The Religion of Thinness: Satisfying the Spiritual Hungers Behind Women's Obsession with Food and Weight Paperback – December 1, 2009

I read this book years ago, and picked it up again after hearing a recent podcast interview with the author. It was timely because I had just had my medical check up and blood work and weighing in at the doctors office which can kick off my dormant desire to find meaning and purpose in the number on my scale - the joy of being able to control my hunger and ignore my body in order to be thin and loved by the rest of the world. Dr. Lelwica helpfully highlights how an upbringing in a religious household left me open and easily swept up into the world where thinness is god - not health, or nature, or even God - and my whole day and all my thoughts can be taken up with what I have eaten, what I weigh, which recent diet to try, how much exercise did I get in, how much I hate or love how I look in the mirror. To be able to see that my openness to a religious faith-based belief system can be manipulated and taken over by a multi million dollar food and diet industry was so eye opening! And shocking. Just as a religion can easily be a cult if one does not use critical thinking and common sense, so can our thinking about wellness and health. For people who do not want to hear that a religion is also made up of mythology and story telling, this may be a tough read for you. It is also not a self help 10 step plan of how to be thin. It is a book offering a way to open your eyes and mind to the messages that can be traced back to the beginning of recorded religion about suppressing your body's internal wisdom in order to be closer to God, and suggesting that maybe we have greater purposes to pursue. Viewing these traditions with a hermeneutic of suspicion may free us to see when we are being manipulated and give us a chance to choose a different way. If being thin feels like a calling, this is an excellent book to read.

Thought-provoking book describes how seeking the endless pursuit of thinness fulfills a spiritual hunger in women, including dieting rituals, moral purity, and sacrifice. This book stands apart from the many other excellent books on eating and body issues, because it addresses the spiritual void in our culture. According to the author, the quest for a thinner body:1. Serves as an "ultimate purpose".2. Provides a set of myths to believe regarding the "rewards" of thinness.3. Offers rituals to organize the daily lives of women.4. Creates a moral code of which to live and eat by.5. Creates a common bond and a community for women.The solution offered by this Harvard-trained theologian scholar is to practice mindfulness and compassionate acceptance of your body. Notably, the author discloses her own history of suffering from an eating disorder. Many practical, here-and-now activities are laced through out the book. These exercises teach the reader how to practice being present to the feelings unwittingly masked, via the obsession with eating and body image issues.As a practitioner specializing in eating disorders, and co-author of  Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works  I highly recommend this book.

This book becomes offensive when the author calls religions myths... If she would of called it a set of beliefs it would of been an easier read. It just turned me off.....and I stopped reading it.

This book spoke to my soul. It helped me understand how I got caught up in the need to be thin in a way I hadn't heard before, but upon reading this book, made perfect sense and it allowed me to find peace in these realizations. There were sections that touched core truths and I cried and there were times where I found myself cheering myself on. I love this book because it has brought me to an awareness that i did not have before reading it - definitely 5 stars.

This book challenges your ideals about dieting and your motives for moving from one failed diet attempt to another. It puts into perspective the role that society has played in shaping unrealistic expectations of how women should look and how we respond to this expectation. The book provides you with tools you can use to move beyond these expectations and really start to work on the true issues that plague you in order to have the peace that is already within us. I recommend this book to anyone who is more than the latest diet craze.

Excellent book. Mind blowing and intelligent. A great book for anyone recovering from an eating disorder or anyone who needs to get more support in leaving the religion of diet culture and fat phobia.For anyone who is Christian, this book is not for those who are fundamentalists or believe the Bible is factual.It is for people who are looking for spirituality not religion.

I was forced to read this against my will for a Psychology class on Eating Disorder. This book doesn't feel like an authority on the subject but rather a self-help book. There were two examples I liked from the book to illustrate a concept - but that is in the >250 pages of reading. This is just a warning, stay away from this book if you have a choice between reading this and another book for extra credit.

This book finally articulated what I'd come to suspect after a decade-long eating disorder... It is brilliant, compassionate, and healing to read.

I LOVE this book! Full to the brim of a-ha movements about how we are sneakily coerced into dieting by the media and our current pop culture, and why we resort to restriction when we feel 'less than' or lack fulfilment.