This Is Not A Diet Book: A User’s Guide to Eating Well

by Bee Wilson

‘This book can’t give you a six-pack in seven days or the skin of a supermodel. But I can promise that if you make even a few of these adjustments, your eating life will alter for the better in ways that you can sustain.’

This Is Not A Diet Book is a collection of calm, practical tips and ideas on healthier, happier eating from award-winning food writer Bee Wilson.

From unsweetening your palate to rethinking the lunchtime sandwich, This Is Not A Diet Book gathers together some of the wisest, most constructive advice for feeding you and your family.

Genres: Nonfiction, Food, Health, Nutrition, Cookbooks, Self Help, Psychology

161 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 29, 2016

About the author

Bee Wilson is the author of books about food, approaching the subject from a number of different angles.

As well as a cookbook (The Secret of Cooking), she has written books on food and history (Consider the Fork), food and psychology (First Bite), and the emotional life of kitchen objects (The Heart-Shaped Tin: Love, Loss and Kitchen Objects).


Wilson's book The Way We Eat Now was awarded the Fortnum & Mason Food Book of the year in 2020.

Wilson's cookbook The Secret of Cooking was listed as one of The New Yorker's Fifteen Essential Cookbooks as well as a New York Times, WBUR Here & Now, and National Post Best Cookbook of 2023 and one of the Guardian's Five Best Food Books of 2023

In 2025 she was awarded an M.B.E. for services to food writing and food education (the educstion part was for her work in co-founding and creating TastEd, a charity in the U.K. aimed at introducing children to the joys of vegetables and fruits using their senses.

Reviews

[Jess Xu · Rating 4 out of 5]

A perceptive, kind and wise exploration of how and why we eat, with sensible (and friendly) suggestions for change.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting little book with various tips on how to change your diet, without going on a ‘diet’. For me, the key component of a healthy diet is balance and that is also what this little book prescribes.

Although the tips are helpful, I really missed an explanation or a scientific argument for a lot of them. In a lot of cases, the tip is explained in a single sentence, which is then already followed up by the next tip. With no explanation whatsoever, it makes it harder for me to implement them, because I am not sure why I should implement them.

All in all however, I liked this book but think it could use a lot more body. Therefore I will be reading one of her other books next! Hopefully it will have some more in-depth information about the psychology behind the tips she gives in this book.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite patronising and misses any science really, but more realistic advice than the 'intuitive eating' movement

[Cel Red · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tiene algunas recetas interesantes que quiero intentar. Y en general, buena visión general sobre lo que implica comer bien.

[Nita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this right after "First Bite" was very repetitive; the only thing which was new were a few recipes (which admittedly do look nice and worth trying). The advice is sensible and worthwhile, but very much aimed at the well-off (I discovered Bee Wilson via The Guardian and I think that's her target audience). Instead of reading this, read "First Bite". It has the same recommendations but with much more of an explanation behind them, and it's a more enjoyable read.

[Schopflin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book to make you feel better about food. The empathy she shows is at least as helpful as the sensible advice. I don't know if I will ever break my portion control problems, and emotional relationship to feeling full, but I know it helps to acknowledge it rather than just feel like a failure.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This and Michael Pollan's "Food Rules" are really good instructional texts for developing a healthier approach to eating.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is essentially excerpts from First Bite with a couple of recipes. Disappointing that this wasn’t made clear.

[Justin Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short book that takes a much better route than just giving healthy recipes to help us all eat better. This book gives ideas on how to cook and how to eat well. Bee Wilsons book 'first bite' is a brilliant, detailed book that looks at how we eat, develop taste preferences which we can change (as can whole countries and gives a very interesting account of Japan and how unhealthy their food was in the 1950s and how that has changed phenomenally, and for the better – it is also mentioned in this book). Recommended if you want to change how you eat now that we live in a world that for the first time is now full of abundant amounts of food rather than scarcity which has been our past history for the rest of mankind's history. Some good and easy recipes included also and which look tasty.

[Jasmin Mohd-zain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Common sense in a little book. Easy to read but may take a little more awareness and time to do !

However, I like the recipe options given inside. And it was nice that finally someone now says that boys and girls need to eat differently at some stages in their life!

Best chapter for me was "Making Changes " (pg 132). Small tweaks repeatedly could have big results. Above all else, I love point No 17 : Pleasure will get you there quicker than denial....so avoid that mindset of deprivation in diet.

Just eat sensibly, in right amount and always go for variety. You can change your bodies one eating habit at a time.

[Marta Kostka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rady zacne, mucha nie siada ale gorzej z ich przedstawieniem. Uciekając przed zaszufladkowaniem jako książka odchudzaniu Bee Wilson napisała typową książkę o odchudzaniu. To wygląda trochę jakby wydawca powiedział jej, żeby zebrała wszystkie mądrości i chwytliwe cytaty z „First Bite” (a to są faktycznie celne wskazówki) i opublikowała ponownie w formie nowej książki. Trochę smuteczek bo nadal uważam, że „First Bite” jest jedną z najlepszych opowieści o odżywianiu i kulturze jedzenia.

[Hanum Hapsari · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read another book by her, the First Bite, before and I feel something missing here. The references style that she always did it in another book. I did not really enjoy reading the book that writing the information with a number in the chapter. I prefer paragraph style. That is justifications just my preferences only. However, I love the new insights from this book. Please, read it to see other ways to be mindfully eating!

[Olivia Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of this book was good and had a couple of nice ideas or handy tips, but honestly it was mainly common sense things that everyone knows.
I feel in parts it even suggested things that are not a good idea and have been proven to be unhealthy in more recent studies, maybe it’s just that it was written a few years ago?
Either way, for someone who is at a real loss on how to overhaul their eating this might be a good basic place to start. 3*

[Deniz · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

Wilson didn't really say anything completely new to me. But this book is a great reminder that food and our relationship with it is complicated, that there is no one fits all policy and most of all that we should enjoy it.
I enjoyed her wit and honesty and feel inspired to make small but significant changes that I need to in my diet.

[Cori Kiwi · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. As someone who's lost a significant amount of weight recently, this book serves as a collection of bite-sized reminders on changing your mindset and habits. Not everything will be applicable to everyone, as she states in the beginning, but this is worth reading for anyone interested in unlearning diet culture.

[Mrs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing

One third covered feeding children, another chunk had recipes. It was disappointing in scope and a bit superficial as regards to culture and healthy eating. What was relevant was good.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoughtful book.
There's lots of ideas, presented in a reasonable manner. The consensus would be to eat well using a wide variety of foods, making meals yourself. Nothing new really but lots of ideas on how to eat better

[Rachel Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, sensible advice on diet and attitude to food. I think we know a lot of this already but it helps having someone put it clearly in writing. The author’s love of food comes across well and is infectious. A few recipes also included. I haven’t tried any yet but they look good.

[Ayham Abed Al Raheem · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really disappointed .. The book started great with practical advises and motivation but after that it turned into a boring recipe book and guide to feed children book .. There are not many researches and studies .. instead .. a lot of anecdotes and recipes ...

[Narise · Rating 4 out of 5]

"sugar is not love but it can feel like it"
"nothing you can buy-not a gym membership, not a hot rock massage- will give the same degree of health and pleasure as good ingredients to cook with, view it as preventative medicine of the most delicious kind"

[David Cutler · Rating 5 out of 5]

there is clearly something in the genes - Bee Wilson can really write and David Runciman is very lucky to get some of these recipes. A quietly sane call for fully enjoying and embracing food while not letting it makes us ill. Now where are those small plates?

[E J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frames food and eating in a very charming way

[Sharifa Khanjari · Rating 4 out of 5]

A light book to read about changing eating habits. It is all about balanced diet.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing groundbreaking. Pleasant, but hardly revelationary.

[Liloh · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not a diet book, but it turns out to be a recipe books at the end. Started well, with good and practical tips but then I got bored with the recipes.

[Anelia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brief and to the point with decent general advice and a few interesting recipes, would have preferred to have some more scientific evidence too.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice and short, full of great tips, good insights, reassurances, and RECIPES... Only wish I hadn't gotten it on a Kindle; a hardcopy would've been better for me to browse in.

[hr arch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This and Michael Pollan's "Food Rules" are really good instructional texts for developing a healthier approach to eating.

[Nick Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't urge, don't coax, don't force, don't bribe

[Jeff Brimhall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard Copy