Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything [Paperback]

Geneen Roth (Author)

Book Description

Release date: February 8, 2011

No matter how sophisticated or wealthy or broke or enlightened you are, how you eat tells all.

After three decades of studying, teaching and writing about our compulsions with food, bestselling author Geneen Roth adds a powerful new dimension to her work in Women Food and God. She begins with her most basic concept: The way you eat is inseparable from your core beliefs about being alive. Your relationship with food is an exact mirror of your feelings about love, fear, anger, meaning, transformation and, yes, even God.

A timeless and seminal work, Women Food and God shows how going beyond the food and the feelings takes you deeper into realms of spirit and soul—to the bright center of your own life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Geneen Roth has written an extraordinary book - at once beautiful, moving, funny and searing. Most important, she gives us a practical way to use our bodies - along with some of the most difficult parts of our emotional lives - as gracious and transformative portals to our soul."

--Rick Foster, co-author of Happiness & Wealth and How We Choose to Be Happy

"Women Food and God is daring, dazzling, funny, comforting, wise and profoundly spiritual. It maps the journey from the darkness of obsession to the pure sense of being in prose so insightful and astonishing it left me breathless. Geneen Roth is an international treasure, and her new book is a gift to us all."

-- Gay Hendricks, Ph.D. author of Five Wishes and Conscious Loving

"Geneen Roth does it again! Women Food and God is absolutely mesmerizing. And loaded with insights which can change your life."

--Chistiane Northrup, MD, ob/gyn physician and author of Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom and The Wisdom of Menopause

“This is a hugely important work, a life-changer, one that will free untold women from the tyranny of fear and hopelessness around their bodied. Beautifully written, a joy to read, rich in both revelation and great humor.”

--Anne Lamott, author of Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith

About the Author

Geneen Roth is the author of eight books, including the New York Times bestselling When Food is Love and The Craggy Hole in My Heart and the Cat Who Fixed It, a memoir. She has been teaching groundbreaking workshops and retreats for over thirty years. Roth is a contributor to many publications from Huffington Post and Good Housekeeping to O:The Oprah Magazine, and has appeared on numerous national shows including Oprah, 20/20, Good Morning America, The View and NPR's Talk of the Nation . She lives in northern California with her husband. For more information about her work, please visit www.geneenroth.com.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 211 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; 1ST edition (February 8, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416543082
• ISBN-13: 978-1416543084
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (547 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,761 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #2 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Eating Disorders
  • #2 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Addiction & Recovery > Drug Dependency
  • #21 in Books > Self-Help > Spiritual

More About the Author

Geneen Roth is the author of the bestseller, When Food is Love and seven other books. She has conducted workshops for over thirty years and has lead retreats for the past ten.

Roth is a frequent contributor to many publications including Salon.com, Huffington Post and Good Housekeeping and has appeared on numerous national shows from Oprah, 20/20, Good Morning America, and The View, to Primetime Live and NPR's Talk of the Nation.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

779 of 804 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "How We Eat is How We Live"--A Spiritual Perspective on Overeating March 2, 2010

By O. Brown HALL OF FAMETOP 50 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

*****
Geneen Roth hits a home run with her latest book about overeating and so much more in "Women Food and God". The theme of the book is that the way we eat, the way we think about food and handle ourselves around it is the way we do everything. The author then shows us how and why this is the case. She describes the food retreats she runs and the women who attend them, and as a reader you will surely identify in some way with every single person--and with the lesson she illustrates from their lives. This is a more complex book than her earlier books because of the spiritual dimension; she sees problems with overeating as gateways to spiritual enlightenment. She convinced me (and will convince you as well) that instead of trying to get rid of or fix our eating problems, we need to use them to see within ourselves, to learn important spiritual life lessons from our feelings, and to grow and heal so that we will end up eating as a spiritual practice. And so that we'll have a permanent end to the misery of always struggling with our weight and self-image, and always striving to improve our relationship with food.

The book is so good that for me, just reading it was like a spiritual awakening in this area of my life. I found it motivational, inspirational, and scary in a good way--and the author makes the whole process doable with descriptions of practices that can be used on the food healing/awakening journey such as meditation, inquiry, and eating guidelines. These practices are all specific to the process and they are described in detail. This spiritual dimension is generic and does not require a particular religious belief, or even any religious belief. It would be compatible with any type of spirituality. The type of eating practiced is intuitive eating (listening to your body to discern what it wants), and no matter what your way of eating, you can apply an intuitive approach to it--this book is about a way of living and relating to food, not about a food plan.

If you have read the author's other books (as I have) you will find much new information here. Other key themes of the book include mindfulness, presence, and feeling your feelings. The author is brutal but honest in describing how destructive the dieting industry is to women. Again, this is definitely not a diet book or eating plan, but instead a way of experiencing life which allows you to be present and aware so that you are able to listen to your body and choose food based on nourishment and self-care.

Although it is a quick read (I read it in one evening), this book is so valuable that you will want to refer back to it, highlight it for future reference, take notes in the margins, and use parts for journal prompts. There is only one negative, and it is a biggy: the paper in this hardback book is similar to super cheap mass market paperback-type paper. I have never seen an actual book of any type with such paper, though! I tried to highlight sections and the highlighter not only would bleed through to the reverse side of the page, but sometimes onto the previous page! It is hard to describe how frustrating this was---a book that is a true keeper on throw-away paper. I highlighted anyway and my book is a mess, but I decided to rebuy it on Kindle when it comes out. I've never done this before, but it's that good of a book--worth months (or maybe years) of therapy. I also would buy it again if it is reprinted (and I'll bet it will be) with a paper that matches the quality of the book.

That flaw aside, I'm so glad I bought this book. I have read many, many books on overeating, diet and nutrition, self-help, styles of eating, and more, and this book stands apart from the crowd. The message is an important one for any woman who wants to handle her relationship with food, her weight, and her spirituality in a healthy way, and to become whole. If that is you, you will not be disappointed, I promise.

Highest recommendation.
*****

164 of 178 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Read This and Start to Really Live Again March 30, 2010

By E. Acker

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Wow, this book was wonderful. So well written, with humor and spiritual wisdom. Very powerful sentences throughout.
I have had eating disorders since my first diet at the age of 14. I remember getting a bit of approval for losing weight; even though I wasn't overweight to begin with. Thus started my long, sad, disordered eating story. I never did get the real love from my parents; but boy did I try to look good striving for it.
I continued to eat everything on my plate and be a "good girl". Certain foods were BAD, others GOOD. I was an excellent student. So, by the time I was an adult I am exactly as Geneen Roth describes herself - eating for every reason besides hunger. If I felt angry or lonely I'd eat. I'd binge when I couldn't express myself to those I wanted to be close to - family members and boyfriends. I was living on a field of death. I would get so tired of the yo yo, up and down with the weight gain and sorrow, then a time of eating healthy, and then cravings, and more binges.
Finally I understand more about this illness: Geneen makes it clear that I am distracting myself with the focus on this yo yo story. I now want to look at the truth, at all of me (short comings and positive traits), and start living. I don't need to be stuck in this compulsive eating hell. I no longer need my mom's approval, or anyone else's - just my own self- validation will do, thank you.
The guidelines and suggestions are helpful and yet, not so easy to follow; but well worth it for me. The spiritual guidelines and love throughout are priceless. Hello, I can really learn to love Eileen on a daily basis, around food, around work, my friends and family, anything (as long as I'm in the moment). Food is not love, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy it, and eat it when I'm hungry and when I'm craving something. It all comes down to what Geneen calls THE VOICE; and I know very well that mine needed to change. I have started that change. My voice speaks slower now, and with more kindness towards myself. I don't judge food and I don't judge myself eating food (all kinds of food). I find that I am even being kinder to my husband lately; he noticed as well.
I have heard a lot of these ideas before, but the way they are presented in this book; it's like a Bible for compulsive overeaters. Keep it handy; I will refer to this book, and read it many times - as it is helping me create the habits I want, to be as close to God, and to a normal eater as I can get.
Thank you so much Ms.Roth for this creative work of art and compassion!
Eileen

142 of 164 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring, but Hard to Grasp April 23, 2010

By K. Morton

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Women, Food & God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything is a book that could help you stop overeating. However, Roth's ethereal language can make the concepts hard to grasp in practical terms. Plenty of "aha" moments, but these can be fleeting with Roth's airy way of nailing it down and applying it to your life.

If you want a tool to reinforce what you've learned after reading the book, try downloading Geneen Roth's MP3s. Be forewarned, I don't recommend listening to the MP3s unless you've read the book, and it can be an expensive proposition to purchase each track at almost $14 a piece.

Ultimately, the book opened my eyes for the first time to certain patterns of overeating. While the book forces you to be more thoughtful, it's still up to you to reinforce the patterns and learn the new habits she introduces. I wish there were a workbook or some kind of lesson plan we could use to help make everything stick.

Update! Since my complaint about the book is that it's too hard to put into practice by myself, I hope Geneen Roth's weekly Women Food & God online retreat from May 25 to June 29 might address that issue. Check out my site for weekly reviews of Roth's online seminar.