BREAKING FREE FROM COMPULSIVE EATING

Lively, understanding encouragement in breaking loose from dieting--and also from the self-disgust that often accompanies overweight. Roth explained her problems with compulsive eating in Feeding the Hungry Heart (1982); here, she tries to synthesize her experiences into a program to help others. Her basic idea is sound: after years of dieting, the body is so confused that it no longer recognizes hunger and will not lose weight, even on a strenuous low-calorie plan. To learn more normal eating habits, she correctly observes, the most important single step is to learn to listen to one's body--both as to when it's hungry and what food it wants. Many others have explained this concept more completely, and advised how to put it into action (especially see Bennett & Gurin, The Dieter's Dilemma and Polivy & Herman, Breaking the Diet Habit); Roth's chief contribution is reassurance. She has been through all this, and knows that, though there may be an initial weight gain, readers won't disappear into a sea of fat; rather, they'll be able to revise their eating habits, lose weight without extreme deprivation, and dump some of the guilt they've been hauling around about their looks and lack of self-control. Turn to others for specifics, look to Roth for peer support.