Library patrons are always asking me, “what have you read (sometimes seen) lately that you loved?”  This is what I loved this week.

Intuitive Eating: a Revolutionary Program that Works by Evelyn Tribole, M.S. R.D. & Elyse Resch, M.S. R.D. F.A.D.A.

Why: The tenets of this book are simple: eat whatever you crave, when you’re hungry, until you’re just full.  Sounds too simple?  It is and yet it’s not.  The authors back up their theory by putting the basics of Western eating on the hot seat: health food = good and anything with carbs, fat or sugar = bad, and that eating has become an issue of morality. Guilty, guiltless, you’re a good person, you’re a bad person, all depending on what you put in your mouth.  This book thoroughly dissects how the American food culture is dictated by big business, which encourages dieting instead of our natural ability to determine when we’re full and what we’d like to eat.  Many of us in the U.S. are chronic dieters and analyzers of everything nutrition, from using My Fitness Pal to reading countless books including Wheat Belly, The Case Against Sugar, et al., all aiming to convince you to curb what you’d actually like to eat, which is less than sustainable in the long run.  Intuitive Eating does something different, its plan thoroughly fleshes out the idea that by reconnecting to your internal cues, having faith in yourself and by dropping calorie counting you can determine what you’d like to like to eat, and how much.  Read it, it’s fantastic.

Readalikes: The Intuitive Eating Workbook by Evelyn Tribole & Elyse Resch
Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful LIfe by Thich Nhat Hanh
The Mindful Diet: How to Transform Your Relationship with Food for Lasting Weight Loss and Vibrant Health by Ruth Wolever, Beth Reardon & Tania Hannan