How to Raise an Intuitive Eater

Book excerpt: With the wisdom of Intuitive Eating, a manifesto for parents to help them reject diet culture and raise the next generation to have a healthy relationship with food and their bodies. Kids are born intuitive eaters. Well-meaning parents, influenced by the diet culture that surrounds us all, are often concerned about how to best feed their children. Nearly everyone is talking about what to do about the childhood obesity epidemic. Meanwhile, every proposed solution for how to feed kids to promote health and prevent weight-related health concerns don’t mention the importance of one thing: a healthy relationship with food. The consequences can be disastrous and are indistinguishable from the predictable and well-researched impact that dieting has on adults. Weight cycling, low self-esteem, deviations from normal growth, and eating disorders are just some of the negative health effects children can experience from the fear-based approach to food and eating that has become the norm in our culture. Sumner Brooks and Amee Severson believe that parents want the best for their kids and know a parent’s job is to make them feel safe in the world and their bodies. They want them to grow up to be competent, healthy eaters, living their best lives in the bodies they were born to have. Intuitive Eating is more talked about than ever, and the time is now to make sure parents truly understand what it means to raise an intuitive eater. With a compassionate and relatable voice, How to Raise an Intuitive Eater is the only book of its kind to teach parents what they need to know to improve health, happiness, and wellbeing for the littlest among us.