What makes fad diets so appealing to so many people? How did there get to be so many different ones, often with eerily similar prescriptions? Why do people cycle on and off diets, perpetually searching for that one simple trick that will solve everything? And how did these fads become so central to conversations about food and nutrition? Anxious Eaters shows that fad diets are popular because they fulfill crucial social and psychological needs—which is also why they tend to fail. Janet Chrzan and Kima Cargill bring together anthropology, psychology, and nutrition to explore what these programs promise yet rarely fulfill for dieters. They demonstrate how fad diets help people cope with widespread anxieties and offer tantalizing glimpses of attainable self-transformation. Chrzan and Cargill emphasize the social contexts of diets, arguing that beliefs about nutrition are deeply rooted in pervasive cultural narratives. Although people choose to adopt new eating habits for individual reasons, broader forces shape why fad diets seem to make sense. 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, it offers new ways of understanding the popularity of a wide range of eating trends, including the Atkins Diet and other low- or no-carb diets; beliefs that ingredients like wheat products and sugars are toxic, allergenic, or addictive; food avoidance and “Clean Eating” practices; and paleo or primal diets. Anxious Eaters sheds new light on why people adopt such diets and why these diets remain so attractive even though they often fail.

How can grasshoppers help parents and feeding professionals teach anxious eaters about new foods? Marsha Dunn Klein, an internationally-known feeding therapist, provides the answer in this book—highlighting that most anxious eaters do not enjoy the sensations and varibility of new foods. In seeking to help them, she asks what you’d need to do to help yourself try a worrisome new food, such as a grasshopper. Drawing on her own experience trying grasshoppers while learning Spanish in Mexico, she personalizes the struggle of children to find new food enjoyment, providing a goldmine of practical, proven, and compassionate strategies for parents and professionals who work with anxious eaters. Learn how to: • find peace and enjoyment during mealtimes; • find ways to help anxious eaters fearlessly try new foods; • navigate the sensory variations in food smells, tastes, textures looks, sounds: and • help anxious eaters (and their parents) develop a more positive relationship with food. Because parents are absolutely central to mealtime success, the author incorporates parent insights throughout the book. Using encouragement, novelty, and fun, she invites everyone back to the table with a sensitive and pressure-free approach.

How can grasshoppers help parents and feeding professionals teach anxious eaters about new foods? Marsha Dunn Klein, an internationally-known feeding therapist, provides the answer in this book--highlighting that most anxious eaters do not enjoy the sensations and varibility of new foods. In seeking to help them, she asks what you'd need to do to help yourself try a worrisome new food, such as a grasshopper. Drawing on her own experience trying grasshoppers while learning Spanish in Mexico, she personalizes the struggle of children to find new food enjoyment, providing a goldmine of practical, proven, and compassionate strategies for parents and professionals who work with anxious eaters. Learn how to: - find peace and enjoyment during mealtimes; - find ways to help anxious eaters fearlessly try new foods; - navigate the sensory variations in food smells, tastes, textures looks, sounds: and - help anxious eaters (and their parents) develop a more positive relationship with food. Because parents are absolutely central to mealtime success, the author incorporates parent insights throughout the book. Using encouragement, novelty, and fun, she invites everyone back to the table with a sensitive and pressure-free approach.

Initially developed by co-author Cheri Fraker in the course of treating an eleven-year-old who ate nothing but peanut butter, bread, and milk,Food Chainingis a breakthrough approach for dealing with picky eating and feeding problems at any age.Food Chainingemphasizes the relationship between foods in regard to taste, temperature, and texture. InFood Chaining, the internationally known feeding team behind this unique method shows how to help your child enjoy new and nutritious foods, no matter what the nature of his picky eating. The guide also includes information on common food allergies, improving eating skills, advice specific to special needs kids, and a pre-chaining program to help prevent food aversions before they develop.Food Chainingwill help you raise a lifelong healthy eater.

Eating Anxiety argues that our culture's obsession with diet, obesity, meat, and local foods enacts ideological and biopolitical responses to perceived threats to both individual and national sovereignty. Exploring discourses of food politics, Chad Lavin links the concerns of food--especially issues of sustainability, public health, and inequality--to the evolution of the world order and the possibilities for democratic rule.

It’s remarkable how much the foods we eat can impact our brain chemistry and emotions. What and when we eat can make the difference between feeling anxious and staying calm and in control. But most of us don’t realize how much our diets influence our moods, thoughts, and feelings until we make a change. In The Antianxiety Food Solution, you’ll find four unique antianxiety diets designed to help you address nutritional deficiencies that may be at the root of your anxiety and enjoy the many foods that foster increased emotional balance. This helpful guide allows you to choose the best plan for you and incorporates effective anxiety-busting foods and nutrients. You’ll soon be on the path to freeing yourself from anxiety—and enjoying an improved overall mood, better sleep, fewer cravings, and optimal health—the natural way! The book also includes an easy-to-use index. In The Antianxiety Food Solution, you’ll discover: How to assess your diet for anxiety-causing and anxiety-calming foods and nutrients Foods and nutrients that balance your brain chemistry Which anxiety-triggering foods and drinks you may need to avoid Easy lifestyle changes that reduce anxiety and increase happiness

In Helping Your Child with Extreme Picky Eating, a family doctor specializing in childhood feeding joins forces with a speech pathologist to help you support your child’s nutrition, healthy growth, and end meal-time anxiety (for your child and you) once and for all. Are you parenting a child with ‘extreme’ picky eating? Do you worry your child isn’t getting the nutrition he or she needs? Are you tired of fighting over food, suspect that what you’ve tried may be making things worse, but don’t know how to help? Having a child with ‘extreme’ picky eating is frustrating and sometimes scary. Children with feeding disorders, food aversions, or selective eating often experience anxiety around food, and the power struggles can negatively impact your relationship with your child. Children with extreme picky eating can also miss out on parties or camp because they can’t find “safe” foods. But you don’t have to choose between fighting over every bite and only serving a handful of safe foods for years on end. Helping Your Child with Extreme Picky Eating offers hope, even if your child has “failed” feeding therapies before. After gaining a foundation of understanding of your child’s challenges and the dynamics at play, you’ll be ready for the 5 steps (built around the clinically proven STEPS+ approach—Supportive Treatment of Eating in PartnershipS) that transform feeding and meals so your child can learn to enjoy a variety of foods in the right amounts for healthy growth. You’ll discover specific strategies for dealing with anxiety, low appetite, sensory challenges, autism spectrum-related feeding issues, oral motor delay, and medically-based feeding problems. Tips and exercises reinforce what you’ve learned, and dozens of “scripts” help you respond to your child in the heat of the moment, as well as to others in your child’s life (grandparents or your child’s teacher) as you help them support your family on this journey. This book will prove an invaluable guide to restore peace to your dinner table and help you raise a healthy eater.