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What's Eating Us: Women, Food, and the Epidemic of Body Anxiety
" 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 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.
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 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.
256 pages, Paperback
First published March 7, 2023
104 people are currently reading
9148 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 332 reviews
December 18, 2022
4.0 stars
This is a fantastic new piece of non fiction that leads together facts with a personal memoir. I appreciated the acknowledgement of white privilege within the discussion of ED treatment. Likewise, I appreciated the intersection between disordered eating and infertility. This was a very personal story that really hit home for me. I would recommend this to anyone who has experienced disordered eating or looking to support someone suffering from an ED.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.
This is a fantastic new piece of non fiction that leads together facts with a personal memoir. I appreciated the acknowledgement of white privilege within the discussion of ED treatment. Likewise, I appreciated the intersection between disordered eating and infertility. This was a very personal story that really hit home for me. I would recommend this to anyone who has experienced disordered eating or looking to support someone suffering from an ED.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.
December 24, 2024
Part memoir and part lecture. I admit she's preaching to the choir with me. I have come to all the same conclusions after a lifetime of struggling to belong, to be accepted, not to be bullied, not to be rejected, not to be criticized, to be loved, to be healthy - all on the basis of my body size. I've done so much damage to my body and mind by yoyo dieting since adolescence. I was bullied and even subjected to violence because other people thought I was too fat (as well as for being foreign and too smart). In looking back at my childhood photos, I know I was a normal sized kid who was picked on because it was easy for other people to do it. I had no one to stand up for me - no parents or siblings or friends. I was alone and didn't know how to tell them to stop. But it wouldn't have mattered, because they would've done it to someone else, and I guess I'm ok with it having been me. I realize I was easy to pick on, sure, but I was also able to take it (better me than someone weaker than me). My resilience grew, along with my Teflon skin. But that insidious voice that I'm less than and never enough was permanently embedded, and I battle it every day, which includes overcoming binge eating - that was my disorder of choice, especially while I was grieving the deaths of my parents.
Even if I hadn't grown up this way, the media and other forces would've probably gotten me. Even girls who were skinny thought they were fat. They would look at magazines and pick apart their own bodies, as if they were confessing to each other at a Communist reeducation camp. I remember being told in SIXTH grade by a NUN that the perfect woman's waistline was 18 inches (WHAT THE F!!!!!!). My doctor told me I was too fat at age 12. I was 5'0" and 102 pounds. She told me girls my age shouldn't be 100 pounds, never mind my height. God. I'm still 5'0", and to get to 100 pounds today would mean I was too sick to sustain my very healthy body now. I've worked really hard to have as much muscle as I do. No way am I giving it up. But that's the standard that pediatrician would probably still tell me to achieve.
So yup, the world is very screwed up in the body misogyny it has and continues to place on women. Dieting, to me, is another form of foot binding - something meant to keep us small, weak, broke, broken, and immobile, all in the name of beauty. The more "they" can make us desire thinness, the more "they" can capitalize on us financially (and we already make less than men dollar-for-dollar) and keep the patriarchy in power. Yes, I recognize that men also have eating disorders and struggle with body issues, but objectively speaking, it's mostly women who suffer, and so I resist!
So does the author. Kazdin tells us her story, her struggle with her eating disorder (bulimia) and all the evil she has learned along the way about diet, diet industry, diet culture, pharmaceuticals, food industries, food politics, bad therapists, etc. They are all in bed together, and they are all in it to make money, and to do that, they need to keep us sick - sick in the head and in the body.
She also acknowledges that whatever help that exists is also set up mostly for white women of means. I appreciated that. Therapy is still a taboo word for many cultures, including mine. Anyone who might even think about getting some is considered weak and mentally contagious. It's considered shameful to seek this kind of help. It's also really hard to find therapists who get the cultural pressures and nuances of being nonwhite.
I didn't need to read this book considering it was a nonstop hallelujah for me, but it is an important book that I think people should read if they are unfamiliar with any of it, if they've never questioned any of it, if they think I might be saying something untrue here - read it, ponder it, challenge it, draw your own conclusions.
Lastly, I mentioned in another review for the book (Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch) that I've been practicing intuitive eating for the last few years and that it's changed my life (maybe even saved my life). Kazdin also talks about intuitive eating and endorses it as a healthy way to live by and to overcome eating disorders. Highly recommend!
Even if I hadn't grown up this way, the media and other forces would've probably gotten me. Even girls who were skinny thought they were fat. They would look at magazines and pick apart their own bodies, as if they were confessing to each other at a Communist reeducation camp. I remember being told in SIXTH grade by a NUN that the perfect woman's waistline was 18 inches (WHAT THE F!!!!!!). My doctor told me I was too fat at age 12. I was 5'0" and 102 pounds. She told me girls my age shouldn't be 100 pounds, never mind my height. God. I'm still 5'0", and to get to 100 pounds today would mean I was too sick to sustain my very healthy body now. I've worked really hard to have as much muscle as I do. No way am I giving it up. But that's the standard that pediatrician would probably still tell me to achieve.
So yup, the world is very screwed up in the body misogyny it has and continues to place on women. Dieting, to me, is another form of foot binding - something meant to keep us small, weak, broke, broken, and immobile, all in the name of beauty. The more "they" can make us desire thinness, the more "they" can capitalize on us financially (and we already make less than men dollar-for-dollar) and keep the patriarchy in power. Yes, I recognize that men also have eating disorders and struggle with body issues, but objectively speaking, it's mostly women who suffer, and so I resist!
So does the author. Kazdin tells us her story, her struggle with her eating disorder (bulimia) and all the evil she has learned along the way about diet, diet industry, diet culture, pharmaceuticals, food industries, food politics, bad therapists, etc. They are all in bed together, and they are all in it to make money, and to do that, they need to keep us sick - sick in the head and in the body.
She also acknowledges that whatever help that exists is also set up mostly for white women of means. I appreciated that. Therapy is still a taboo word for many cultures, including mine. Anyone who might even think about getting some is considered weak and mentally contagious. It's considered shameful to seek this kind of help. It's also really hard to find therapists who get the cultural pressures and nuances of being nonwhite.
I didn't need to read this book considering it was a nonstop hallelujah for me, but it is an important book that I think people should read if they are unfamiliar with any of it, if they've never questioned any of it, if they think I might be saying something untrue here - read it, ponder it, challenge it, draw your own conclusions.
Lastly, I mentioned in another review for the book (Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch) that I've been practicing intuitive eating for the last few years and that it's changed my life (maybe even saved my life). Kazdin also talks about intuitive eating and endorses it as a healthy way to live by and to overcome eating disorders. Highly recommend!
January 14, 2023
Publishes March 7. This was an informative and insightful non-fiction. It deals with the author's own struggles with body anxiety and eating disorders. It talks about the pressures put on people by our society and the diet industry. This book is part self-help, and also the author's own personal account. It includes lots of research about eating disorders, and body dysmorphia. I also love that the author handles the subject with a bit of humor. It discusses how broken our system is at treating eating disorders, and that if you are BIPOC, you are less likely to be diagnosed with an eating disorder, as well as being treated for one.
I myself have dealt with body anxiety and eating disorders for a majority of my life. It's a constant struggle. Reading this book helped me realize that I am not alone, and not crazy. Eating disorders are partly brain disorders too, which is why some people have such a hard time recovering. I am so happy I read this book and I know many others will want to read this as well.
Thank you to the publisher for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own. I will post my review on Bookbub, and Amazon once it is published.
I myself have dealt with body anxiety and eating disorders for a majority of my life. It's a constant struggle. Reading this book helped me realize that I am not alone, and not crazy. Eating disorders are partly brain disorders too, which is why some people have such a hard time recovering. I am so happy I read this book and I know many others will want to read this as well.
Thank you to the publisher for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own. I will post my review on Bookbub, and Amazon once it is published.
June 28, 2022
This nonfiction book is absolutely necessary and should be required reading for all people with uteruses. Kazdin suffers from an eating disorder and shares her experience here, from the onset of her anorexia and bulimia to her ongoing healing. The data about eating disorders and diet culture are interlaced with the text. It's intersectional, making sure to incorporate input from people of color and LGBTQIA+ people--for example, Black women are often excluded from help, as eating disorders are seen as white women's conditions. Speaking of help, there's very little available out there, and studies on these conditions are lacking. Fat women are dismissed, as healthcare practitioners can't fathom them having a disorder that doesn't make them look thin. And as I dug deeper into the insidious hole of diet culture, I realized just how affected I've been. One revelation stood out for me: when I have to cut carbs for my diabetes, it is NOT about weight loss. I have to eat specifically to nourish my body, but it doesn't have to be a diet. I love that point of view and will definitely carry it forward. The yo-yo of my body has always stressed me, and I've always hated my body. I hope to one day honor it as the vessel that carries me through life.
May 12, 2024
I find the title and the synopsis of this non-fiction book didn’t really match what I’ve read. I thought I was getting into a book about body anxiety and food worries, but it ended up being an anti-diet book that heavily features eating disorders (95% of the book is about this). Nothing wrong with that if it weren’t for the constant hammering into these two blanket statements:
- Diets don’t work.
- You cannot recover from an eating disorder unless you’re a unicorn.
This book was that it was frantic and, for very obvious reasons, it was frustrating. Not because I as a reader felt frustrated, but because the author was angry and frustrated about the topic: diets being a money-making business and eating disorders are just the same. Diets and recovery don’t work because these businesses need clients, they need you to keep coming back.
Do I agree? Maybe. I mean, it is clear that diet organizations (Atkins, Noom, Weight Watchers, and all the silly MLMs) target the vulnerable and they don’t work because they do not educate their users beyond their silly rules. There is little nutrition talk or BMR/calories talk in any of them, just ‘rules’ (i.e., the traffic light rules. Cheese is red and you never eat it, potatoes are yellow so moderation, kale is green so go crazy). But this book does NOT define what a diet is. A diet isn’t necessarily a weight loss diet, a diet is something you eat regularly and it can have more or less restrictions. A healthy diet does not equal a calorie-deficit diet or anything else, but it’s a diet you eat to keep yourself healthy.
What she says isn’t that weight loss diets don’t work, but that people who lose weight with them stop using them and then gain the weight back. Why? Because weight loss diets are a temporary measure but not a lifelong change. You can’t do a traffic light diet forever, but once you’re at a healthy weight you can abandon that and make an informed decision of what to eat. So I think this claim is half-cooked at best.
Now, my bigger issue. Around the 20% mark, she finishes a rant about (weight-loss) diets not working (long term). So she says: “I would never recommend this measure, but what works is eating disorders.” WHUT. Like girlie pop, prephrasing this by saying ‘I would never say this’ but then saying it is just so stupid.
I personally picked up this book because I was looking into a deep dive about body/food anxiety because I am, like her, “recovered-ish.” So I came into this book looking for some way to look at my body differently to accept it or have more info about why so many of us hate our bodies, and what do I get? “Idk if you want to be skinny, eating healthily doesn’t work, but anorexia is great.” Cool. Cool cool cool.
I’m giving this two stars for a simple reason, the second claim: you cannot recover from an eating disorder. Kazdin talks about someone who named her bulimia “Dolores” and when Dolores’ voice gets loud, she just tells her to shut up. And it’s sad, but we always have the thoughts, right? I personally have never met someone who is 100% recovered and it’s sad. And I appreciated that this book talked about the why. Why can’t we heal? Because we are treated through behavioral therapy that doesn’t fix the issue it just treats it. You don’t eat? Here’s a schedule, bye. So you eat by the schedule, but the voice remains. And then again, like a child, she asks why. Why haven’t we figured this out: there is little research (cis white men don’t usually have this, so why research it?), how are doctors going to make money if they find a thing that works, and the comorbidity obsession.
- Diets don’t work.
- You cannot recover from an eating disorder unless you’re a unicorn.
This book was that it was frantic and, for very obvious reasons, it was frustrating. Not because I as a reader felt frustrated, but because the author was angry and frustrated about the topic: diets being a money-making business and eating disorders are just the same. Diets and recovery don’t work because these businesses need clients, they need you to keep coming back.
Do I agree? Maybe. I mean, it is clear that diet organizations (Atkins, Noom, Weight Watchers, and all the silly MLMs) target the vulnerable and they don’t work because they do not educate their users beyond their silly rules. There is little nutrition talk or BMR/calories talk in any of them, just ‘rules’ (i.e., the traffic light rules. Cheese is red and you never eat it, potatoes are yellow so moderation, kale is green so go crazy). But this book does NOT define what a diet is. A diet isn’t necessarily a weight loss diet, a diet is something you eat regularly and it can have more or less restrictions. A healthy diet does not equal a calorie-deficit diet or anything else, but it’s a diet you eat to keep yourself healthy.
What she says isn’t that weight loss diets don’t work, but that people who lose weight with them stop using them and then gain the weight back. Why? Because weight loss diets are a temporary measure but not a lifelong change. You can’t do a traffic light diet forever, but once you’re at a healthy weight you can abandon that and make an informed decision of what to eat. So I think this claim is half-cooked at best.
Now, my bigger issue. Around the 20% mark, she finishes a rant about (weight-loss) diets not working (long term). So she says: “I would never recommend this measure, but what works is eating disorders.” WHUT. Like girlie pop, prephrasing this by saying ‘I would never say this’ but then saying it is just so stupid.
I personally picked up this book because I was looking into a deep dive about body/food anxiety because I am, like her, “recovered-ish.” So I came into this book looking for some way to look at my body differently to accept it or have more info about why so many of us hate our bodies, and what do I get? “Idk if you want to be skinny, eating healthily doesn’t work, but anorexia is great.” Cool. Cool cool cool.
I’m giving this two stars for a simple reason, the second claim: you cannot recover from an eating disorder. Kazdin talks about someone who named her bulimia “Dolores” and when Dolores’ voice gets loud, she just tells her to shut up. And it’s sad, but we always have the thoughts, right? I personally have never met someone who is 100% recovered and it’s sad. And I appreciated that this book talked about the why. Why can’t we heal? Because we are treated through behavioral therapy that doesn’t fix the issue it just treats it. You don’t eat? Here’s a schedule, bye. So you eat by the schedule, but the voice remains. And then again, like a child, she asks why. Why haven’t we figured this out: there is little research (cis white men don’t usually have this, so why research it?), how are doctors going to make money if they find a thing that works, and the comorbidity obsession.
January 4, 2023
Thank you to NetGalley for this arc. I have so much to say about this one! I should preface that I work in the eating disorder field, which is the main focus of this book, so I might be coming in with a more informed and, thus, critical eye. I’ve been in the field for years and there were still details I didn’t know such as it’s ok on a federal level to fire someone for their body size. That’s crazy! A lot of the information, especially about the diagnoses, treatment, impacts I did know but I applaud the author for including stats and/or definitions for almost every eating disorder diagnosis out there. Moreover, I want to give a standing ovation for the details about the BIPOC community who struggle with eating. There’s a dirth of research and it’s not talked about much even within the field and the author very aptly outlined some of the additional barriers these folks face while also acknowledging her own places of privilege. Admittedly, she did not delve much into the trans of lgbtq community barriers but one book can’t cover all of the topics! And truthfully, there’s a good amount more info about that out there so either it was too meaty to include or available enough that one could follow up for more, which is not the case for BIPOC. I like the title but I wish the subtitle specifically mentioned eating disorders because that was what this was about; not just body anxiety or how it’s hard to feed and care for a female body in American culture with our unique stressors.
My biggest pet peeve was a rather large chunk of the last quarter or so of the book running off into the topic of infertility. While I appreciate that it’s part of the authors journey, this was not entirely a memoir. And while there were some threads that tied weight and access to fertility treatments, it was both unnecessary as well as not fully covered. Basically, I don’t think it added to the book and may have actually taken away from it as there’s no warning that’s included when you pick the book up expecting to read about eating patterns. And if it felt essential to include, there were huge parts of that conversation that were entirely omitted like how the meds bloat you to incomprehensible size and how that contributes to body dissatisfaction or how you feel your body fails you in that process.
Finally, because I listened to this as an audiobook, it feels important to comment on the narration. Overall I liked the congeniality of the readers voice. However, it took her a while to warm up and deliver the quips at the ends of the chapters adequately. And the chapters having title names instead of numbers made the audio all flow together. Sometimes the ending of one chapter and the start of another were one giant pot of soup and other times they were abrupt and dissonant.
Yes, I’m aware that there are too many food metaphors. Talking about eating disorders can do that to you! I will bring the content back to my team at work and share some of my takeaways with other colleagues. She really gets diet culture right! And does an excellent job talking about some treatment red flags, with which I’d totally concur. I’m now looking forward to reading some of the books mentioned within the book to get additional perspective.
My biggest pet peeve was a rather large chunk of the last quarter or so of the book running off into the topic of infertility. While I appreciate that it’s part of the authors journey, this was not entirely a memoir. And while there were some threads that tied weight and access to fertility treatments, it was both unnecessary as well as not fully covered. Basically, I don’t think it added to the book and may have actually taken away from it as there’s no warning that’s included when you pick the book up expecting to read about eating patterns. And if it felt essential to include, there were huge parts of that conversation that were entirely omitted like how the meds bloat you to incomprehensible size and how that contributes to body dissatisfaction or how you feel your body fails you in that process.
Finally, because I listened to this as an audiobook, it feels important to comment on the narration. Overall I liked the congeniality of the readers voice. However, it took her a while to warm up and deliver the quips at the ends of the chapters adequately. And the chapters having title names instead of numbers made the audio all flow together. Sometimes the ending of one chapter and the start of another were one giant pot of soup and other times they were abrupt and dissonant.
Yes, I’m aware that there are too many food metaphors. Talking about eating disorders can do that to you! I will bring the content back to my team at work and share some of my takeaways with other colleagues. She really gets diet culture right! And does an excellent job talking about some treatment red flags, with which I’d totally concur. I’m now looking forward to reading some of the books mentioned within the book to get additional perspective.
May 22, 2023
The was less of a "how to deal with food-related body anxiety" and more of an anecdotal trauma bonding experience with the author, in a good way.
June 19, 2023
My feeling and opinions around this book are complicated. It wasn't the book for me, but I can see how it would be helpful to others who haven't realized yet that diets don't work and constantly dieting/trying to lose 5-20 pounds is way less healthy than just being "overweight." In this way, I was grateful to know that I'd learned a lot of the lessons Kazdin tries to emphasize and it was cool to see that I've come a long way since my days of following elimination diets and judging my and others' health based on appearance.
That said, this book was not necessarily a healthy trip down memory lane for me and I found the author's obsession with food, diets, exercise, weight, and her truly insane crusade to find a cure-all for all eating disorders for everyone everywhere overwhelming. She is recovering from an eating disorder and her history with an eating disorder heavily shapes her story of herself. She is also a journalist. In my opinion, I think she unethically blurs the line between those two identities. I understand she is a whole person who contains multitudes but it seemed like she used her authority as a journalist to get interviews with leading experts around eating disorders and then write about how what those experts said applied or did not apply to her and then try to pass it off as "reporting." It's shady at best to me for her to set up the book in such a way where she can cry, "I'm a reporter!" or "It's a memoir!" at her convenience.
On multiple occasions an expert would describe the complex, multi-factorial, and personal conditions that contribute to a person developing an eating disorder (just one of which is the pervasiveness of health & fitness marketing in the US) and how that parallels the complexity and difficulty of treating these conditions and her response was to be personally affronted that science hasn't figured out a simple cure or treatment for all eating disorders -- especially hers. Insert personal anecdote about how she wasn't cured of her ED after 12 therapy sessions and that's a problem for her because if she can't figure out how to fix herself and she's a big-city journalist whose father is a renowned psychologist then no one else stands a chance, so here she comes to save us all. White savior, much?
This is from the blurb on Amazon:
Kazdin takes us to the doorstep (see comment above about how she is here to save us) of the diet industry and research community, exposing the flawed systems that claim to be helping us (Don't we all know that marketing is here to sell us something not help us? Have our critical thinking skills as Americans really gotten so bad that we'll take a claim used to sell a product at face value?), 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 (A lot of people talk about this. I would say the diet/health industry are investing more money in their narrative so they can make money than people living their day-to-day lives who are not trying to literally capitalize on their experiences but okay, go off, sis!). Along the way, she identifies new treatments not yet available to the general public (Oh thank God, Kazdin is here to ID new treatments for us! Those pesky scientists with their research standards are really slowing the rest of us down! And these treatments are not available to the public?! OMG is it a conspiracy?! No, it's ketamine and psychedelics and she can slow her roll because AA was advocating for their use in the 50's), grass roots movements to correct racial disparities in care (#BLM #shereallyactingwhiteforgivingherselfcredithere), and strategies for navigating true health (what the fuck is "true health" and how can she possibly have the authority to define it) 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. (To make a terrible joke, it's a good thing I'm not bulimic because the grandiosity of this paragraph makes be want to barf -- and this text is worded just like all of the other diet/health marketing she allegedly eschews.)
Anyway, it did actually become funny to me when she discounted Overeaters Anonymous after attending only one meeting because there was too much diet talk for her. She was basically like "this didn't work for me, so it's not good" and then proceeded to practice and advocate for some of the same tools OA suggests. For example, she inventories her personal character traits that contribute(d) to her eating disorder, describes these traits and their effects to someone else (her therapist and readers), continues to take a personal inventory and course correct ASAP, and creates a safe environment / community of support for herself. These are all great practices and ideas which OA provides to its members. However, OA is a free, community-led group not a renowned, expensive therapist, so I guess it wasn't good enough for her. When she dismissed OA, I dismissed whatever remaining journalistic integrity I was trying to convince myself she had.
Like I said, my feelings and opinions about this book are complicated. I really wanted to like it. I definitely want her to overcome her ED and let go of the idea that she's broken and needs to be "fixed" and I'm glad she's found tools that work for her!
I also recognize that this book has the power to resonate with a lot of people who may not realize that their thoughts & feelings around food & exercise are disordered and instead of making them healthier are actually having the opposite effect. If you currently calorie or macro count, think exercise is required to "earn" food, think that some foods are "good" & others are "bad," or think you'd be a better person if you just lost X number of pounds. (Spoiler alert: you're already a great person and I'm sorry society is so terrible to people in bigger bodies), then this book may be for you.
That said, this book was not necessarily a healthy trip down memory lane for me and I found the author's obsession with food, diets, exercise, weight, and her truly insane crusade to find a cure-all for all eating disorders for everyone everywhere overwhelming. She is recovering from an eating disorder and her history with an eating disorder heavily shapes her story of herself. She is also a journalist. In my opinion, I think she unethically blurs the line between those two identities. I understand she is a whole person who contains multitudes but it seemed like she used her authority as a journalist to get interviews with leading experts around eating disorders and then write about how what those experts said applied or did not apply to her and then try to pass it off as "reporting." It's shady at best to me for her to set up the book in such a way where she can cry, "I'm a reporter!" or "It's a memoir!" at her convenience.
On multiple occasions an expert would describe the complex, multi-factorial, and personal conditions that contribute to a person developing an eating disorder (just one of which is the pervasiveness of health & fitness marketing in the US) and how that parallels the complexity and difficulty of treating these conditions and her response was to be personally affronted that science hasn't figured out a simple cure or treatment for all eating disorders -- especially hers. Insert personal anecdote about how she wasn't cured of her ED after 12 therapy sessions and that's a problem for her because if she can't figure out how to fix herself and she's a big-city journalist whose father is a renowned psychologist then no one else stands a chance, so here she comes to save us all. White savior, much?
This is from the blurb on Amazon:
Kazdin takes us to the doorstep (see comment above about how she is here to save us) of the diet industry and research community, exposing the flawed systems that claim to be helping us (Don't we all know that marketing is here to sell us something not help us? Have our critical thinking skills as Americans really gotten so bad that we'll take a claim used to sell a product at face value?), 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 (A lot of people talk about this. I would say the diet/health industry are investing more money in their narrative so they can make money than people living their day-to-day lives who are not trying to literally capitalize on their experiences but okay, go off, sis!). Along the way, she identifies new treatments not yet available to the general public (Oh thank God, Kazdin is here to ID new treatments for us! Those pesky scientists with their research standards are really slowing the rest of us down! And these treatments are not available to the public?! OMG is it a conspiracy?! No, it's ketamine and psychedelics and she can slow her roll because AA was advocating for their use in the 50's), grass roots movements to correct racial disparities in care (#BLM #shereallyactingwhiteforgivingherselfcredithere), and strategies for navigating true health (what the fuck is "true health" and how can she possibly have the authority to define it) 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. (To make a terrible joke, it's a good thing I'm not bulimic because the grandiosity of this paragraph makes be want to barf -- and this text is worded just like all of the other diet/health marketing she allegedly eschews.)
Anyway, it did actually become funny to me when she discounted Overeaters Anonymous after attending only one meeting because there was too much diet talk for her. She was basically like "this didn't work for me, so it's not good" and then proceeded to practice and advocate for some of the same tools OA suggests. For example, she inventories her personal character traits that contribute(d) to her eating disorder, describes these traits and their effects to someone else (her therapist and readers), continues to take a personal inventory and course correct ASAP, and creates a safe environment / community of support for herself. These are all great practices and ideas which OA provides to its members. However, OA is a free, community-led group not a renowned, expensive therapist, so I guess it wasn't good enough for her. When she dismissed OA, I dismissed whatever remaining journalistic integrity I was trying to convince myself she had.
Like I said, my feelings and opinions about this book are complicated. I really wanted to like it. I definitely want her to overcome her ED and let go of the idea that she's broken and needs to be "fixed" and I'm glad she's found tools that work for her!
I also recognize that this book has the power to resonate with a lot of people who may not realize that their thoughts & feelings around food & exercise are disordered and instead of making them healthier are actually having the opposite effect. If you currently calorie or macro count, think exercise is required to "earn" food, think that some foods are "good" & others are "bad," or think you'd be a better person if you just lost X number of pounds. (Spoiler alert: you're already a great person and I'm sorry society is so terrible to people in bigger bodies), then this book may be for you.
November 30, 2022
4.5 stars rounded up.
What's Eating Us by Cole Kazdin is a mix of journalistic-style writing and memoir as we follow the author through her years of battling an eating disorder and then during her recovery. As a disclaimer: I imagine that this would be very triggering if you're a) someone who has or had an eating disorder; b) are recovering from an eating disorder; c) are BIPOC; or d) a person who lives in a bigger body. Certainly, her chapters discussing the discrimination bigger bodied people face, and even some of the times where she discusses her thinness, was triggering for me.
I thought Kazdin does a really great job at presenting information (even the information we know inherently as being women in bodies that are scrutinized constantly) in such a way that feels like she's fighting in our corner and giving the weight loss and diet industry a giant middle finger. There is a lot of talk, again, about eating disorders as she navigates her own and her recovery process. But there is also inclusive language on how the BIPOC community struggles with body anxiety, eating disorders at a much higher rate than white women, general access to medical care and mental health care, and everyday stressors such as racism and sexism. There is inclusive language for those of us living in bigger bodies as well, and how acceptance of every body type starts with loving those that are not thin and white.
I so appreciated that she included resources at the end of this book for people looking for voices not tied to the diet and weight loss industry. Although the information here may not always feel fresh or ground-breaking, it is presented in a way that made me pay attention again. And for that alone, I am truly grateful that this book will be out in the world. It's one I want to buy for every woman in my life who I've ever had a conversation with about our bodies, whether that was my mom, my best friends, co-workers, or a stranger on the metro. There should be a little bit of comfort (and maybe some tears) for any woman who has ever felt anything negative about her body within these pages.
What's Eating Us by Cole Kazdin is a mix of journalistic-style writing and memoir as we follow the author through her years of battling an eating disorder and then during her recovery. As a disclaimer: I imagine that this would be very triggering if you're a) someone who has or had an eating disorder; b) are recovering from an eating disorder; c) are BIPOC; or d) a person who lives in a bigger body. Certainly, her chapters discussing the discrimination bigger bodied people face, and even some of the times where she discusses her thinness, was triggering for me.
I thought Kazdin does a really great job at presenting information (even the information we know inherently as being women in bodies that are scrutinized constantly) in such a way that feels like she's fighting in our corner and giving the weight loss and diet industry a giant middle finger. There is a lot of talk, again, about eating disorders as she navigates her own and her recovery process. But there is also inclusive language on how the BIPOC community struggles with body anxiety, eating disorders at a much higher rate than white women, general access to medical care and mental health care, and everyday stressors such as racism and sexism. There is inclusive language for those of us living in bigger bodies as well, and how acceptance of every body type starts with loving those that are not thin and white.
I so appreciated that she included resources at the end of this book for people looking for voices not tied to the diet and weight loss industry. Although the information here may not always feel fresh or ground-breaking, it is presented in a way that made me pay attention again. And for that alone, I am truly grateful that this book will be out in the world. It's one I want to buy for every woman in my life who I've ever had a conversation with about our bodies, whether that was my mom, my best friends, co-workers, or a stranger on the metro. There should be a little bit of comfort (and maybe some tears) for any woman who has ever felt anything negative about her body within these pages.
December 30, 2022
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read a copy of this book early! I would definitely suggest that you read this book with caution. This is a non fiction book about the treatment of eating disorders in our country and how broken the system is in regards to equality among races, gender, etc. Some of the factual stuff was SO interesting; I feel like I learned alot. But also interspersed among the facts are Cole's personal story of her struggle with an eating disorder and you very much get the message that she is still working on recovery. For people in the midst of an eating disorder or on the verge, this may trigger you and give you ideas of how to be disordered as opposed to motivating you to come out of it.
July 24, 2022
This book's intro hit home. I understood, in a fundamental way, everything the author expressed and had experienced. And honestly, it made me nervous--was I ready to face these demons? Relinquish them?
As I cautiously read on, gaining hope that this book wasn't full of useless platitudes or impossible rules to live by . . . I kept reading and my hope and understanding grew every few pages. I was starting over, I realized. Banishing all the unhelpful and unhealthy ideals, beliefs, relationships with food I'd piled up starting as a small child. I knew there were some but I was stunned by just how many had attributed to my predicament. I was also unaware to ortherexia which I can honestly say I am guilty of nowadays.
This book explains the hows and then delves into the triggers which are crucial to finally step into the healthy new outlook we all strive for. This was a great book. I strongly recommend it to any woman who's had an eating disorder, has an eating disorder, knows another woman with an eating disorder, counts calories of every meal or every day, or who is always on some diet. READ THIS!
As I cautiously read on, gaining hope that this book wasn't full of useless platitudes or impossible rules to live by . . . I kept reading and my hope and understanding grew every few pages. I was starting over, I realized. Banishing all the unhelpful and unhealthy ideals, beliefs, relationships with food I'd piled up starting as a small child. I knew there were some but I was stunned by just how many had attributed to my predicament. I was also unaware to ortherexia which I can honestly say I am guilty of nowadays.
This book explains the hows and then delves into the triggers which are crucial to finally step into the healthy new outlook we all strive for. This was a great book. I strongly recommend it to any woman who's had an eating disorder, has an eating disorder, knows another woman with an eating disorder, counts calories of every meal or every day, or who is always on some diet. READ THIS!
April 3, 2024
Idk….beyond the general redundancies in info and statistics, I think the memoir anecdotes are a little harmful. Maybe I’m just extra sensitive to it (I imagine most people reading this book would be?) but there were several things I think should not have been included—nostalgic references to her 90 pound body, the victory of getting a 00 dress taken in at the tailor, the “perfect clarity” of an empty stomach, just to name a few.
She’s certainly not TRYING to encourage these behaviors or paint them in a positive light, but it seems so glaringly obvious that these descriptions could be damaging to the book’s target audience…just rubbed me the wrong way.
She’s certainly not TRYING to encourage these behaviors or paint them in a positive light, but it seems so glaringly obvious that these descriptions could be damaging to the book’s target audience…just rubbed me the wrong way.
June 27, 2023
I admit I'm giving this an extra star because Cole is my cousin. But still this is a great book where the author weaves the story of her own eating disorder and recovery with the stories of how our society supports disordered eating. I think one of the points that stood out to me is how companies profit on women (and people) hating themselves and being dissatisfied with their bodies in their natural state.
September 22, 2022
This book was remarkably relatable for me and I imagine many many women. At the start I had to put it down and walk away. Reading Jennette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died around the same time, and hitting a year postpartum with a body I did not imagine still having, everything felt like too much. Eating disorders and body anxiety have ruled me for so very long and while it’s been years since the darkest days, there are always shadows. Everyday shadows. When I picked the book back up it felt like much more of a comfort. While I know there is a long way to go, I no longer feel I’m going it alone, and that makes all the difference. Thank you Cole! You are amazing!
September 11, 2023
Cole Kazdin was one of the millions of women who suffered from an eating disorder at some point in her life. She was able to get treatment, and while that treatment didn't cure her it did start her on a path of recovery that did improve over time. But, it still continues to be something she struggles with. In this book she discovers that there hasn't been tons of research done around eating disorders, what causes them, what's the best way to treat them, etc. I agree with the author that most people don't view eating disorders as a mental illness, people think it's either a way to get attention or just a phase that teen/college girls go through. Maybe if more people viewed it as a mental illness it would get better studies, funding for treatment, etc. (although TONS of research has been done around schizophrenia and it hasn't been cured and treatments aren't much better than in the 1970's). This book is part memoir of Kazdin's own struggles with an eating disorder and part highlighting just how little is being done to help people suffering from this issue. I think writing this book helped the author almost as much or more as the official treatment she received because she really found a lot of support from other people through her research. I did find it a little odd that she included her struggle with infertility in the last 2 chapters of the book. While health overall can impact fertility, there is no hard data that shows people who've had eating disorders struggle more with infertility than anyone else. I also agree with a few of the reviews I read that said it was a little repetitive, especially with data - possibly because there's not much data out there. But, I did not expect to laugh out loud while reading a book about eating disorders, so I do think the author is a good writer. I found it an interesting book overall even though I have never struggled with an eating disorder.
Some quotes I liked:
"'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?'" (p. 20)
"Strong research supports the idea that when we decide to eliminate a food from our diet, a neurological response is triggered that actually makes us want it more. In the aptly named 'forbidden fruit' experiment, researchers found that the mere act of restricting or cutting out a particular food triggers the brain to become more responsive to that food. 'Those increased thoughts could result in an unhealthy preoccupation with the food, or to obsessive thoughts about it, which could produce mental anguish,' according to the study." (p. 26)
"Noom is part of a larger trend of weight loss companies masquerading as health-and-wellness programs. As consumers have become savvier and backlash against diet culture grows, the diet industry is adapting. 'They've co-opted the language of the body positivity movement, terms like 'anti-diet' and 'we're not about weight loss, we're about health,'' said psychologist Alexis Conason. 'It capitalized on our awareness that diets don't work. They promise the best of both worlds: You can reject dieting and still lose weight. But it's not true. It's a weight loss company, reinforcing those same oppressive norms that the body positivity movements are fighting against.'" (p. 41)
"Failure is the business model for the weight loss industry, according to Mann's research, and companies rely on repeat customers who return after gaining back lost weight. 'People blame themselves for a diet not working but they should be blaming the diet,' said Mann. 'I don't think this business can survive without repeat customers, and the only way they can have repeat customers is if their product doesn't work.'" (p. 42)
"In fact, less than 6 percent of people with eating disorders are medically diagnosed as underweight, according to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders. People in larger bodies are half as likely as those at a 'normal weight' or 'underweight' to be diagnosed with an eating disorder. As with so many other mental illnesses, there's no way to tell from the outside." (p. 50)
"At my sickest, I didn't look like the classic, dying, after-school-special anorexic. At least not with my clothes on. I just looked very thin. One or two people took me aside and told me I looked gaunt and was anything wrong? But 99 percent of the people I saw and worked with every day told me I looked amazing and asked what my secret was. Throwing up. Starving. Exercising compulsively." (p. 52)
"She views the so-called obesity epidemic more as a function of a changing food environment as opposed to a bunch of people who can't control themselves. It removes blame from the individual. Sure, there have always been and will always be people in larger bodies since the beginning of time. A lot of it is simply genetic. But now there are more of them, and Schwartz's research shows that this increase has a lot to do with the environment. Specifically, fast food, and foods that the average person would put in the 'junk food' category: soda, chips, candy, and other things you'd find in most vending machines. 'This isn't a willpower issue,' Tobias told me. 'It's a food environment that's specifically designed to override our biology. The R & D (research and development) to come up with a new Dorito flavor is insane and the whole point of sales. They want it to be something that you eat not once. That you eat one hundred times.'" (p. 90)
Some quotes I liked:
"'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?'" (p. 20)
"Strong research supports the idea that when we decide to eliminate a food from our diet, a neurological response is triggered that actually makes us want it more. In the aptly named 'forbidden fruit' experiment, researchers found that the mere act of restricting or cutting out a particular food triggers the brain to become more responsive to that food. 'Those increased thoughts could result in an unhealthy preoccupation with the food, or to obsessive thoughts about it, which could produce mental anguish,' according to the study." (p. 26)
"Noom is part of a larger trend of weight loss companies masquerading as health-and-wellness programs. As consumers have become savvier and backlash against diet culture grows, the diet industry is adapting. 'They've co-opted the language of the body positivity movement, terms like 'anti-diet' and 'we're not about weight loss, we're about health,'' said psychologist Alexis Conason. 'It capitalized on our awareness that diets don't work. They promise the best of both worlds: You can reject dieting and still lose weight. But it's not true. It's a weight loss company, reinforcing those same oppressive norms that the body positivity movements are fighting against.'" (p. 41)
"Failure is the business model for the weight loss industry, according to Mann's research, and companies rely on repeat customers who return after gaining back lost weight. 'People blame themselves for a diet not working but they should be blaming the diet,' said Mann. 'I don't think this business can survive without repeat customers, and the only way they can have repeat customers is if their product doesn't work.'" (p. 42)
"In fact, less than 6 percent of people with eating disorders are medically diagnosed as underweight, according to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders. People in larger bodies are half as likely as those at a 'normal weight' or 'underweight' to be diagnosed with an eating disorder. As with so many other mental illnesses, there's no way to tell from the outside." (p. 50)
"At my sickest, I didn't look like the classic, dying, after-school-special anorexic. At least not with my clothes on. I just looked very thin. One or two people took me aside and told me I looked gaunt and was anything wrong? But 99 percent of the people I saw and worked with every day told me I looked amazing and asked what my secret was. Throwing up. Starving. Exercising compulsively." (p. 52)
"She views the so-called obesity epidemic more as a function of a changing food environment as opposed to a bunch of people who can't control themselves. It removes blame from the individual. Sure, there have always been and will always be people in larger bodies since the beginning of time. A lot of it is simply genetic. But now there are more of them, and Schwartz's research shows that this increase has a lot to do with the environment. Specifically, fast food, and foods that the average person would put in the 'junk food' category: soda, chips, candy, and other things you'd find in most vending machines. 'This isn't a willpower issue,' Tobias told me. 'It's a food environment that's specifically designed to override our biology. The R & D (research and development) to come up with a new Dorito flavor is insane and the whole point of sales. They want it to be something that you eat not once. That you eat one hundred times.'" (p. 90)
June 10, 2023
This reads more as a piece of investigative journalism than anything else and is a truly insightful reflection into what is causing the epidemic of eating disorders amongst young girls and women in America. I appreciated the vulnerability of the author in being willing to use her own struggles with bulimia to lay a backdrop and to weave pieces of personal narrative into other more scientific and sociological discussions. It made the book feel engaging, deeply intimate, and powerful. I walked away with many new perspectives on disordered eating, but among the most interesting were the recent studies that show that eating disorders become engrained biological responses to food, rooted in the chemistry of the brain to body connection, rather than active choices by suffering individuals. Those who struggle with anorexia, for example, don’t receive the same hunger cues from the brain as those who don’t struggle with the disease. Bingers, likewise, don’t receive the same fullness cues as non-bingers. This makes intuitive eating not a viable solution for many—many people who have struggled with an ED no longer receive consistent hunger cues. There is also new research that shows that certain genetic traits make some individuals more predisposed to developing eating disorders. This should reshape society’s judgement of eating disorders, not as choiced suffering but as diseases that require cures. Indeed, EDs are a high cause of mortality for many women and girls. On this line of thought, the author raises important points about the lack of evidence-based treatment options for EDs, the lack of a concrete definition for “recovery,” and the harm reduction strategies borrowed from treatments for other forms of addiction. Super insightful read and very important for any young woman living through times of social media and diet culture.
July 6, 2023
i caveat this review by acknowledging that this book could be triggering to those in recovery from/actively battling an eating disorder. while i don’t identify as such, i still feel like i got so much out of this book - from information about just how undeserved ED treatment is to the disparities of BIPOC women living with EDs to different steps to take to remedy disordered thoughts about your weight, i feel like any reader could get something from this book. the way the author used her personal experience and research to reframe some of the ways we think about our bodies absolutely made me reconsider my own relationship with my body and the questionable ways i’ve treated it in the past. easily one of my favorite non fictions this year. (coincidentally, i downloaded/started the Noom app the day before i started reading this because it’s a free benefit at work and i thought i’d see what it was all about and maybe trim down a bit. needless to say, i deleted the app pretty early into reading this book 🙃)
October 18, 2024
This book opened with a quote that’s still sticking with me days and days after I read it:
I would not at all be surprised if I’m this 90 year old bad ass woman who has done a lot of good things and is still like “I’ll just have a quarter of a cookie.” -Glennon Doyle
Woah! That’s so sad, and immediately got me into this book. Considering I’ve read basically every other book like this, none of the info was new but I appreciated the personal accounts of the author’s eating disorder struggle. Most impactful was her discussion in the epilogue about ensuring you know who your providers are linked with. She described finding out that one of her practitioners started working for a weight loss company, and it was super upsetting. She also talked about how common ED treatment centers are actually owned by companies that fund weight loss programs which ensures constant customers. She spoke a lot about the cognitive dissonance of providers that can say they treat both. Makes me think more and more about who to refer clients to, who colleagues in the field are associated with, and how much money talks 😢
I would not at all be surprised if I’m this 90 year old bad ass woman who has done a lot of good things and is still like “I’ll just have a quarter of a cookie.” -Glennon Doyle
Woah! That’s so sad, and immediately got me into this book. Considering I’ve read basically every other book like this, none of the info was new but I appreciated the personal accounts of the author’s eating disorder struggle. Most impactful was her discussion in the epilogue about ensuring you know who your providers are linked with. She described finding out that one of her practitioners started working for a weight loss company, and it was super upsetting. She also talked about how common ED treatment centers are actually owned by companies that fund weight loss programs which ensures constant customers. She spoke a lot about the cognitive dissonance of providers that can say they treat both. Makes me think more and more about who to refer clients to, who colleagues in the field are associated with, and how much money talks 😢
January 19, 2024
As someone who has struggled with an eating disorder, this book was very interesting. I think it’s an important read for people struggling with/have struggled with/know someone struggling with an eating disorder. I didn’t realize there wasn’t very much research behind them and it needs to change.
June 23, 2025
Probably every woman should read this. I don’t agree 100% on every single thing but wow!!!!! Powerful!!!!
August 7, 2023
to be a woman with a body ❤️
June 3, 2023
While a majority of this book is about eating disorders, I don’t know a woman or man who couldn’t benefit from reading this. You don’t need to have struggled with one to relate. Written in a mixture of story telling and research based evidence. I especially appreciated the authors intention to point out that this is not just a rich white female issue and how it impacts minorities sometimes even more.
July 4, 2022
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.
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.
October 8, 2024
I received an ARC of this book. I’m a little late in giving my review but here it is:
This was one that took me a while to read given where I am in my journey with body anxiety and food. I think I needed to give myself some time before I read it and I think had I read it last year this would have been a very different review.
This book is not for people that are just beginning their foray into the world of ED therapy or body neutrality or the like. Kazdin does not hold back nor does she use coded language when discussing triggering topics, nor should she have to. However, it may be hard for some to read/hear.
She intertwines her own struggles with ED among the various case studies and experts she has interviewed and some of the autobiographical moments can be triggering because that is where she shows us the kinds of thoughts that were and still frequently are occurring in the “ED brain.”
I’m sure many women (myself included) can relate to these moments but it doesn’t make it any less difficult to read, especially when you’re trying to eradicate yourself from these thoughts in the first place.
This book however made me feel seen. It made me feel heard. At times it made me feel helpless but it also helped me feel not alone. And I think that’s what’s most important of all.
An important read for any woman with a body.
This was one that took me a while to read given where I am in my journey with body anxiety and food. I think I needed to give myself some time before I read it and I think had I read it last year this would have been a very different review.
This book is not for people that are just beginning their foray into the world of ED therapy or body neutrality or the like. Kazdin does not hold back nor does she use coded language when discussing triggering topics, nor should she have to. However, it may be hard for some to read/hear.
She intertwines her own struggles with ED among the various case studies and experts she has interviewed and some of the autobiographical moments can be triggering because that is where she shows us the kinds of thoughts that were and still frequently are occurring in the “ED brain.”
I’m sure many women (myself included) can relate to these moments but it doesn’t make it any less difficult to read, especially when you’re trying to eradicate yourself from these thoughts in the first place.
This book however made me feel seen. It made me feel heard. At times it made me feel helpless but it also helped me feel not alone. And I think that’s what’s most important of all.
An important read for any woman with a body.
August 4, 2024
“𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦’𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘐 𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘥𝘰 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 … “𝘐𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦,” 𝘐 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥. “𝘓𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬.” 𝘔𝘺 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘵𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘧𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘵, 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘸. “𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯.” 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵—𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦. “𝘐’𝘮 𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵-𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦.” 𝘐 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘦𝘳. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩.”
this book opened my eyes on SO many issues and topics that i was unaware about. it took me a lot of energy to get myself to read it because it’s a quite heavy read (pun not intended) but it was also so beautiful and informative!! i also loved the author’s writing style, would definitely recommend :c
this book opened my eyes on SO many issues and topics that i was unaware about. it took me a lot of energy to get myself to read it because it’s a quite heavy read (pun not intended) but it was also so beautiful and informative!! i also loved the author’s writing style, would definitely recommend :c
January 11, 2023
This was a really informative read. I learned a lot about the various ways eating disorders are treated, sadly mostly ineffectively. I didn't read the description very well before reading it, but I did not think it would be so entirely focused on disordered eating. It did discuss diet culture and the diet industry, but I guess I thought it'd talk more about body anxiety in general or for those women who don't necessarily have an eating disorder.
Still a great read and highly recommend to anyone interested in learning about how the diet industry works, and how that does real harm to real people.
I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Still a great read and highly recommend to anyone interested in learning about how the diet industry works, and how that does real harm to real people.
I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
March 7, 2023
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.
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.
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.
September 26, 2023
five stars for narrative nonfiction is kind of wild, even though i ❤️ narrative nonfiction. this book’s relatively narrow focus on disordered reading in women should be required reading for anyone with a body. could be triggering for those struggling with eating disorders
January 10, 2023
What’s Eating Us is part memoir and part examination of eating disorders and the harmful effects of diet culture on women. The book’s chapters are broken down into different areas that fall under the umbrella of the subtitle - “women, food, and the epidemic of body anxiety.” Each chapter begins with a personal story that relates to the topic and follows with statistics from research and quotes from interviews with professionals in the field. It was clear how impassioned the author, Cole Kazdin, is about this topic and her personal anecdotes help the reader connect beyond the plethora of statistics that are provided. I loved how she absolutely slams the diet industry, stating that the term “healthy lifestyle” has just replaced the word “diet.” (On a complete side note - I see NOOM advertised everywhere. I’ve never tried it, but she reports that it’s just a calorie counting app that actually triggers people who are in recovery from anorexia to start restricting calories again - but it’s healthy! *sarcasm*) What resonated the most with me, is the idea that you don't have to be diagnosed with an eating disorder to have disordered eating. Read that again. Disordered eating results from the subliminal messaging in every facet of society and it’s nearly impossible to block out the damaging rhetoric. Have you every wondered how many calories were in that slice of birthday cake? Have you ever thought or said the phrase “I need to work off that meal I just ate?” Or what about the fear of stepping on the scale after the holidays? Spoiler, you should get rid of the scale. While all these unintentional thoughts alter the way we perceive food, what is even more damaging is the way we perceive body weight. Kazdin explores how medical professionals, and the health care system in general, focus on a single number to sum up the health of an individual: BMI. That’s Body Mass Index and it’s a number that is attached to you based on your height and your weight. It does not take in consideration things like bone density, muscle density, or other totally normal things that would contribute to a higher weight. She expresses how this singular number does more damage than good, and provides several other alternatives that would be more beneficial to track when it comes to overall health. My disclaimer with this review is that most of this information was new to me. I have not done any extensive reading or research on the topic, so if you’re someone that already has a firm grasp on the topics at hand - this may not be for you. I know I was getting more personal narrative, quality investigative journalism, and a palatable take on a new topic, rather than straight from a professional in the field. However, this is a great place to start if you’re a newb like me.
I received a free ARC audiobook from NetGalley and Macmillan Audio in exchange for an honest review.
I received a free ARC audiobook from NetGalley and Macmillan Audio in exchange for an honest review.
September 12, 2023
What's Eating Us?~~~~~
Author Cole Kadzin suffered eating disorders most of her life mainly because of society's obsession with weight and confusing thinness with health. Overweight people are practically the only marginalized or discriminated group that has no rights to protect themselves from discrimination. They can be fired for no reason. They will be ignored or ridiculed. Their health care is abyssmal as the medical field is just as discriminatory. Her new book, What's Eating Us?: A Memoir About Women, Food, and the Epidemic of Body Anxiety opened my eyes in so many, unforgettable ways.
Eating disorders include binge eating, anorexia, bulimia, consistent dieting, and starvation. Mostly young girls and women are vulnerable to these things, even f they don't recognize that they have a problem with food. Kadzin's book is both a story of her long journey out of her eating fears and compulsions and an investigation into how eating disorders affect most of us, why, and what can be done to treat them.
This could be a very long review if I described a fraction of the book. Kadzin has finally found herself much more comfortable with eating, especially after learning that her brain had turned off her hunger and satiety cues after years of starving, bingeing, and purging.
Her resources through the book are listed in the back. Many are online support groups she has appreciated and none have ties to the dieting industry (or didn't when the book was published.)
Eating disorders often lead to substance abuse and are often, tragically fatal. They are definitely not just white women's problem.. This needs to be acknowledged, not only by society and medical doctors, but government. The Department of Defense is actually leading the way, but access to real food and community gardens should be a universal right too.
Highly recommended to all!
Author Cole Kadzin suffered eating disorders most of her life mainly because of society's obsession with weight and confusing thinness with health. Overweight people are practically the only marginalized or discriminated group that has no rights to protect themselves from discrimination. They can be fired for no reason. They will be ignored or ridiculed. Their health care is abyssmal as the medical field is just as discriminatory. Her new book, What's Eating Us?: A Memoir About Women, Food, and the Epidemic of Body Anxiety opened my eyes in so many, unforgettable ways.
Eating disorders include binge eating, anorexia, bulimia, consistent dieting, and starvation. Mostly young girls and women are vulnerable to these things, even f they don't recognize that they have a problem with food. Kadzin's book is both a story of her long journey out of her eating fears and compulsions and an investigation into how eating disorders affect most of us, why, and what can be done to treat them.
This could be a very long review if I described a fraction of the book. Kadzin has finally found herself much more comfortable with eating, especially after learning that her brain had turned off her hunger and satiety cues after years of starving, bingeing, and purging.
Her resources through the book are listed in the back. Many are online support groups she has appreciated and none have ties to the dieting industry (or didn't when the book was published.)
Eating disorders often lead to substance abuse and are often, tragically fatal. They are definitely not just white women's problem.. This needs to be acknowledged, not only by society and medical doctors, but government. The Department of Defense is actually leading the way, but access to real food and community gardens should be a universal right too.
Highly recommended to all!
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