The National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) recently estimated that 20 million women (and 10 million men) will suffer from an eating disorder at some point in their lives. National Eating Disorder Awareness week is February 25 – March 3 this year. Whether you struggle with disordered eating or love someone with an eating disorder, there’s a book on this list to help guide you in eating disorder awareness.  

Eat to Love: A Mindful Guide to Transforming Your Relationship with Food, Body, and Life by Jenna Hollenstein

In Eat to Love, you’ll discover how to eat mindfully. Neither a diet book nor a manual, this book will inspire you to love your body as it is. Using a Buddhist approach, Eat to Love will reset your thinking and your relationship with food to lead you to a happier and healthier life.

End Emotional Eating: Using Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills to Cope with Difficult Emotions and Develop a Healthy Relationship to Food by Jennifer Taitz Psy.D.

Coping emotionally by eating is not the answer. This book shares scientific skills to manage your emotions so you do not get consumed with the need to eat to comfort yourself during emotional times. Focusing on DBT skills, you’ll learn how to manage feelings and live in the present.

Sad Perfect by Stephanie Elliot

Sad Perfect is the story of a girl with a unique eating disorder called ARFID. When Pea is diagnosed with it, she takes part in an outpatient program to change her relationship with food. With the support of family, friends and a new boyfriend, Pea will make her way toward recovery.

What I Lost by Alexandra Ballard

What I Lost is the fictional story of Elizabeth, who is sent to an inpatient eating disorder center after she loses 40 pounds. Determined to recover so that she can get back home and restrict food again, Elizabeth figures out that maybe her mom needs treatment too. A story about a resilient girl who takes an active part in recovery, this one will inspire and entertain.

Brave Girl Eating by Harriet Brown

Author and mother Harriet Brown shares an intimate portrayal of her daughter’s and family’s struggle with anorexia nervosa. Including scientific facts, history and their own personal journey, Brave Girl Eating is an important story of how this mental illness can affect the whole family.

Thin by Grace Bowman

An inspirational memoir about a girl who almost starved to death, Thin is an honest account of what anorexia is like. The story answers the question of whether any woman can have a normal relationship with food and will help readers understand the possibility of overcoming eating disorders.

The Girl in the Gold Bikini: My Turbulent Journey Through Food and Family by Dana Goldstein

After fighting her weight and relationship with food for 40 years, Dana Goldstein had had enough. She started to write her autobiography which turned into a personal story of acceptance because she finally discovered that people liked her the way she was. Through bad habits and triumphs, the author takes her relationship with food into her own hands and learns to love herself.

Embody: Learning to Love Your Unique Body (and quiet that critical voice!) by Connie Sobczak

Incorporating fundamental skills and the knowledge that you can live a healthy balanced lifestyle within the body you have been given, Embody inspires self-love and acceptance. With no rules to follow, you can improve the way you eat, while decreasing anxiety and gaining self-esteem so that you can live a more peaceful and mindful life.

(Feature image courtesy of @fiercereads)