The Eating Instinct

Food Culture, Body Image, and Guilt in America

By: Virginia Sole-Smith

Narrated by: Julie McKay

An exploration, both personal and deeply reported, of how we learn to eat in today's toxic food culture.

Food is supposed to sustain and nourish us. Eating well, any doctor will tell you, is the best way to take care of yourself. Feeding well, any human will tell you, is the most important job a mother has. But for too many of us, food now feels dangerous. We parse every bite we eat as good or bad and judge our own worth accordingly.

When her newborn daughter stopped eating after a medical crisis, Virginia Sole-Smith spent two years teaching her how to feel safe around food again - and in the process, realized just how many of us are struggling to do the same thing.

The Eating Instinct visits kitchen tables around America to tell Sole-Smith's own story, as well as the stories of women recovering from weight-loss surgery, of people who eat only nine foods, of families with unlimited grocery budgets, and those on food stamps.

Every struggle is unique. But Sole-Smith shows how they're also all products of our modern food culture. And they're all asking the same questions: How did I learn to eat this way? Why is it so hard to feel good about food? And how can I make it better?

©2018 Virginia Sole-Smith (P)2018 Tantor

Thought provoking!

I found the narrator’s style off putting but the content of the book was interesting and makes you examine your own relationship with food and food culture in this country. A useful read for any of us with children too!

Brilliant.

The narration was kind of terrible, but honestly the information in the book was so amazing, that it could have been read by Squidward and I would have still enjoyed it.

Good book to fall asleep too! :)

I like to put this book on when I’m going to bed. The voice acting is soothing and the story is interesting.

Essential reading for parents and humans of all shapes and sizes

If you are a human being who eats food and/or are raising a human being who eats food, you need to read this book. If you’ve ever wondered why your relationship with food and your body feels messy, confusing, or concerning, you need to read this book. If you are looking for well-researched and human-centered talking points about diet culture and food in our society and personal lives, you need to read this book. Virginia Sole Smith is an author and podcaster that I have come to really respect and admire in the last couple of years, and I am so glad I finally read this book.

very interesting read

I found thus book very informative and thought provoking. Looking at the "diet trends" "health and wellness" influencer's and companies a little different. will for sure be looking at intuitive eating a little more.

Well researched

Important considerations and myth debunking. Many perspectives discussed which I really appreciated. Powerful personal experiences included by author.

Not at all what I expected

Three chapters in and it is STILL about being pregnant or after delivery. I was under the impression this book was about more than just that. Boring!