Recommended
Reading

Would you like to recommend an item for our list? Click here to find out how.

Information

  • Fat Politics: The Real Story behind America's Obesity Epidemic
    by J. Eric Oliver

    In this book, the author, a professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, challenges the origins and myths surrounding the so-called "Obesity Epidemic" in America. He scrutinizes the BMI index, the Food Pyramid, various health studies, the wide-reaching influence of the pharmaceutical industries, media coverage and social prejudices surrounding body weight. He debunks several studies at the root of the frenzy of news coverage on the "disease" of body fat, and with the backing of extensive research, offers a glimpse of the reality behind the hype.

  • The Obesity Myth: Why America's Obsession with Weight is Hazardous to Your Health
    by Paul Campos

    NAAFA Advisory Board member and University of Colorado law professor Paul Campos questions both medical and social assumptions about weight. He builds a solid case for the lack of any scientific or medical evidence that body fat is bad. He chastises celebrities who hold up the illusion of beauty and health being defined as unnaturally (and often dangerously) thin.

  • Fat: The Anthropology of an Obsession
    Edited by Don Kulick and Anne Meneley

    A collection of essays from activists and anthropologists exploring fat as a symbol of wealth, beauty and desire in many cultures. This collection shows that the body ideal presented in mainstream media is entirely a subjective social construct. This book is at times frustrating, however, because many of the authors are biased against fat people and their writing shows it.

  • The Obesity Epidemic: Science, Morality and Ideology
    by Michael Gard and Jan Wright

    Two Australian researchers expose the "obesity epidemic" and its resulting hysteria as the result of cultural ideology, rather than science or medicine. A factual research work that cites thousands of current studies, this book is an excellent resource for medical or legal professionals who seek to understand the roots of the social phenomena of obesity.

  • Rethinking Thin: The New Science of Weight Loss--and the Myths and Realities of Dieting
    by Gina Kolata

    A comprehensive and easy to read look at the diet industry and body ideals in history. The author, a New York Times reporter, challenges modern assumptions about weight gain and loss, and points to new research that shows it isn't as simple as the diet industry would like us to believe. This work particularly dispels the assumption that "will power" is at the root of all weight.

    •        + Back to Top

  • Tipping the Scales of Justice: Fighting Weight Based Discrimination
    by Sondra Solovay

    An important, informative, and compassionate look at the social injustice directed against the overweight, including discrimination in jobs, school, entertainment, health-care and social life. Sondra is the leader of NAAFA's FLARE legal aid project. Real-world cases are examined, along with calls for reform in legal coverage for the overweight and the de-stigmatization of fat in our culture.

  • Revolting Bodies? The Struggle to Redefine Fat Identity
    by Kathleen Lebesco

    A look at the image of fat as an aesthetic ideal throughout history, and the religious and political roots of the current fat phobia in our culture. Examines whether race and class discrimination may be at the base of our society's current portrayal of fat as undesirable.

  • The Invisible Woman: Confronting Weight Prejudice in America
    by W. Charisse Goodman

    With her own life as an example, Charisse Goodman examines the prevalence of weight prejudice in society. She draws comparisons between the cultural taboo of fatness and similar social discrimination in media and society such as racism, homophobia, and anti-semitism.

  • Dispensing with the Truth: The Victims, the Drug Companies, and the Dramatic Story Behind the Battle over Fen-Phen
    by Alicia Mundy

    The book documents how the diet drug combination, Phen-fen, was approved by the FDA and then withdrawn from the market because of adverse side effects. If you think you can trust academic researchers, especially those from elite, well-known universities, read this book.

    •        + Back to Top

  • Fat Is Not a Four-Letter Word
    by Charles Roy Schroeder, Ph.D.

    A powerful expose of the diet industry, this book also shatters stereotypes and debunks myths about being fat. It goes far in combatting the internalized oppression that people experience about their weight.

  • Losing It: America's Obsession with Weight and the Industry that Feeds on It
    by Laura Fraser

    A meticulous investigation of the science and the economics driving the diet industry, this ground-breaking expose is a must-read for anyone who has been a victim of the commercial weight loss industry.

  • Never Satisfied: A Cultural History of Diets, Fantasies and Fat
    by Hillel Schwartz

    The definitive history of the evolution of American weight obsession during the past 150 years. Thorough and entertaining, it is an evocative social history.

  • Fat Shame: Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture
    by Amy Erdman Farrell

    Fat Shame is a scholarly but very readable book about how fatness has been stigmatized throughout U.S. history. Ms. Farrell presents images and text to show that fatness has been associated with loss of control and loss of status even before the perceived start of dieting crazes in the 1920s. This book is a new classic in the growing field of Fat Studies.

    •        + Back to Top

Inspiration

Self Esteem

  • FAT!SO? Because You Don't Have to Apologize for Your Size
    by Marilyn Wann

    An inspiring and often funny activity book that touts the benefits of health without the unhealthy obsession with body weight as an arbitrary measurement. By a beautiful woman (and NAAFA Board of Directors member) who never apologizes for not conforming.

  • Body Wars
    by Margo Maine

    Margo Maine looks at social assumptions and pressures concerning women's bodies, and why women in our culture are made to feel ashamed of their natural form. As Director of the Eating Disorder Program at the Institute of Living she examines how women can learn to develop healthier attitudes towards their own bodies. Designed as a guidebook for teachers and discussion groups, each chapter contains steps each woman can take for change, as well as networking sources for those who wish to take a more active role.

  • Fat Chicks Rule! How To Survive In A Thin-centric World
    by Lara Frater

    An illustrated guide for any woman who wants to live comfortably in her body in a world bombarded by unrealistic ideals of beauty. This useful and often funny book by a New York fat activist includes guides for shopping, movies, finding role-models, and generally living it up as a big, beautiful woman.

    •        + Back to Top

  • Taking Up Space: How Eating Well and Exercising Regularly Changed My Life
    by Pattie Thomas with Carl Wilkerson

    A memoir from a sociologist who studies her own life as what she calls a "reluctant warrior" against a society that has declared war on fat people. She encourages others to find their own strengths in the fight to be defined by the world as something other than Fat. Her narratives, poetry and artwork bring her own personal journey to life.

  • Self-Esteem Comes in All Sizes
    by Carol A. Johnson

    Taking the reader through a natural progression of topics one must deal with on the road to self-acceptance, this book offers exercises or affirmations at the end of each chapter. Great for newcomers to the non-dieting message as well as those who have already stopped dieting.

  • Nothing to Lose: A Guide to Sane Living in a Larger Body
    by Cheri Erdman

    A wise, compassionate, and easily readable resource helping fat women learn how to live in their large bodies.

  • Live Large! Affirmations for Living the Life You Want in the Body You Already Have
    by Cheri Erdman

    An easy-to-use, guilt-free handbook of ideas, affirmations, and actions focusing on the day-to-day, week-by-week ways in which large women can learn to live with and celebrate their bodies.

    •        + Back to Top

  • Worth Your Weight: What You Can Do About a Weight Problem
    by Barbara Altman Bruno, Ph.D

    If you've ever been criticized about your weight, this book is for you. It empowers you to take charge of your own life and make the decisions that are right for you, allowing you to move toward leading a happier, healthier, and more satisfying life.

  • Fat: A Fate Worse than Death? Women, Weight, and Appearance
    by Ruth Raymond Thone

    Using statistics, research, anecdotes, and personal experiences, this book explores how appearance standards have built a prison for women. You'll learn to express your rights and needs, regardless of your shape or size, and tear down those prison walls.

  • Overcoming Fear of Fat (Women & Therapy Series: No. 3)
    Edited by Laura S. Brown, Esther Rothblum, Ph.D.

    Experts share personal and professional experiences of challenging fat oppression. An empowering guide for fat people and their supporters.

    •        + Back to Top

  • The Forbidden Body: Why Being Fat is Not a Sin
    (Issues in Women's Health series)
    by Shelley Bovey

    A fully updated version of the 1989 classic that puts tough questions to surgeons, dieticians, and doctors, and helps women to lose guilt and inhibition, not weight.

  • Fed-Up! A Woman's Guide to Freedom from the Diet/Weight Prison
    by Terry Nicholetti Garrison with David Levitsky, Ph.D.

    The weight loss industry is selling products that dont work while convincing its customers that its their fault. Fed-Up! offers a lucid explanation of the national preoccupation with food and weight and how this problem is linked to size oppression, restrictive eating, and compulsive / addictive eating.

    •        + Back to Top

     

Body Image

Health and Fitness

  • Feminist Perspectives on Eating Disorders
    Edited by Patricia Fallon, Ph.D., Melanie Katzman, Ph.D., and Susan Wooley, Ph.D.

    Written for clinicians and researchers, this work places the anguish of women with eating disorders in the context of larger societal problems that women face.

  • Big Fat Lies: The Truth about Your Weight and Your Health
    by Glenn A. Gaesser

    Glenn Gaesser, a NAAFA Advisory Board member and professor of exercise physiology at the University of Virginia, debunks many of the common assumptions regarding body fat and the BMI method of determining ideal weight. He shows that activity level, not weight, is the primary measure of good health, and that active people who carry extra weight actually live longer than their thin but sedentary counterparts. He tackles medical and media hype, exposes many of the actual health risks of "dieting" and programs that focus entirely on weight loss.

    •        + Back to Top

  • Great Shape: The First Fitness Guide for Large Women
    by Pat Lyons, Debby Burgard

    The joy of physical movement, long denied to fat women, is celebrated in this exercise guide for large women.

  • Health Risks of Weight Loss
    by Frances M. Berg

    The latest information on the health risks of weight loss in one clear, readable resource for professionals as well as consumers.

    •        + Back to Top

Specialty Books

Art

  • Zaftig: The Case for Curves
    by Edward St. Paige

    This book celebrates zaftig women principally through its many reproductions of paintings, but also through quotations from those who argue for the attractiveness of zaftig women.

  • Women En Large: Images of Fat Nudes
    by Laurie Toby Edison and Debbie Notkin

    Over 40 black and white photographs celebrate the beauty of women all sizes of large, and the text, a discussion of the models personal experiences, expresses the diversity, beauty, health, and happiness of fat women.

  • Fernando Botero: Paintings and Drawings (Art & Design)
    Edited and with introduction by Werner Spies

    Gorgeous reproductions of the versatile and renowned artist Fernando Botero fill this book - his drawings, paintings, and sculpture. A fascinating biography and six short stories are also included.

    •        + Back to Top

Fiction

  • Such A Pretty Face
    Edited by Lee Martindale

    A collection of modern short stories, including fantasy and science fiction pieces featuring heroes and heroines with real bodies instead of the classic fantasy nymphettes and washboard abs.

  • The Strange History of Suzanne Lafleshe: And Other Stories of Women and Fatness (The Women's Stories Project)
    Edited by Susan Koppelman

    A strong collection of short stories from the past two centuries which reveal the psychological and social tensions of women and their relationship with their own bodies. An afterword helps give the stories social context and reveal their daring in their own time.

  • An Abundant Woman
    by Elizabeth Neff Walker

    A romantic novel about a plus size woman confronting fat phobia at work and in her failing marriage. She encounters a fellow doctor who helps her re-evaluate her own negative body image and find the strength to reject prejudice from others.

  • Love At Large
    Stories by Sue Ann Jaffarian, Judy Bagshaw, Nancy Trausch, Eileen Wilson, Jennifer Harrington

    A collection of short stories featuring tough, savvy, independent plus-size heroines who are comfortable in their own skin.

  • Too Big to Miss: An Odelia Grey Mystery
    by Sue Ann Jaffarian

    A mystery (first in a series) about a savvy plus-size forty-something paralegal who gets caught up in the investigation of the death of her best friend and fat activist. Funny and edgy, this is the first book by the author, and the first in the Odelia Grey Mystery series.

    •        + Back to Top

  • The Curse of the Holy Pail: An Odelia Grey Mystery
    by Sue Ann Jaffarian

    The second Odelia Grey mystery features once again the forty-something plus-size paralegal who gets caught up in a mystery as her client is murdered and a valuable item goes missing.

  • Thugs and Kisses: An Odelia Grey Mystery
    by Sue Ann Jaffarian

    The most recent Odelia Grey mystery features the savvy plus-size detective thrown into investigating the murder of a school bully at her high school class reunion, and the mysterious disappearance of her own boss.

  • Larger Than Death: A Josephine Fuller Mystery
    by Lynne Murray

    The first in the Josephine Fuller series about a plus-size woman who gets a job investigating charities for a philanthropic elderly woman. She gets caught up in the investigation of a serial killer who targets large women when she finds her own best friend has become a victim.

    •        + Back to Top

  • Large Target: A Josephine Fuller Mystery
    by Lynne Murray

    The second in the series, in which charity investigator Josephine Fuller finds herself caught up in murder and kidnapping when she's asked to investigate her boss's daughter's involvement with a fishy new-age organization.

  • At Large: A Josephine Fuller Mystery
    by Lynne Murray

    In this installment, Josephine Fuller finds herself sidetracked by the murder of her ex-husband's girlfriend and her best friend's involvement with an ex-con.

  • A Ton of Trouble: A Josephine Fuller Mystery
    by Lynne Murray

    This installment in the Josephine Fuller series features our plus-size heroine paying a visit to a winery that just happens to be run by a man who films pornography featuring plus-size actors. When a dead body is discovered in a wine barrel, the savvy investigator finds herself once again unraveling a mystery.

  • Dangerous Curves Ahead: Short Stories
    by Pat Ballard

    A collection of romantic short stories by Pat Ballard, featuring plus-size heroines.

  • Nobody's Perfect
    by Pat Ballard

    Plus-size Nella Covington agrees to a marriage of convenience with a fat-phobic man, but soon learns to stand up for herself as a human being and teaches him a new perspective on women and beauty.

  • Thinner Than Thou (an Alex Awards winner)
    by Kit Reed

    Ms. Reed captures the nightmare of being fat in America in this compelling and funny science fiction novel, set in a near-future where body obsession has become the one "true" religion, and being fat is one of the greatest sins!

    •        + Back to Top

Teen Fiction

  • The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things
    by Carolyn Mackler

    A novel for teens, from the perspective of a heavy teenager struggling to cope with a weight-obsessed mother, relationship issues, and social pressure.

  • Fat Chance
    by Leslea Newman

    Thirteen year old Judi Beth Liebowitz wishes she were thinner. As social pressures build, her wish becomes obsession, and with the influence of a popular and skinny friend she turns to bulimia. When her new friend is rushed to the hospital, Judi has to find her way back through the emotional turmoil that brought her to the bottom.

  • Life in the Fat Lane
    by Cherie Bennett

    An entertaining, clever novel for fat teens, or for those who grew up as fat teens. The story of a teenage former beauty queen's rollercoaster ride as she gains weight.

  • Fat Girl Dances With Rocks
    by Susan Stinson

    A touching novel about a fat teenage girl in love with her disco-dancing best friend. A coming of age story about discovering love, losing it, and going on, the book covers one pivotal summer in the lives of 17-year-old Char and her best friend Felice.

    •        + Back to Top

For Children and Parents