A Canadian counselor seeks to help people struggling with food addiction in this self-help book.

In these pages, Elia aims to help suffering food addicts find a way to achieve peace—or a sense of neutrality—with food. The recovery program she developed, which draws on her own experience of significant weight loss and years of study and recovery, is based on three pillars: “Eliminate trigger foods” (“those that we are compulsively drawn to eat, even when we’re not hungry”), “Develop spirituality and mindfulness,” and “Belong to a support network.” The author gleaned these concepts and much of her program from her time as a member of Overeaters Anonymous, a program based on the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous. She notes that although many levels of society have accepted the idea that alcoholics should abstain from drinking alcohol, she’s found that there’s great resistance to the notion of abstaining from certain foods that cause cravings—particularly processed sugar and flour. Throughout, Elia and those she’s helped effectively point out the food industry’s culpability in this epidemic, and “the way this industry has exploited—and continues to exploit—emerging science to create chemically-engineered substances designed to make certain foods more addictive.” To help readers hoping to overcome food addiction, Elia offers meaningful writing exercises, asking such questions as “Does the scale determine if it is going to be a good day or a bad day?” and “Does it dictate whether you are a good or bad person?” However, the book could have more strongly acknowledged that the 12-step program that boosted the author’s recovery may be a better solution for many readers than a self-help book alone.

A powerful work by a recovering food addict that may help those going through similar struggles.