Groundbreaking New Health Book Debunks

Obsession With Thinness and Says

“Shut Up and Eat!”

New light shed on chronic dieting and how the pursuit of thinness (read: acceptance) leads to severe health issues.

TWO HEALTH ADVOCATES, Dr. Maria Rago, clinical director of eating disorders at Linden Oaks Hospital in Naperville, Illinois, and award-winning writer/Huffington Post blogger Greg Archer, have teamed up in the new book, Shut Up, Skinny Bitches!—The Common Sense Guide To Following Your Hunger and Your Heart (NorLightsPress). In direct response to media images promoting “thinness,” equating it with “happiness,” and the onslaught of dieting books continually urging Americans to “just get skinny,” the authors reveal, often playfully, insightful research findings while boldly taking on the dieting industry.

“Eat!” they write. “Skinny is not the cure.”

With revealing testimonials from career dieters, the book also tackles: chronic dieting and how it can lead to eating and body-image disorders; methods for overcoming eating disorders; seven ways to move beyond self-hatred; and males struggling with body-image issues. The authors teamed up after Mr. Archer published an Oprah Magazine article in March 2008, highlighting one of Dr. Rago’s groundbreaking treatment programs.

“We wanted to generate a new conversation about eating and body-image in an embraceable way, but we also wanted to take a stand for anybody who has ever been teased about their size and/or pressured to be skinny in order to fit in,” the authors add. “And to that, we say: “Shut up, Skinny Bitches!”