My Copy: 9780393712322 (image from bn.com)

I will say right away: for anybody who is going through or has gone through issues with eating, this is the best book I’ve ever picked up.

8 Keys to End Emotional Eating is written by a clinical psychologist specializing in the treatment of emotional eating. There is no “special diet plan” in these pages. There is no list of foods to eat all the time, food to avoid, no recipes to try out.

No, this is a guide with steps to help you in your path to get out of the tug of war that is emotional eating and eating disorders. We have a screwed up relationship with food and it doesn’t matter if you’re overweight or not. There are some case studies in this book to review, some of which might resonate more than others. Often, the emotional eater seems to be someone trying to compensate for some stress in his or her life by either letting themselves go or giving themselves “permission to be bad” as a relief mechanism.

I’ve thought of that before, but it’s refreshing to see that someone’s approached emotional eating beyond “somebody just can’t control their eating.” That’s where a lot of “diet” books have failed. And better than that, Farkas says that when there’s a diet, people get on and then off, feeling defeated. The problem isn’t with you, but rather, the diet mentality.

I admit, I’m an impulsive person who gets “all or nothing” thinking many many times. That approach to food is full of conflict, and when you approach a simple meal that way, no wonder it might be difficult to wrestle the demons that tell you to indulge or lose control of yourself.

If there’s any book about self-help and eating habits that you’re trying to find that will actually help, I’ll nominate 8 Keys to End Emotional Eating for you to read. It’s not that long, it DOES have some questions and blanks for you to answer them, but it’s not a workbook in the classic sense.

Happy reading (and happier eating), folks.