Sometimes it feels like everyone has an opinion on what you should or shouldn’t eat—and with those opinions come judgments about what you should or shouldn’t look like. Suddenly, a concern about our bodies has driven our minds into anxiety, insecurity, and maybe even disordered eating.
So while it’s difficult enough to figure out which diets really work, it’s possibly even more tricky to understand what our relationship to diets should be. Should we really worry about sticking to them? Should we be recommending them to our friends, siblings, children? Fortunately, the five excellent books below begin to untangle these pressing questions.
Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture
By Virginia Sole-Smith
An acclaimed journalist examines the daily onslaught of fatphobia and body shaming that kids face from school, sports, doctors, diet culture, and parents themselves―and offers strategies for how families can change the conversation around weight, health, and self-worth. Listen to our Book Bite Summary, read by author Virginia Sole-Smith, in the Next Big Idea App
What’s Eating Us: Women, Food, and the Epidemic of Body Anxiety
By Cole Kazdin
Blending personal narrative and investigative reporting, an Emmy Award-winning journalist reveals that disordered eating is an epidemic crisis killing millions of women. Listen to our Book Bite Summary, read by author Cole Kazdin, in the Next Big Idea App
I’m So Effing Hungry: Why We Crave What We Crave—and What to Do About It
By Amy Shah
A leading medical doctor—and the Instagram personality @fastingmd—shares her proven 5-step program for battling excessive hunger and food cravings by harnessing the power of psychobiotics and intermittent fasting. Listen to our Book Bite Summary, read by author Amy Shah, in the Next Big Idea App
What Your Food Ate: How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health
By Anne Biklé and David Montgomery
The roots of good health start on farms. What Your Food Ate marshals evidence from recent and forgotten science to illustrate how the health of the soil ripples through to that of crops, livestock, and ultimately us. Listen to our Book Bite Summary, read by co-author Anne Biklé, in the Next Big Idea App
Anxious Eaters: Why We Fall for Fad Diets
By Janet Chrzan and Kima Cargill
Considering dietary beliefs and practices in terms of culture, nutrition, and individual psychological needs, Anxious Eaters refrains from moralizing or promoting a “right” way to eat, instead offering new ways of understanding the popularity of a wide range of eating trends. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by co-author Janet Chrzan, in the Next Big Idea App
The Key Ideas in 15 Minutes
“If you are going to get anywhere in life, you have to read a lot of books,” Roald Dahl once famously said. The only trouble is, reading even one book from cover to cover takes hours—and you may not have many hours to spare.
But imagine for a moment: What if you could read a groundbreaking new book every day? Or even better, what if you could invite a world-renowned thinker into your earbuds, where they personally describe the 5 key takeaways from their work in just 15 minutes?
With the Next Big Idea App, we’ve turned this fantasy into a reality. We partnered with hundreds of acclaimed authors to create “Book Bites,” short audio summaries of the latest nonfiction that are prepared and read aloud by the authors themselves. Discover cutting-edge leadership skills, productivity hacks, the science of happiness and well-being, and much more—all in the time it takes to drive to work or walk the dog.
Go Deeper with a Next Big Idea Club Membership
The Next Big Idea App is free for anyone to try—and if you love it, we invite you to become an official member of the Next Big Idea Club. Membership grants you unlimited access to Book Bites and unlocks early-release, ad-free episodes of our LinkedIn-partnered podcast. You also gain entry to our private online discussion group, where you can talk big ideas with fellow club members and join exclusive live Q&A sessions with featured authors.
For a more focused learning experience, we recommend a Hardcover or eBook Membership. Every few months, legendary authors and club curators Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, Adam Grant, and Daniel Pink select two new nonfiction books as the must-reads of the season. We then send hardcover copies straight to your doorstep, or eBook versions to your favorite digital device. We also collaborate with the authors of selected books to produce original reading guides and premium video e-courses, 50-minute master classes that take you step by step through their most life-changing ideas. And yes, it’s all available through the Next Big Idea App.
Learn Faster, from the World’s Leading Thinkers
Whether you prefer to read, listen, or watch, the Next Big Idea is here to help you work smarter and live better. Wake up with an always-fresh Idea of the Day, the perfect shot of inspiration to go with your morning coffee. Then dive into one of our Challenges, hand-picked collections of Book Bites that form crash courses in subjects like communication, motivation, and career acceleration. Later, watch the playback of an interview with U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Stanford psychologist Jennifer Eberhardt, or philosopher John Kaag. And be sure to check the “Events” tab in the app, so that you can join an upcoming live Q&A and personally chat with the next featured thought leader.
If you’re hoping to grow as a person or as a professional, we hope you’ll join us and tens of thousands of others who enjoy the Next Big Idea. Get started by downloading the app today!
