Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating

I was interested in the idea of intuitive eating and was hoping I could learn something on the topic from this book. I was disappointed. There were only mentions of intuitive eating, but no science or practical tips. The book is a long, repetitive tirade against the "diet culture". While I agree that the diet culture is harmful, I think the rants of few pages long would be quite enough. But the book was stretched to 280 pages, which seems to be the obligatory minimum for non-fiction books these days.

The author is not a scientist, she is a propagandist. Harrison justly compares dieting and wellness to a cult, but is the cultist herself. She is dogmatic about the "anti-dieting". This looks like replacing one "religion" with another.

Harrison blurs the line between opinion and fact. She cites well established publications and disprove them saying "correlation is not causation". However, this rule is discarded, when it supports her own hypothesis. Publications, findings and arguments are cherry-picked to help her case. Be very, very cautious when reading this book.

I already accept that HAES is best practice healthcare. I believe that diet culture is toxic and a LOT of people who think they are living healthy lives are actually caught up in incredibly disordered behavior. I accept that ED treatment should be uncoupled from weight loss. What I'm looking for is a book to recommend to friends and family who are willing to learn more, but are currently still heavily invested in diet culture. What I want from such a book (followed by a note identifying whether I feel this book met that criterion):

-an appeal to basic respect for all people, regardless of their body shape (yes)
-an acknowledgement that not all people are currently at their optimal weight (no)
-an acknowledgement that not being at our optimal weight can contribute to negative health outcomes (no)
-a convincing argument that intentionally attempting to achieve our optimal weight through behavior change is not just futile, but actively harmful to our health (yes)
-a comprehensive summary of peer-reviewed research showing that, since 1969, studies consistently find that 90-95% of people who intentionally lose weight by dieting regain it within 6-24 months, that 24 months is not "long-term" when examining weight maintenance, and that a truly long-term study of 5 to 10 years would show even higher rates of weight regain (yes, and discusses this issue for bariatric surgery as well)
-a discussion of "cognitive restriction" and its negative health consequences (no)
-a definition of "diet", including an explanation for why Weight Watchers IS a diet, even in its current formulation (yes, but could be better)
-an acknowledgement that the fundamental difference between intuitive eating/eating disorder treatment and prescriptive diets is the goal/philosophy/motivators for behavior change (weight-neutral self-care vs. weight loss), NOT in the lifestyle recommendations (eat a "varied" / "balanced" diet, get more exercise/movement) (no)
-an acknowledgement of the tension between HAES's recognition that lifestyle choices play only a small role in our overall health outcomes and simultaneous expectation that people to work toward lifestyle changes (yes)
-an acknowledgement that in our society as it exists, complete with fatphobia and diet culture, profound social inequality, inaccessible child care options, oppression and marginalization of essentially every social group except rich cis/het white men, and a pathological obsession with the virtue of work, asking people to do the work of body acceptance and intuitive eating takes time and energy that many, many people simply don't have, and will not have without widespread social change (yes)

This book is pretty close to everything I want. I wish it talked a bit more about eating disorders especially binge eating disorder, and went into some detail about why a focus on weight loss on BED treatment is counterproductive. I'm reading the new I edition of Intuitive Eating next and between them I think I'll have a good recommendation.