I read a lot of anti-diet books and follow a lot of fat liberation content, so I expect some repetition when I dive into a book like this. I was pleasantly surprised by the uniqueness of Kazdin's approach here.-- the direct focus on eating disorders. The part memoir, part journalistic approach really suited this material, as the reader's relationship with the Kazdin's own story adds connection and empathy to what otherwise might feel like heavy content and dry data. I was also pleased that this story, told by a white, cis woman, addressed privelege and intersectionality thoughtfully. As a reader with a history of disordered eating, I felt held by this stoey, and further convinced by the data. The diet-culture air we breath doesn't have to poison us all.

Cole Kazdin provides a unique look at diet culture, anti-fat bias, and the repercussions of glorifying thinness. Kazdin's storytelling is front and center as she explains her eating disorder experiences, intertwining facts about everything related to body size and appearance. This book is great for anyone who has ever had terrible thoughts about their body—which is every single human alive today.

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.

<spoiler>
1. Diets SUCK.

2. Diets DO. NOT. WORK.

3. Diet Culture and the people that make it happen have their own circle of Hell waiting for them.

4. Diet influencers [I am looking at you Kardashians] will be hanging out with the people of #3.

5. Recovery is never ending [the author makes that very clear as she discusses her journey along with all the information she has found] and one should not E V E R be ashamed of where they are in life.

6. Just because someone has "therapist" behind the name, DOES NOT MEAN they have your best interest at heart [I am looking at you Joyce {from the book - IYKYK} and if they are in the pockets of a "diet" company, they are most certainly NOT looking out for you.

7. People who claim they love us need to stop saying sh*t like "YOU have such a pretty face, if only you'd lose a few pounds" [I. WAS. EIGHT. the first time this happened. E I G H T]. It is dangerous, damaging, and extremely unloving and it needs to stop. I look back at pictures of when I was that age and O M G I was freaking adorable and certainly didn't need a D I E T. Sigh. All it did was start a life-long struggle with how I looked and my weight [that has only ended since I was diagnosed with a chronic illness and medication has made it impossible to diet] that has made me hate myself for a good many years.

8. IF YOUR CHILD WANTS TO DANCE OR DO GYMNASTICS LET THEM DO IT. Teachers, STOP TELLING LITTLE GIRLS AND BOYS THAT THEY ARE "TOO BIG" OR "TOO TALL" OR "TOO FAT" TO DO BOTH OF THESE SPORTS [I was 6 and 7 when these things were said to me, BY PROFESSIONALS - yeah, you get the picture]. JUST. STOP. IT.

9. Those who love us, please just love us where we are. Support us, care for us, help us, but don't tell us what to do. Those who struggle with body anxiety, body-shame, eating disorders and all that comes with those things just need support and love and caring. IF someone tells you [or shows you] how they need supported, then for cryin' out loud, DO THAT and stop telling them what YOU think they should do.

10. Doctors who judge someone simply by their weight - see #3

To say this book hit me hard is an understatement. While I have never struggled with an eating disorder like anorexia or bulimia, I did, for years, overeat. I ate for comfort, for love, and to calm my anxiety. It took years [and so. many. stupid. diets.] for me to overcome that, to find things that were non-damaging for comfort and to calm my anxiety [I HIGHLY recommend therapy, something I have never had the chance to have, but I know people who have found great therapists who have helped them so much <--it may take a few, advocate for yourself and if your gut says NO, find a new one] and to tell people to STOP shaming me for my body by recommending a new diet [like I have not already tried them all] or asking me "how my weight is" [like they are blind and cannot see that I am still a very large woman]. I will say that while that was totally empowering for me, most people who loved to shame were not fans of me telling them to shut their traps. ;-)

There are ways to get better and there are ways to learn to like [if not love] yourself IN the body you are in. It is literally a lifelong process and there will be moments you will want to chuck it all and go back to the damaging behaviors; all I can say to that [and to myself] is BE KIND TO YOURSELF. You are forever a work in processes and it helps to always remember that. Surround yourself with people that truly love and support you, clean up your social media [or get rid of it completely], even if that means unfriending or unfollowing people you have known for years [THIS has been glorious for me] and BE KIND TO YOURSELF.

We are literally all in this together.

I was able to get the NetGalley audiobook for this book and WHOOSH that was crazy. Listening to the author tell her story and talk about all the things that led to her needing to be in recovery, with ALL the emotions that come with that, was amazing. It really bring home just how serious this is [for those who have never, ever, struggled with food or body anxiety will appreciate this audiobook for that very reason] and how the author still struggles while in recovery. I really appreciated her humor amidst all the sorrow and pain and I also appreciated her transparency and vulnerability. It really comes through in the audiobook. I highly recommend listening to this book. </spoiler>

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.

With a lifetime of struggling with disordered eating and weight, it's safe to say I have read a boat load of books about the subject. Every January the big box bookstore would roll out the huge display of the latest diet books and readers would flock to them in hope of finally discovering THE BOOK the at would end their battle with food and make them slim. Health took second place when they made their pick for the year. Next year was sure to be something else. With a medical system that fails us constantly, finding help on our own is tough.
When I saw this title available I thought what the heck and gave it a read. I'm glad I did. From the first chapter I felt I was in the company of a woman who knows the long, hard road so many of us travel. Part memoir, part science, full of interviews and facts, this was not an easy read but one I needed. I could go on at great length about what a well written book this is but I don't want my review to come across as a high school book report. It's enough to tell you that if you are sharing your life with any eating disorder, Cole Kazdin is walking beside you and has lots of information to share with you. This is a must read.
My thanks to the publisher St. Martin's Press and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book is both a memoir of the author's personal struggles with an eating disorder as well as a critique of diet culture and our antithetical approach to health. We are all completely immersed in the same society that perpetuates the beauty myth and how damaging that can be but looking at our approach to health over beauty is starting to gain traction. Defining health is yet another hurdle and the author of this book examines all of these factors and how they all correlate. She also shows how money is one of the biggest driving forces in a lot of our "health" ideas. I have to say that, although some solutions are suggested, this book left rather despondent thinking we have such a long way to go that it will impossible to ever get there. But the first step is always being aware of the myriad of problems we need to face and this book does well it illuminating so many of them.

Cole Kazdin provides a piercing, authoritative view into our relationship with food, eating, health in WHAT'S EATING US. Throughout, Kazdin shares her own experiences and research into the terrible and strange ways we view and live our basic needs for nourishment and community. I loved how she wove memoir, interviews, and hard fact throughout the book -- at times it felt more like a well-plotted and intricately woven mystery novel than the hard examination of beliefs, systems, and structures that kill some of us and limit everyone. This is an important book for everyone -- a contribution to our world conversation about living well. I received a copy of this book and these opinions are my own unbiased thoughts.

* I received an ARC via NetGalley for an honest review.
I also want to note this book deals with a sensitive topic, and *might* be considered triggering.

While, admittedly, non-fiction is not my typical genre, I found What's Eating Us fascinating! The book describes the author's own struggles with an eating disorder -- with a mild sense of humor. I thought this was a very realistic look at how broken the system was/is, and was well-researched.

My only negative point would be there were many many maaany pages dedicated to infertility. While I realize it's a huge part of the author's story/relevant to the study of ED.... this book wasn't advertised (at least to me) as a look at infertility in eating disorders, but anxiety. I felt it got a little preachy, and almost memoir-like at points.

All that said, this was so informative, and forces the reader to face some tough questions. Anyone who has an eating disorder, or had one, or has ever considered skipping lunch should give this one a read.

This was a bit of a hard read for me. Not in the "I don't understand the subject matter" way, but the exact opposite. I know it all too well. I sympathize with the author's struggle to get past her disordered eating, and have felt many of those same struggles throughout my life. I think this is an important book because it highlights all of the parts of disordered eating that we refuse to acknowledge.

I really enjoyed the way this book wove memoir and fact. Feel as though I learned a lot about the topic and was able to connect to it based on the way the writer wrote it. Was a really great introductory non fiction, not intimidating or too heavy with fact.

This non-fiction book is part memoir, part facts and statistics. Cole Kazdin, like so many women out there, explores her experience with disordered eating and the complex world of recovery, not only for herself, but for both the white, privileged community and the BIPOC community. For a mental illness that is the number one killer after opioids, there’s hardly any research out there, let alone treatments that might actually work. And resources to those treatments is even harder to gain access to. There are a lot of facts and statistics that alone would be impossible for me to have read through, but interspersed with interviews and experience was tolerable and sometimes enjoyable. There is a very large chunk that centered around Kazdin’s experience with infertility, and while that is a risk with eating disorders, it sort of took over the third quarter or so and kind of took away from the main purpose of the book. I hope this book has the impact it’s meant to, that more research is done and that more resources are made available.

This was an interesting read. It was packed full of information and sources, it was almost overwhelming, but the author’s voice cut through the heaviness and made it rather enjoyable. I appreciate her covering the BIPOC community and their lack of resources regarding eating disorders. It’s a huge problem and I have never understood the divide. For someone in recovery for an eating disorder it was nice to hear a lot of the same struggles, not particularly hope inspiring, but not not inspiring (I hope that makes sense) that there can be an endpoint. I just hate that it can be so difficult to find a path to true food freedom and recovery. At the same time, it was a bit hard to get through because it touched on so many things I can relate to. Most of the quotes I saved are ones I really related to, but there are a few that really stuck out to me as either shocking or new to me information. Like Michigan being the only state that has weight protected as a class in the same way race or gender is. Yes, really.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve read a lot of books about dieting, weight loss, intuitive eating, body acceptance. As someone with a long history of disordered eating and an unhealthy relationship with food, I feel like I’ve heard it all. But despite all that, What’s Eating Us really stood out from the crowd. Cole Kazdin’s voice was refreshing and relatable. I really appreciated her honesty about her own struggles, and her real reactions to the information she learned as she researched for this book.

Every book on the spectrum from weight loss to body acceptance pretends to have the magical solution. The reality is that there is no perfect way. Experiencing that from Kazdin’s perspective, as she discovered what worked and didn’t work, and how she felt along the way, really made me feel like I’m not alone.

5 stars, and I’d recommend it to everyone!

This book is very well-written and I enjoyed the mix of memoir and research-based nonfiction. I was expecting it to be more focused on diet culture as a whole but the majority of the book is focused on eating disorders. There was a lot of interesting and helpful information in the book and a ton of anecdotal evidence for Kazdin's points, but it was a little TOO heavily focused on eating disorders for my taste. However I think this would be an excellent resource for anyone in recovery from ED or those who struggle with disordered eating in general. Without Kazdin's personal story, I don't think I would have enjoyed the book at all, so I'm glad that she used her own story as sort of a memoir-ish basis for the book.

This book has very important information included inside and gives a thorough understanding of eating disorders. I found this informative but unfortunately did not like they way it was written. It felt like there were multiple random thoughts that were shoved into random places in the book. Also, the author adds in snippets of dialogue in places that make it almost annoying with the tone.

Overall, the information was good but it could have had a better delivery. Honestly, I wish this was written very differently because it is Information everybody should read and understand.

As thorough and knowledgeable as it was heartfelt, What’s Eating Us by Cole Kazdin was an excellent read. I enjoyed the audiobook very much as well. It made the material even more engaging and the author’s humor really come through. A great book for those who have experienced disordered eating as well as those seeking to better understand it as well as how diet culture, food marketing and pop culture affect us all.

Very easy to read book on educating yourself on diet culture and the effects of diets.
This book makes dieting and eating disorders very understandable and at times although triggering to some very informative.
Don't think this book is going to solve your overweight issues, this is not the book for you. But if you need to understand the what ifs and whys please read it.

This book was an advance reader's copy given to me by Netgalley and the publisher for honest review.

i got this book and literally less than a week later got diagnosed with disordered eating patterns, so i decided to hold off on reading it until i got everything sorted out personally and that was a good decision. it's very well written, but extremely visceral and would not have been good for me two months ago (or maybe it would've smacked me out of it, who's to say). Kazdin does a really great job exploring diet culture, the recovery-industrial complex, and the effects of eating disorders in her personal life. her prose makes this lean more toward the memoir side of nonfiction, which has the benefit of feeling more accessible but the negative effect of sometimes obfuscating scientific information and allowing the author's bias into areas that could've remained objective. i would've appreciated a bit more on some of the scientific background, both on actual eating disorders and on their mechanisms of treatment--Kazdin lets her own personal experiences really color her depictions of treatments and therapies, and while that's effective in showing what she went through it could scare people off therapies that would be beneficial for them. overall this was a really fascinating exploration of diet culture, and while there's areas it could improve on i found it very solid overall.

arc provided by St. Martin's in exchange for an honest review

The information in this book is important, both for those who have dealt with body image issues (all of us) and those who have struggled with eating disorders. I picked this one up because I have someone in my life in recovery from an ED and I thought it might help me understand more what this person has gone through and how they still may struggle even after years. For that, I 'm not sure I really got quite the insight I was hoping for, but I'm still glad to have absorbed some more information about this topic.

I thought this book was a good read as someone who has struggled with disordered eating for a lot of my life. I really liked that it seemed to be a combination of a memoir as well as a narrative essay. The type of humor that was include din this was needed to handle what is often a hard topic for many women to read. Overall I think this would be a good novel to read in high school for girls to have a good understanding of diet culture and its impacts on people.

Cole Kazdin combines memoir and narrative nonfiction in her upcoming book, What’s Eating Us: Women, Food, and The Epidemic of Body Anxiety. It’s an excellent reflection of life with an eating disorder. But it’s also much more. For example, Kazdin investigates aspects of the weight loss industry. She also dives into common emotions most women feel about their bodies. It’s a multi-faceted and thought-provoking book.

Like many women, I started worrying about my body at a young age. Most of my thoughts began as comments from my mother—either about her body or mine. Kazdin’s perspective on her body led her to disordered eating behaviors. While mine didn’t lead me down that path, I know many women who have experienced this. And most are still dealing with it every day, as Kazdin explains.

I hoped to better understand the situation by reading What’s Eating Us. And that’s precisely what Kazdin delivered. Now I know more about eating disorders’ mental and emotional aspects, which many people don’t readily share with others. I also learned about the sorry state of treatment options. Kazdin repeatedly reminds us that women die because of eating disorders while explaining how casually they’re treated in the mental health community. It’s chilling.

In addition, Kazdin clarifies the thin lines between wellness, weight loss, body image, and eating disorders. This topic made me increasingly aware of these topics in my own life. For example, a 70-year-old woman centers her food conversations on what is and isn’t healthy. Presented with a delicious meal, she worries about eating too many carbs instead of enjoying the meal and the company. And every day, I hear at least one woman bemoan the shape and size of her body.

My conclusions
Kazdin reminds us how constant the media’s messages about body image are. That doesn’t even count what social media “influencers” post. Through it all, she retains humor with a hearty side dose of snarky comments. The lightness is necessary since the topic regularly veers into sadder moments.

What’s Eating Us isn’t a book readers are meant to enjoy. Instead, you’ll think deeply about your body, meals, and how women are negatively impacted by the ever-present message that they aren’t good enough. I appreciate Kazdin for delving into the topic with such grace and clarity.

Pair with Girls on the Brink: Helping Our Daughters Thrive in an Era of Increased Anxiety, Depression, and Social Media by Donna Jackson Nakazawa. Together, the two books can save lives.

Acknowledgments
Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press / St. Martin’s Essentials, and the author for a digital advanced reader’s copy in exchange for this honest review. The expected publication date for this book is March 7, 2023.

It's brave to take on such a hot and deeply taboo topic such as disordered eating and American culture. Kazdin engaged me from he very beginning in her part memoir/part non-fiction investigation about eating, disorders, body image and the American healthcare system. I really appreciated the candor and well-defined research about this much experienced and seldom dissected topic. Thanks so much for a chance to read an early copy of this book!