Nutrition & Body Books for Adults

Are you looking for a gift with a theme of body positivity, self care, or leaving diets behind? We hope you enjoyed our first post with a list of books for parents, caregivers and kids that would make great gifts. We’ve now pulled together a list of our favorite nutrition and body books for adults.

There’s so much media out there telling us that we need to do more and that we’re not enough. These books strive to be the antithesis of that. Do you or someone on your list need a bit more self focus or TLC?

Would you like to spread the non-diet message this holiday season? Maybe, introduce or reintroduce someone on your list to the idea that controlling your body or making yourself smaller doesn’t solve problems. Or, buy one of these fabulous books for yourself and focus on your own self care next year.

7 Nutrition and Body Books for Adults:

1. Eating Instinct by: Virginia Sole-Smith Sole-Smith became interested in how we learn to eat the way we do, when her own infant daughter stopped eating. She realized that so many of us struggle with eating and set out to understand why.

This book asks three important questions: How did we learn to eat this way? Why is it so hard to feel good about food? And how can we make it better? It is so refreshing for someone outside of the eating disorders field to fully “get” the complexities of food, nutrition and why people eat the way they do.

2. Body Respect: What Conventional Health Books Get Wrong, Leave Out, and Just Plain Fail to Understand About Weight by: Linda Bacon and Lucy Aphramor Linda Bacon, the author of Health at Every Size, co-wrote this book that is powerful and eye-opening! It’s a quicker and easier read than Bacon’s first book and breaks down both the research, but also importance, of treating people with respect and kindness, including ourselves. This is a great book for anyone who is ready to leave diets behind and wants to understand why weight does not define health.

3. Intuitive Eating book or workbook by: Elyse Resch and Evelyn Tribole Intuitive Eating helps the reader break free from diet culture and return to using internal cues. The authors published The Intuitive Eating Workbook in 2016 and it has been a fabulous resource with actionable steps.

4. EveryBody Yoga: Let Go of the Fear, Get on the Mat, Love Your Body by: Jessamyn Stanley This book, complete with fabulous photos of yoga poses for the reader to be able to learn, is the first of its kind. You see many different bodies in the photos and it is certainly free of body based or diet talk, as many “fitness” books include. Stanley, a native North Carolinian, shares her own journey into the yoga field.

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5. Your Body is Not An Apology – Sonya Renee Taylor During a time when the world feels so unjust and unkind, Taylor offers the concept that radical self-love as a place to start to not only change our relationship with our own body, but also can be a powerful catalyst for change in our world. Taylor challenges to reader to leave behind shame and not apologize for the powerful body you have.

6. Eating in the Light of the Moon by: Anita Johnson This book, first published in 1996, uses metaphors and stories to help the reader investigate their relationship with food and weight. This is one of my very favorite books and truly a gem to have on one’s bedside table.

7. Mindful Eating Workbook by: Vincci Tsui This brand new book can be preordered now. Written by an expert HAES Registered Dietitian in the field, this workbook is sure to be a fabulous resource for my clients. The cover looks beautiful and will make a very special gift. I’v preordered mine!

Do you have one of these books? We’d love to hear what your favorite book is and how it has helped you.

*Sunny Side Up Nutrition is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and the books listed above are affiliate links. Thank you for supporting our efforts to promote positive relationships with food.