Women Afraid To Eat: Breaking Free In Today's Weight-Obsessed World

Designed to challenge America's growing obsession with thinness, this book reveals the profound mental and physical effects on women struggling with their weight. It examines the way weight obsession consumes women, shatters lives, and ultimately kills. Documented are four major weight and eating problems-eating disorders, dysfunctional eating, size prejudice, and overweight. A warning call to parents and health professionals, it gives clear guidelines on how women can bring about meaningful change in their lives to improve health and well-being.

Annotation

The book contains black-and-white illustrations.

At last a book that challenges America's obsession with thinness and reveals its profound mental and physical effects on women. This book examines the ways this obsession consumes women, shatters their lives, even kills. It documents women's four major weight and eating problems eating disorders, dysfunctional eating, size prejudice and overweight all on the rise in modern society. A new approach is needed to deal with these issues in healthier ways. The old ways haven't worked. This book issues an urgent warning call to families, health professionals, and the media to stop today's destructive policies, and gives clear guidelines on how women and those who work with women can bring about meaningful change to improve health and well-being. Written by an international expert in this field, Frances M. Berg, editor of Healthy Weight Journal, licensed nutritionist, and adjunct professor at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine. A valuable resource for health professionals in the Afraid to Eat series.

Editorial Reviews

With this book, the author presents a new approach to healthier living without dieting. Healthy choices are discussed while exploring societal pressures and myths. The author addresses the problems in today's weight-obsessed world while providing direction in how to break free with a new approach that helps people and does not harm them. It is a much-needed book for women experiencing obesity and its multiple effects on everyday life. According to the author, the book is written for the woman who is trying to find her way out of a limiting, weight-obsessed existence. She also offers direction to health professionals, educators, and policymakers who see the need to shift towards a health-centered approach to weight loss. The author is a credible expert with practical experience and appropriate education. The book is in two parts; in Part I the drive to be thin, hazards of weight loss, public manipulation, size prejudice, and the unremitting weight gain of the general population are covered. In Part II a new paradigm for healthy lifestyle choices is offered. The new model affirms the right to health at any size or weight. The book includes self-help tools, questionnaires, health-centered resources, websites, references, and an index. The title is somewhat deceiving in that it does not reflect the health-centered approach to better living through healthy choices. This is the first edition of a much-needed book. A health related paradigm is presented with a focus on healthy choices, physical activity, and feeling good about oneself at any size. This is a practical approach to a difficult, multifactorial problem affecting many women in today's society.