin shares her own history with disordered eating, setting it alongside the experience of women she interviewed across the country. What the stories collectively demonstrate is that while the billion dollar diet industry will never have our backs, there is hope in new treatments and in stories like Kazdin's. What's Eating Us is a vital contribution to the literature on disordered eating, and a must-read for anyone hungry for real data and hard-boiled hope on the subject of eating, diets, and wellness." ––Christie Tate, New York Times bestselling author of Group "For anyone who has ever struggled with body image, for those who have ever wanted to change anything about their appearance, for anyone who has ever wondered what it would be like to eat a plate of food and not feel guilty, this book is for you." –– Brattleboro Reformer "You think you know everything about dieting and food disorders and then this book comes along! The picture Kazdin paints is shocking. If you think this does not apply to you, you should know that ninety percent of women in America are dissatisfied with their bodies. In fact, this dissatisfaction is so prevalent scientists have called it “normative discontent”. So, there is a ninety percent chance the information in this book applies to you. You will find that diets don’t work––they are designed to fail and then the companies have repeat customers. Kazdin explores why huge amounts of government and private money goes into the “obesity epidemic”, but hardly any goes into eating disorders. This is a lively and informative book." ––Catherine Gildiner, author of Good Morning Monster "Kazdin courageously practices radical honesty in sharing her experience with an eating disorder. Honesty does to eating disorders what water did to the Wicked Witch of the West––it melts them. Otherwise they terrorize you and hold you hostage. Eating disorders are messy. Fessing up to that mess is the first step in putting the pieces back together." ––Cynthia Bulik, Distinguished Professor of Eating Disorders, University of North Carolina

About the Creators

What's Eating Us

Women, food, and the epidemic of body anxiety, by cole kazdin, this title was previously available on netgalley and is now archived., send netgalley books directly to your kindle or kindle app, to read on a kindle or kindle app, please add [email protected] as an approved email address to receive files in your amazon account. click here for step-by-step instructions., also find your kindle email address within your amazon account, and enter it here., pub date mar 07 2023 | archive date mar 21 2023, st. martin's press | st. martin's essentials, biographies & memoirs | health, mind & body | nonfiction (adult), description.

" What’s Eating Us is a feat of reporting in the hope of helping people repair their relationship with their bodies and food." –– Shondaland Blending personal narrative and investigative reporting, Emmy Award-winning journalist Cole Kazdin reveals that disordered eating is an epidemic crisis killing millions of women. Women of all ages struggle with disordered eating, preoccupation with food, and body anxiety. Journalist Cole Kazdin was one such woman, and she set out to discover why her own full recovery from an eating disorder felt so impossible. Interviewing women across the country as well as the world’s most renowned researchers, she discovered that most people with eating disorders never receive treatment––the fact that she did made her one of the lucky ones. Kazdin takes us to the doorstep of the diet industry and research community, exposing the flawed systems that claim to be helping us, and revealing disordered eating for the crisis that it is: a mental illness with the second highest mortality rate (after opioid-related deaths) that no one wants to talk about. Along the way, she identifies new treatments not yet available to the general public, grass roots movements to correct racial disparities in care, and strategies for navigating true health while still living in a dysfunctional world. What would it feel like to be free? To feel gorgeous in your body, not ruminate about food, feel ease at meals, exercise with no regard for calories-burned? To never making a disparaging comment about your body again, even silently to yourself. Who can help us with this? We can. What's Eating Us is an urgent battle cry coupled with stories and strategies about what works and how to finally heal—for real.

" What’s Eating Us is a feat of reporting in the hope of helping people repair their relationship with their bodies and food." –– Shondaland Blending personal narrative and investigative reporting, Emmy...

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EDITION	Other Format
ISBN	9781250282842
PRICE	$27.99 (USD)
PAGES	304

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What's Eating Us: Women, Food, and the Epidemic of Body Anxiety by Cole Kazdin is a great nonfiction that is part memoir part research and part self-help that I enjoyed. This book is real, raw, honest, and lets each of us (whether we are diagnosed with eating disorders or those that are not) know that none of us are alone in this struggle. The author, who herself is experiencing a lifetime of struggles, trials, and successes, gives us fellow women that are dealing with our own eating disorders (ummm me) and to be honest, each an every woman that has had obstacles, traumas, stereotypes thrown their way, been marginalized and objectified a sense of belonging and understanding. We are not alone. We are not crazy. Society is messed up…but we can fix it, and help ourselves and each other in the process. Our bodies are beautiful. They are flawed, but they do so much for us that we take it for granted. I am trying to remember each day to thank my blessings and to thank my body for all that it does for me and not dwell on what it can’t do or what it doesn’t look like. I want that for each of us, and so does the author. I thank her for her story and her courage to work toward a brighter future, flaws and all. 5/5 stars Thank you NG and St Martin’s Press for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion. I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 3/7/23.

Wow! This book had me engaged from it's opening chapter! I enjoyed the dynamic writing style of Kazdin which was whip-smart, funny and rich with knowledge and critical thinking. I really appreciated the way that Kazdin went about exploring this topic of eating, disordered eating, our addictions and predilection of being preyed upon and reinforcing of social media's portrayals over what is beauty and the meritocracy of being "skinny." Readers will want to slowly work your way through What's Eating Us to really let this information sit and digest. I truly learned a lot from What's Eating Us. From candidly sharing stories of their own struggle to the interlacing of fact against media's distorted fiction - What's Eating US is one of the better books I have read about food and our insatiable. appetite for diet culture and self destruction. Thank you to the author, publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC of What’s Eating Us.  I am a new fan of Cole Kazdin! I thank her for writing this oh-so-necessary update on how we as a society are handling food and the bodies that we feed, as well as detailing her own life experience as one of the many eating-disordered. Having a lifetime of immersion myself in disordered eating, in either practice or perception, much of this book was not new to me. The author’s honest, “F-You” articulation of the reality of living in a world that both punishes and promotes food and body obsession absolutely was new. I felt seen.  Cole Kazdin writes with jaded humor that makes the physiological and psychological complexity of eating disorders all seem so universal, this “normative discontent” of the discomfort of living in a human body in a culture dictating android-like attributes of beauty.  Five stars!

Both carefully researched and deeply personal, What's Eating Us explores factors contributing to our current culture of body and food obsession. What sets it apart from other books about disordered eating and diet culture is the special attention given to issues specific to BIPOC readers and the thoughtful and sometimes darkly humorous discussion of the author's experience. I will recommend to readers of Hunger by Roxane Gay. Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for a digital review copy.

I loved this book! A fresh and insightful look at weight and gender and the body--I plan to give this book to all my female friends and family when it is published. It's revolutionary, and it is so needed in our current culture. Great book!

LOVED THIS. I feel very passionate about the diet culture impacting women today, especially high school girls. Having struggled with my own issues years ago, I felt this book was worded very well and the evidence was very supportive.

I found this book informational, enlightening, and easy to read. It described an experience that I've endured since around the age of 8. The wit and knowledge of the author entertain and inform and make the material in the book totally relatable. Interlaced throughout the narrative are facts and data about eating disorders, the diet culture, and the inequity in getting help. Every woman who diets or worries about her weight should read this book.

Kazdin unpacks our relationship with eating and food culture in a mix of memoir and research. It was a very insightful read and one that I will return to and encourage my friend to read! Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely fascinating a look at womens obsession issues with eating our bodies.Perfect for discussion gave me so much to think reflect on.#netgalley #st.martinsbooks

This part-memoir, part-investigation of how the American healthcare system treats and diagnoses eating disorders fills a gap in the current book industry by challenging modern diet programs (Noom, WW, etc) and investigating the racist care that keeps many women from healing their relationship with food and control. Kazdin, the narrator and author, is humorous yet serious, offering her own eating disorder as clout for the thin- and white-privilege that shields her from medical malpractice. I recommend this book to anyone who has or had an eating disorder, disordered eating behaviors, or is seeking out healthier body positivity messaging.

This book was a great read. For someone who has suffered from disordered eating and a continuous battle with my body, I felt connected to these words and the story. All awhile nodding my head about the society we live in and what is driving this obsession with women's bodies.

This was such a wonderful insight into what is eating us - literally. Cole Kazdin's book was part memoir, part self help, and part research with plenty of evidence to support her work. It was refreshing to see how the author discusses the way we eat, eating, disordered eating, addiction to food and our culture and how it impacts the way we eat and the way we view our bodies. This is a fascinating look at how social media and our culture as a whole influence how we eat, what we eat, why we eat the way we do and eating disorders that can stem from this. I highly recommend every woman check this out! Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this eARC.

Thank you Netgalley, St. Martin's Press, and Cole Kazdin for this ARC. What's Eating Us comes out on March 7, 2023. This is an amazing memoir that highlights the restraints of body anxiety that hold women captive. The rise of eating disorders and body dysphoria was explored in this insightful piece. I loved that the book also included statistics and discussions on queer, poc, and intersectional identities.

This book is EVERYTHING! Part memoir and part research about eating disorders, it’s a deep dive into diet culture, genetics, and why cis women feel the way they do about their bodies.

Cole Kazdin provides a unique look at diet culture, anti-fat bias, and the repercussions of glorifying thinness. Kazdin's storytelling is front and center as she explains her eating disorder experiences, intertwining facts about everything related to body size and appearance. This book is great for anyone who has ever had terrible thoughts about their body—which is every single human alive today.

TW: This book [and my review] is about diets, body anxiety and body-shaming, eating disorders and the work it takes to get into recovery from them. I am typically not a TW kind of person, but in this case [as I have friends who are in life-long recovery], I think it is important. This book is a very important read and I tried to write the best review I could about it, but I also know that it can be extremely triggering to those who are not yet in recovery, just starting recovery or are currently struggling with recovery. I have also hidden my review behind a spoiler link for that reason as well. <spoiler> 1. Diets SUCK. 2. Diets DO. NOT. WORK. 3. Diet Culture and the people that make it happen have their own circle of Hell waiting for them. 4. Diet influencers [I am looking at you Kardashians] will be hanging out with the people of #3. 5. Recovery is never ending [the author makes that very clear as she discusses her journey along with all the information she has found] and one should not E V E R be ashamed of where they are in life. 6. Just because someone has "therapist" behind the name, DOES NOT MEAN they have your best interest at heart [I am looking at you Joyce {from the book - IYKYK} and if they are in the pockets of a "diet" company, they are most certainly NOT looking out for you. 7. People who claim they love us need to stop saying sh*t like "YOU have such a pretty face, if only you'd lose a few pounds" [I. WAS. EIGHT. the first time this happened. E I G H T]. It is dangerous, damaging, and extremely unloving and it needs to stop. I look back at pictures of when I was that age and O M G I was freaking adorable and certainly didn't need a D I E T. Sigh. All it did was start a life-long struggle with how I looked and my weight [that has only ended since I was diagnosed with a chronic illness and medication has made it impossible to diet] that has made me hate myself for a good many years. 8. IF YOUR CHILD WANTS TO DANCE OR DO GYMNASTICS LET THEM DO IT. Teachers, STOP TELLING LITTLE GIRLS AND BOYS THAT THEY ARE "TOO BIG" OR "TOO TALL" OR "TOO FAT" TO DO BOTH OF THESE SPORTS [I was 6 and 7 when these things were said to me, BY PROFESSIONALS - yeah, you get the picture]. JUST. STOP. IT. 9. Those who love us, please just love us where we are. Support us, care for us, help us, but don't tell us what to do. Those who struggle with body anxiety, body-shame, eating disorders and all that comes with those things just need support and love and caring. IF someone tells you [or shows you] how they need supported, then for cryin' out loud, DO THAT and stop telling them what YOU think they should do. 10. Doctors who judge someone simply by their weight - see #3 To say this book hit me hard is an understatement. While I have never struggled with an eating disorder like anorexia or bulimia, I did, for years, overeat. I ate for comfort, for love, and to calm my anxiety. It took years [and so. many. stupid. diets.] for me to overcome that, to find things that were non-damaging for comfort and to calm my anxiety [I HIGHLY recommend therapy, something I have never had the chance to have, but I know people who have found great therapists who have helped them so much <--it may take a few, advocate for yourself and if your gut says NO, find a new one] and to tell people to STOP shaming me for my body by recommending a new diet [like I have not already tried them all] or asking me "how my weight is" [like they are blind and cannot see that I am still a very large woman]. I will say that while that was totally empowering for me, most people who loved to shame were not fans of me telling them to shut their traps. ;-) There are ways to get better and there are ways to learn to like [if not love] yourself IN the body you are in. It is literally a lifelong process and there will be moments you will want to chuck it all and go back to the damaging behaviors; all I can say to that [and to myself] is BE KIND TO YOURSELF. You are forever a work in processes and it helps to always remember that. Surround yourself with people that truly love and support you, clean up your social media [or get rid of it completely], even if that means unfriending or unfollowing people you have known for years [THIS has been glorious for me] and BE KIND TO YOURSELF. We are literally all in this together. I was able to get the NetGalley audiobook for this book and WHOOSH that was crazy. Listening to the author tell her story and talk about all the things that led to her needing to be in recovery, with ALL the emotions that come with that, was amazing. It really bring home just how serious this is [for those who have never, ever, struggled with food or body anxiety will appreciate this audiobook for that very reason] and how the author still struggles while in recovery. I really appreciated her humor amidst all the sorrow and pain and I also appreciated her transparency and vulnerability. It really comes through in the audiobook. I highly recommend listening to this book. </spoiler> Thank you to NetGalley, Cole Kazdin, St. Martin's Press, and Macmillan Audio for providing the ARC and audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review.

With a lifetime of struggling with disordered eating and weight, it's safe to say I have read a boat load of books about the subject. Every January the big box bookstore would roll out the huge display of the latest diet books and readers would flock to them in hope of finally discovering THE BOOK the at would end their battle with food and make them slim. Health took second place when they made their pick for the year. Next year was sure to be something else. With a medical system that fails us constantly, finding help on our own is tough. When I saw this title available I thought what the heck and gave it a read. I'm glad I did. From the first chapter I felt I was in the company of a woman who knows the long, hard road so many of us travel. Part memoir, part science, full of interviews and facts, this was not an easy read but one I needed. I could go on at great length about what a well written book this is but I don't want my review to come across as a high school book report. It's enough to tell you that if you are sharing your life with any eating disorder, Cole Kazdin is walking beside you and has lots of information to share with you. This is a must read. My thanks to the publisher St. Martin's Press and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Cole Kazdin provides a piercing, authoritative view into our relationship with food, eating, health in WHAT'S EATING US. Throughout, Kazdin shares her own experiences and research into the terrible and strange ways we view and live our basic needs for nourishment and community. I loved how she wove memoir, interviews, and hard fact throughout the book -- at times it felt more like a well-plotted and intricately woven mystery novel than the hard examination of beliefs, systems, and structures that kill some of us and limit everyone. This is an important book for everyone -- a contribution to our world conversation about living well. I received a copy of this book and these opinions are my own unbiased thoughts.

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What's Eating Us

Cole kazdin.

Blending personal narrative and investigative reporting, Emmy-award winning journalist Cole Kazdin reveals that disordered eating is an epidemic crisis killing millions of women.

Praise for Cole Kazdin and What’s Eating Us :

“A vital contribution to the literature on disordered eating, and a must-read for anyone hungry for real data and hard-boiled hope on the subject of eating, diets, and wellness.” — Christie Tate, bestselling author of Group

“A lively and informative book.” — Catherine Gildiner, author of Good Morning Monster

“Kazdin does quite a good job of making her story compelling . . . [and] brings a wry tone to her anecdotes.” —The New York Times

“Kazdin is an extraordinarily gifted storyteller.” — Catherine Burns, Artistic Director of The Moth

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Cole Kazdin talks new book, ‘What’s Eating Us’

The author and emmy-winning journalist takes a look at eating disorders, diet culture and wellness in the u.s., march 6, 2023, what’s next for russia, what comes next after texas school shooting, what's next for abortion rights in america, the new battle for voting rights, how we can build a clean and renewable future, the fight for kyiv, examining extremism in the military, gun violence: an american epidemic, border crisis: what’s happening at the us-mexico border, remembering george floyd: a year of protest, the source of covid-19: what we know, how did the gamestop stock spike on wall street happen, why are people hesitant to trust a covid-19 vaccine, how climate change and forest management make wildfires harder to contain, disparity in police response: black lives matter protests and capitol riot, 2020 in review: a year unlike any other, examined: how putin keeps power, why don’t the electoral college and popular vote always match up, us crosses 250,000 coronavirus deaths, 2nd impeachment trial: what this could mean for trump, presidential transition of power: examined, how donald trump spent his last days as president, how joe biden's inauguration will be different from previous years, belarus’ ongoing protests: examined, trump challenges the vote and takes legal action, 2020’s dnc and rnc are different than any before, what is happening with the usps, voting in 2020 during covid-19, disinformation in 2020, abc news specials on, impact x nightline: on the brink, impact x nightline: unboxing shein, the lady bird diaries, impact x nightline: it's britney, impact x nightline: natalee holloway -- a killer confesses, impact x nightline: who shot tupac, impact x nightline, power trip: those who seek power and those who chase them, the murders before the marathon, the ivana trump story: the first wife, mormon no more, leave no trace: a hidden history of the boy scouts, keeper of the ashes: the oklahoma girl scout murders, the orphans of covid: america's hidden toll, superstar: patrick swayze, the kardashians -- an abc news special, 24 months that changed the world, have you seen this man.

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ebook ∣ Women, Food, and the Epidemic of Body Anxiety

By cole kazdin.

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9781250282842

Cole Kazdin

St. Martin's Publishing Group

07 March 2023

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" What's Eating Us is a feat of reporting in the hope of helping people repair their relationship with their bodies and food." –– Shondaland Blending personal narrative and investigative reporting, Emmy Award-winning journalist Cole Kazdin reveals that disordered eating is an epidemic crisis killing millions of women. Women of all ages struggle with disordered eating, preoccupation with food, and body anxiety. Journalist Cole Kazdin was one such woman, and she set out to discover why her own full recovery from an eating disorder felt so impossible. Interviewing women across the country as well as the world's most renowned researchers, she discovered that most people with eating disorders never receive treatment––the fact that she did made her one of the lucky ones. Kazdin takes us to the doorstep of the diet industry and research community, exposing the flawed systems that claim to be helping us, and revealing disordered eating for the crisis that it is: a mental illness with the second highest mortality rate (after opioid-related deaths) that no one wants to talk about. Along the way, she identifies new treatments not yet available to the general public, grass roots movements to correct racial disparities in care, and strategies for navigating true health while still living in a dysfunctional world. What would it feel like to be free? To feel gorgeous in your body, not ruminate about food, feel ease at meals, exercise with no regard for calories-burned? To never making a disparaging comment about your body again, even silently to yourself. Who can help us with this? We can. What's Eating Us is an urgent battle cry coupled with stories and strategies about what works and how to finally heal—for real.

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What's Eating Us: Women, Food, and the Epidemic of Body Anxiety (Hardcover)

Description

" What’s Eating Us is a feat of reporting in the hope of helping people repair their relationship with their bodies and food." –– Shondaland Blending personal narrative and investigative reporting, Emmy Award-winning journalist Cole Kazdin reveals that disordered eating is an epidemic crisis killing millions of women. Women of all ages struggle with disordered eating, preoccupation with food, and body anxiety. Journalist Cole Kazdin was one such woman, and she set out to discover why her own full recovery from an eating disorder felt so impossible. Interviewing women across the country as well as the world’s most renowned researchers, she discovered that most people with eating disorders never receive treatment––the fact that she did made her one of the lucky ones. Kazdin takes us to the doorstep of the diet industry and research community, exposing the flawed systems that claim to be helping us, and revealing disordered eating for the crisis that it is: a mental illness with the second highest mortality rate (after opioid-related deaths) that no one wants to talk about. Along the way, she identifies new treatments not yet available to the general public, grass roots movements to correct racial disparities in care, and strategies for navigating true health while still living in a dysfunctional world. What would it feel like to be free? To feel gorgeous in your body, not ruminate about food, feel ease at meals, exercise with no regard for calories-burned? To never making a disparaging comment about your body again, even silently to yourself. Who can help us with this? We can. What's Eating Us is an urgent battle cry coupled with stories and strategies about what works and how to finally heal—for real.

About the Author

Praise for….

Praise for Cole Kazdin: "Cole’s book really resonated with me––one of my parenting fears is passing on my messed-up 1980s food issues to my children. Reading about her journey, and now about how she thinks about reframing and repairing those issues in these moments, is both calming and helpful." ––Emily Oster, New York Times bestselling author of Expecting Better "Reading What’s Eating Us is like sitting down with one of your best friends, who also happens to be an incredible journalist. Through her own personal story, told with humor, vulnerability combined with unflinching reporting, Cole Kazdin reveals shocking truths about the woefully neglected eating disorder epidemic gripping our county, and has done much of the heavy lifting for anyone in search of real, tangible information and hope. A must read for women, no matter what their relationship is with food and their bodies." ––Jennifer Grey, New York Times bestselling author of Out of the Corner: A Memoir "Part research, part memoir, What's Eating Us is a dynamic exploration into the world of eating disorders. Cole's journalistic background lays the foundation for so much of the data and research on the subject, while being cleverly woven into her own personal narrative. With a refreshing voice of honesty, compassion, sarcasm and wit, Cole goes on a quest demanding answers to why so many folks struggle with their relationships with their bodies and sets out to find the pathways to liberation." ––Amanda Crew, HBO's Silicon Valley "As much a personal story as an examination of body anxiety...Kazdin’s painful honesty is leavened with humor and irony." –– Kirkus (starred review) "Personal and illuminating, subjective yet relatable. Citing medical research alongside real-life testimonies, with a balance of personal candor and well-executed analysis, this book will resonate with anyone who’s ever been critical of their reflection in a mirror…With empathy and understanding, Kazdin offers the reader everything they need to better understand this difficult topic." –– BookPage " What’s Eating Us is a feat of reporting in the hope of helping people repair their relationship with their bodies and food." –– Shondaland "This book is both a memoir and a study of how disordered eating has become both normalized and encouraged in American culture...Her insightful discussions with researchers emphasize areas of eating disorders that are typically ignored, encouraging readers to think about aspects of diet culture they may not have considered...will appeal to readers who enjoy memoirs and general nonfiction, but Kazdin's conversational tone and writing style make this book accessible to all readers." –– Library Journal "A must read. Kazdin recounts her own struggle, and surrounds it with robust research and stories on the incredible prevalence and toll of body dissatisfaction, preoccupation with food, and eating disorders. She beautifully and tragically encapsulates how almost all of us are negatively affected by the toxic diet culture that we live in, how that makes full recovery so elusive to most, and how we can start to fight back." ––Kristina Saffran, co-founder and CEO of Equip Health and co-founder of Project HEAL " What's Eating Us takes seriously the lethality of eating disorders, a fact that is distressingly absent from most of the discourse on the subject. With disarming honesty and sparkling wit, Kazdin shares her own history with disordered eating, setting it alongside the experience of women she interviewed across the country. What the stories collectively demonstrate is that while the billion dollar diet industry will never have our backs, there is hope in new treatments and in stories like Kazdin's. What's Eating Us is a vital contribution to the literature on disordered eating, and a must-read for anyone hungry for real data and hard-boiled hope on the subject of eating, diets, and wellness." ––Christie Tate, New York Times bestselling author of Group "For anyone who has ever struggled with body image, for those who have ever wanted to change anything about their appearance, for anyone who has ever wondered what it would be like to eat a plate of food and not feel guilty, this book is for you." –– Brattleboro Reformer "You think you know everything about dieting and food disorders and then this book comes along! The picture Kazdin paints is shocking. If you think this does not apply to you, you should know that ninety percent of women in America are dissatisfied with their bodies. In fact, this dissatisfaction is so prevalent scientists have called it “normative discontent”. So, there is a ninety percent chance the information in this book applies to you. You will find that diets don’t work––they are designed to fail and then the companies have repeat customers. Kazdin explores why huge amounts of government and private money goes into the “obesity epidemic”, but hardly any goes into eating disorders. This is a lively and informative book." ––Catherine Gildiner, author of Good Morning Monster "Kazdin courageously practices radical honesty in sharing her experience with an eating disorder. Honesty does to eating disorders what water did to the Wicked Witch of the West––it melts them. Otherwise they terrorize you and hold you hostage. Eating disorders are messy. Fessing up to that mess is the first step in putting the pieces back together." ––Cynthia Bulik, Distinguished Professor of Eating Disorders, University of North Carolina

• Health & Fitness / Women's Health
• Self-help / Eating Disorders & Body Image
• Health & Fitness / Mental Health
• Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs
• Kobo eBook (March 7th, 2023): $11.99
• Paperback (March 12th, 2024): $19.00

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What's Eating Us: Women, Food, and the Epidemic of Body Anxiety

By: cole kazdin.

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• by Cole Kazdin
• in Nonfiction
• in Self-Help
• in Biographies and Memoirs
• in Cooking, Food and Wine
• in Health, Mind and Body

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