If you’re ready to ditch the diet (or at least think about it), this list of the best books on intuitive eating can get you started and keep you inspired.
When all you’ve known is diet culture– hello diet ads, celebrity-endorsed diet pills, stick-thin models in every magazine, and diet talk at the kitchen table– not dieting sounds, well...crazy.
Doesn’t that mean you’re letting yourself go? Are you just going to eat whatever you want now? What about your health? These questions are completely normal and honestly expected! One of the best things you can do is intentionally immerse yourself in the world of not-dieting.
It’s a big, beautiful world filled with compassion, health, respect, mindfulness, and gentle nutrition practices that benefit your physical and mental health. One of the greatest ways to keep a steady stream of anti-dietness in your life is by reading or listening to intuitive eating books.
Whether you like reading up on science or just the witty and relatable life lessons it teaches us, there’s a book here for you to love.
Since Amazon is often a go-to for book purchases, I’ve included links to purchase the books or audiobooks there.
But, if you want to go the sustainable secondhand route, Thriftbooks is my favorite place to get gently used books to give an old book new life. (Use the link above to save $30 after your first order with them).
Top intuitive eating books to dive into
Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach | Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch
The book that started it all. Two dietitians realized how harmful traditional weight-loss counseling was, even when “healthy” behaviors were encouraged to lose weight. They used their experience and research to create a program to help people reconnect to their bodies to improve their health and well-being without dieting. Fast forward to today where 100’s of studies have been done to prove this way of eating and living is beneficial to emotional and physical health. This is the perfect book to learn the steps and the science behind intuitive eating.
Anti-Diet | Christy Harrison
In her book, Christy exposes diet culture for what it is: a multibillion-dollar industry that profits from taking your happiness, time, money, and health. This book will make you question everything you thought you knew about health and wellness while helping you to reclaim the life you deserve.
Fitness for Every Body | Meg Boggs
Not necessarily a book about intuitive eating, but still just as important. Eating, exercise, and how you view and treat your body is connected in every way. If you struggle with exercising for reasons other than controlling your body or managing weight, then this book is a must-read.
Intuitive Eating for Life: How Mindfulness Can Deepen and Sustain Your Intuitive Eating Practice | Jenna Hollenstein
Even once you know what intuitive eating is, you may have trouble staying on track and not falling back into your old diet patterns. This book brings mindfulness into your practice to help you look at intuitive eating in a whole new way. The book teaches you how to incorporate mindfulness of body, feeling, mind, and dhammas to stay on the path of intuitive eating and improve your mental and physical health along the way.
The Intuitive Eating Plan: A Body-Positive Approach to Rebuilding Your Relationship with Food | Kristen Ackerman
This is the interactive book you need to learn what intuitive eating is, how it can help, and put everything you learn into practice. Kristen is an intuitive eating dietitian who has helped many clients heal their relationship with food and brings her real-world experience right to you. Her body-positive and practical approach to healing and eating becomes simplified as the book helps you set SMART goals and document your progress through meaningful journal prompts and questions.
Gentle Nutrition | Rachael Hartley
If you’re wondering, “But what about nutrition?!” Rachael has that covered in her book on gentle nutrition. Most of what you’ve learned about nutrition from the media, your aunt Susan, and healthy living influencers isn’t helpful (or necessarily true). This book and recipes will help you discover how to eat in a way that feels good and is good for you without turning it into a diet.
Body Respect | Linda Bacon and Lucy Aphramor
Our society has it all wrong when it comes to wellness. This book does an amazing job using science to prove that weight loss, BMI, and pursuing the magic weight, diet, or exercise program are not the keys to health. If you’re stuck on the idea that you need to be a certain weight to be healthy, then get this book into your hands or ears ASAP.
Just Eat It | Laura Thomas
A relatable and funny book to help you get out of the diet cycle. If you’ve read intuitive eating and need a new perspective on the concept, this book will help you put the trust back into your body where it belongs.
Body Kindness | Rebecca Scritchfield
This is one of my absolute favorite books and one of the first books I read that hooked on intuitive eating. What and how we eat is only one piece of the puzzle. If you’re looking for a book that is a beginner approach to not dieting and also encompasses every other area of respecting yourself and your body- this is it.
Eat to Love | Jenna Hollenstein
This book focuses on mindfulness and meditation to help you identify and overcome the food rules that are holding you back. Reading and doing the exercises will help you heal your mind, body, and food connection to be more at peace with yourself and the food you eat.
If books aren’t your thing, you can check out my intuitive eating for beginners guide to dive into even more ways to get started on your intuitive eating journey!
Check out these other helpful resources!
Have you read any of the intuitive eating books on the list? What books have I missed? Tell me in the comments!
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