Product Description

Bestselling author and nutritionist Debra Waterhouse, whose revolutionary "Outsmarting the Female Fat Cell" has helped millions lose weight permanently, now addresses the most profound psychological influences on a woman's eating patterns: their mothers. Here she gives solid advice on how to break these unhealthy patterns. BOMC Selection. Charts & graphs .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1173762 in Books
• Published on: 1998-03-30
• Released on: 1998-03-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
An obsession with dieting can actually cause weight gain, according to Waterhouse, a California research nutritionist. In summaries of dozens of studies and interviews, she shows how the height/weight charts have changed since the 1960s, how mothers protect their daughters from fat and thereby undernourish them and how girls, by age five, are diet-conscious. She cites a University of California study indicating that 80% of American girls are dieting by age 10. How to regain common sense about body shape, weight and food? The clue, Waterhouse states, is getting mothers free of a punishing culture so they in turn can free their daughters to find comfort in their body's healthy weight. Low-fat foods may actually contribute to weight gain: "Fat-free Fig Newtons contain 110 calories per serving; so do the regular Fig Newtons." Humor is used well throughout: "Scales are for fish, not for women." This book is filled with sensible tips for breaking the dieting habit and self-rating exercises to improve one's relationship with food.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Since many women are obsessed with thinness, they diet in pursuit of their ideal body image. These women learned to diet from their mothers and will, in turn, teach their daughters by example. Waterhouse (Why Women Need Chocolate, LJ 9/1/94), a dietitian and former anorexic, wants to break this vicious cycle by teaching women to have a healthy relationship with food so that they will be positive role models for their daughters. She advocates common-sense measures such as eating a wide variety of foods in moderation, balancing food intake with exercise, and encouraging a positive body image. She offers practical suggestions for modifying eating and exercise patterns in order to achieve a healthy lifestyle. Unlike Kim Chernin's The Hungry Self: Women, Eating & Identity (LJ 6/15/85), which explores only the psychological aspects of eating disorders, this book deals with making behavior changes that improve both physical health and parental relationships. Highly recommended for all collections.?Barbara M. Bibel, Oakland P.L., Cal.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
By age nine, 50 percent of all girls have begun restrictive diets, claims Waterhouse, author of Outsmarting the Female Fat Cell (1993) and Why Women Need Chocolate (1995). She further suggests that women are their own worst enemies. They learn their body's insecurities and disordered eating habits from their mothers and pass them on to their daughters. Women, says Waterhouse, have learned "body hatred" from a generation of moms who leaped on the Twiggy dieting bandwagon 30 years ago when self-worth was equated with weight loss. In an attempt to combat today's motto of "Don't eat, don't drink, and be merry," Waterhouse explains how disordered eating begins and tells how to break the generational chain of destructive eating by replacing it with "instinctive eating" that allows women to eat when and what their bodies tell them. Waterhouse explodes myths such as "pseudodieting," in which women cut fat but often load up on calories, and promotes nutrition that is a blend of variety, moderation, and balance. Patricia Hassler

Customer Reviews

WOW! If ever a book was a mirror...
Having spent 14 of the 20 years of my life dieting, starving, compulsively eating, and purging, this book opened my eyes as to where it all stemmed from... My mother's own battles with weight and her fear of me growing up to be like her. This book brings to light shocking information on the damaging effects of dieting, gives supportive advice on changing dieting habits as a team with your mother or daughter, and stresses the importance of eliminating guilt and blame from the mother/daughter relationship. A wonderful book for either/both a mother and daughter.

"variety, moderation and balance" Very Inspiring
If there is one thing,but there were many,that I got from this book is that the Love of food and dining my mother has shared with me is healthy. For the rest of the women who are in the a constant state of "diet" Ms. Waterhouse explains that you need only trust you own body to find its balance. Very Zen

Thought-provoking
This book has eye-opening information, especially for women who are either chronic dieters or whose mothers were. My mother wasn't a dieter -- just a tremendously successful overeater. I found that this book has less information for overeaters than it does for people who continuously "diet". It is still a fabulous book, though -- I wish every mother in America would read it!