So, you’ve heard about intuitive eating before, but you aren’t quite sure what it is or how to implement it into your everyday life. Before beginning your journey, it’s important to educate yourself so you can be as informed as possible going in. This list of the best intuitive eating books can be a great way to start out.
Several of these books lay a foundation to what intuitive eating is and how to start implementing it.
Other books work to enhance your knowledge and present more evidence supporting intuitive eating and it’s various principles.
Each of the authors are well informed on intuitive eating and why it works. They each provide a valuable perspective and helpful tips to actually implementing it.
With these seven best intuitive eating books, you will find that you will have all the knowledge you need to implement intuitive eating into your life seamlessly.
The 7 Best Intuitive Eating Books
1. Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch
If I had to choose just one book to explain intuitive eating to a beginner, this would be it, which it why it is #1 on the best intuitive eating books list. This book was actually written by the inventors of intuitive eating, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch.
They are both registered dietitians with years of experience working with clients. They have used the intuitive eating method for a long time and are truly the experts.
After discovering that their clients were not responding well to the traditional methods of nutrition counseling, such as prescribing meal plans and set caloric intakes, they began to test out what is now known as intuitive eating.
They found that this method was incredibly successful and led to long term health benefits, while their previous methods were unsustainable and ineffective for their clients.
The book outlines the 10 principles of intuitive eating and how to implement them. If you are a beginner, I highly recommend beginning with this book and working from there.
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2. The Intuitive Eating Workbook by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch
Recently, the same authors of Intuitive Eating came out with a workbook to accompany the book.
I would highly recommend purchasing this book alongside the original Intuitive Eating book. It provides practical and everyday exercises to help implement the principles outlined in the original book.
When first beginning to try out intuitive eating, this book will serve as a great guide to help to follow each principle.
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3. Anti Diet by Christy Harrison
This book recently came out and quickly became a fan favorite of the intuitive eating community. Written by registered dietitian Christy Harrison, this book goes into detail about the research behind intuitive eating and why traditional dieting does not work.
Christy also goes as far as to explain the ramifications of diet culture and yo yo dieting on society and culture as a whole, and how intuitive eating can not only be used as a way to eat, but as a way to make social change.
Evelyn Tribole herself, the co author of Intuitive Eating, praises this book for connecting the link between intuitive eating and social justice.
The author Christy is also very active on social media and has a podcast, Food Psych, that is 100% free and very informative. If you are interested, I would recommend checking out her podcast, and if it’s your style, purchasing the book to go more into depth about intuitive eating and diet culture!
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4. The F*ck It Diet by Caroline Dooner
If you are looking for an informative and entertaining book on intuitive eating, this is the one for you. The author, Caroline, is quite charming (if you are ok with profanity of course) and knows her stuff.
She attacks the idea that failing a diet is your fault, and instead shifts your mindset. Because maybe it’s the diet that is a failure, not you! Like Christy, she combats diet culture and points out it’s many flaws.
The focus on the book is to help chronic dieters break free from the yo yo dieting cycle of failure. If you feel like you are constantly jumping from diet to diet, this book is absolutely perfect for you.
5. Health at Every Size by Linda Bacon
This is a very interesting and informative read that may challenge many traditional beliefs you may still hold. The main purpose of this book is to argue that being “fat” or “overweight” is not the health threat that we have always thought.
The author argues that your weight isn’t a good indicator of your overall health and presents a plethora of information supporting this claim.
You’ll be surprised at all the supporting evidence and perhaps this book will even convince you that weight isn’t the end all be all of health.
This book ties perfect into intuitive eating since the focus of intuitive eating is creating a healthy relationship with food, which includes giving up the desire to lose weight. This book helps you realize why weight isn’t a huge deal and how you can reach your health goals without losing weight.
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6. Body Respect by Linda Bacon
Also written by Linda Bacon, this book is a great addition to Health at Every Size. In this book, she goes into more detail about the political side of diet culture and goes into detail about more criticisms of BMI and weight as health indicators.
If you have read Health at Every Size and still feel like you need a little extra information, I highly suggest this book.
7. Body Kindness by Rebecca Strichfield
This book is another great addition to the best intuitive eating books. The author, Rebecca, goes into more detail about how to transform your health without losing weight or jumping from fad diet to fad diet.
I love this book because it goes into detail about the mental health aspect of diet culture and yo yo dieting. She explains how you can become a healthier person without the emotional stress of dieting.
She uses an intuitive eating approach to achieve better health outcomes, which is why this is a great addition to the best intuitive eating books for beginners.
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As you can see, there is plenty of research about intuitive eating and it’s positive health benefits. These authors do a wonderful job of explaining what intuitive eating is, why it works, and how to implement it into your life.
Of course, if you feel like you need more individualized guidance, you can work with an intuitive eating dietitian. You can use this link to find one near you.
If you want to learn more about my journey and how intuitive eating has changed my life, click here.
