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

4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 59 ratings

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

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


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

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

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

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

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From the Publisher

What's Eating Us Cole Kazdin
What's Eating Us Cole Kazdin Christie Tate quote
What's Eating Us Cole Kazdin Cathrine Gildiner quote

Editorial Reviews

Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

About the Author

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

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ St. Martin's Essentials (March 7, 2023)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1250282845
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250282842
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 0.85 x 9.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 59 ratings

About the author

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

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
59 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2023
I truly loved this book, and I want to thank the author for writing it. I dreaded finishing it because every night I spent reading it, I felt like so many things I am feeling and experiencing were being validated. I really enjoyed her conversational writing style, too. I recommend it to anyone who has ever even remotely had an issue with eating, dieting, body satisfaction, or disordered eating. Anorexia can feel like a torture chamber you can't get out of even though the door is wide open. This book tells the truth about the difficulty in overcoming disordered eating, but it also reminds us that even if you never completely overcome it, it can get better. The resource list at the end is helpful and vetted, too. I might re-read this just to keep that positive, understanding, comforting, and supportive voice in the back of my mind. Thank you, Ms. Kazdin, for writing this book. I really appreciate it.
2 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2023
Part memoir, part research, and all around eating disorders. An interesting look into how (particularly American) society impacts women and their perception of bodies. I became a bit frustrated with Kazdin's negativity towards therapy and her claim that there are no credentials for therapist to practice. While there are not required credentials specific to areas of practice, each therapist must obtain a master's degree and a license in order to practice. The licensure process includes hours of practice as well as passing a licensure test to demonstrate capability. Additionally, therapists must maintain their license through continuing education courses. It is possible that the specific field of eating disorder treatment could use more gate-keeping but it is not accurate to give a blanket statement that implies therapist have no training or experience in their field. Therapists can obtain specific additional credentials in areas that they wish to become experts in (although unfortunately most credentials include on-going costs to maintain in addition to the cost of maintaining your license).
Looking past my frustrations on her judgment of therapy, the book is overall an interesting read which I would recommend to those who are looking to understand eating disorders a bit better.
2 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2023
This book is a masterpiece. The whit is off the charts for me, a queen of snark. The research is bulletproof and illuminating! I've been in this field forever and am an "expert" through lived experience, research and advocacy and I cannot believe how much I didn't know I didn't know.

Reading this book has validated that it's okay for me to be like 100 years into my ED and still not be "cured" and rather, identify as being in recovery. That is a gift.

Hoping that this book finds its way into a variety of college curricula.

~ Robyn Shumer
Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2023
This book is a revolutionary eye-opener for anyone who has ever struggled with their relationship with food, body, or self-image (which is pretty much every woman I know). Cole Kazdin weaves her own struggle with an eating disorder into this brilliantly researched book, with honesty, humor, and compassion. Finally! Someone who’s not afraid to stand up to the diet industry and call bulls***. And most importantly, she lets us know that there’s hope and a community out there for anyone who’s been struggling in silence and alone. I’d give this book ten stars if I could.
2 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2024
Admittedly, I have high standards because I read a lot about diet culture and eating disorders. I was disappointed in this book because it didn't feel as radical as other books I've read on this topic (Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison, Fat Talk by Virginia Sole-Smith, Sick Enough by Jennifer Gaudiani, and anything by Aubrey Gordon). Cole talks about the importance of not demonizing food, yet has so many examples (in the first 30 pages until I stopped) of exactly that, "soda is pretty much garbage, whole grains are a better option than Cheeze-its." She mentions Cheeze-its again when she talks about how her grandma stocked them in her house and how her grandma "ate so poorly by today's standards."

She also openly talks about complimenting people's appearances -
"You look fantastic, by the way." She did, what was she doing?
"Thanks! I gave up sugar," she said. I file it away. Note to self: stop eating sugar, I guess?

If we're going to fight diet culture, one of the first steps is stop commenting on people's bodies, whether that is judging them or complimenting them. Compliments just reinforce the thin ideal and continue linking our worthiness to our appearance. I appreciate the author's authentic story of her experience, I just don't feel like this is a message of actively fighting diet-culture. This is her experience of sometimes pushing back on diet-culture and sometimes being carried away by it. Understandable, absolutely, but I can't read a whole book of it.

I only read 30 pages, the rest of the book may be better, but I'm going to pass.
Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2023
The title and subject matter interest me the most about this book. I wanted to know how I could be free from the hold that food has often had on my life.

I'm not a big fan of data-heavy books, and the author is a journalist, so this book provides much research. She interviewed several diet industry people and women, and it offered an exciting mix of real stories - my fave - with the research commentary.

Pick up this book if you also want to learn about strategies to heal your food and body love relationship.
Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2023
The author shares her own personal journey with bulimia and the harmful toll the diet industry has taken on women. The book is a terrific read with lots of insight that will speak to the voice in your head. Lots of good information on a topic that most women can relate to. Well written and researched!
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Archita Kashyap, Content Creator & Writer
4.0 out of 5 stars US centric but highlights an important issue
Reviewed in India on July 4, 2023
Kazdin's book is a bit too detailed about support for women dealing with eating disorders in the US and North America. But it talks about an issue that is often ignored in countries like ours, and is viewed as a non-health condition. Eating disorders are affecting Generation Z women in huge numbers. This book helps unpack the problem and offers solutions through personal experience.