Hunger Pains (Paperback)

by Mary Pipher Ph.D. (Author) "On a recent plane trip, a stunningly beautiful woman slid past me to take the window seat..." (more)
Key Phrases: bulimic woman, most bulimics, anorexic women, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
We live in an appearance-obsessed culture. Fashion ads, magazine covers, TV shows, and movies idealize a body type that is impossible for most real women to achieve. In this comforting, liberating book, Dr. Mary Pipher, bestselling author of Reviving Ophelia, offers advice, counsel, and practical solutions for understanding our needs, our fears, and our many hungers. She shows us how we can at last learn to live at peace with the natural differences in our bodies and appetites.

The rates of anorexia, bulimia, and depression for women are the highest they have ever been, and begin at ever younger ages. Dr. Pipher reveals how society encourages our misery and prevents us from accepting our looks. Indeed, for many women the humiliation of overweight or obesity is a wound that never heals. Dr. Pipher reminds us that accepting our bodies the way they are is the greatest gift we can give ourselves.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (January 21, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345413938
• ISBN-13: 978-0345413932
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #355,756 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very true, very real, very helpful, November 13, 2001

By A Customer

I read this book after being discharged from the hospital for treatment of anorexia. More than any other book, "Hunger Pains" made me examine and question the way food, fat, obesity, and thinness are viewed in our culture. It empowered me to want to recover, and to change not only my own life but the society that produces such horrible diseases as anorexia and bulemia. Dr. Pipher is so eloquent and clear in her depiction of how food is conditioned from childhood to be our enemy, and gives very helpful, practical advice for how to develop a healthy relationship with food and weight. I highly reccomend it to anyone recovering from an eating disorder, and also for every woman and every parent of an adolescent girl. It will give you the power and the motivation to look critically at the world around you and to take control over the way it influences you.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A 17 year old anoretics Praise to this book!, September 28, 1998

By A Customer

I just bought Reviving Ophelia and Hunger Pains, i'm half way through both, So far... These books feel like Bibles, as they are by my side everywhere I go! Mary Pipher is an amazing author and perfectly words the feelings and thoughts of suffers and friends & family. I am certain that the rest of these books will also be as helpful and moving as the first halves! Sorry i'm not done readding them, i've only had them for 2 days, but i'm so amazed i just had to tell everyone how great they were RIGHT AWAY, i'm a bit impatient!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars hunger pains, November 9, 2005

By	E. M. Bristol "bibliophile" (boston, mass) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Mary Pipher, author of "Reviving Ophelia," turns her attention to women and their relationships with their bodies. Through case studies, plus personal and clinical experience, she examines eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia, obesity, dieting, societal pressures, and how we can help our children and ourselves adopt healthier attitudes toward food. The case studies are candid, often brutally so, and illuminating. While Pipher's suggestions to become more aware and forgiving of ourselves and our bodies may be easier said hen done, they are nonetheless valuable.