Ellyn Satter

Readers say that Ellyn Satter’s books transformed their lives. Satter writes not only about food, eating, and feeding, but about emotional health and positive family relationships. Satter gives her blessings to all food, and to you for eating it, by sharing her conviction that you and your family are more important than your diet. Satter’s research confirms that your positive feelings about food and eating—and those of your children—do more in terms of nutritional, medical, and emotional health than adhering to a set of rules about what to eat and not to eat. Will letting yourself be positive and joyful with eating make you fat? Despite your worst fears, it will not. People who are competent with eating—who approach eating with optimism, self-trust, and a sense of adventure—weigh less than those who guide their eating with negativity, self-denial, and avoidance.

Satter is an internationally recognized authority on eating and feeding. She is a dietitian, family therapist, author, trainer, publisher, and consultant. During her over 40-year clinical career, she worked first as a Registered Dietitian in an outpatient medical practice, then as a psychotherapist in private practice specializing in family-based treatment of eating disorders. Satter created and continues to do research with the Satter Feeding Dynamics Model and the Satter Eating Competence Model. The Ellyn Satter Institute helps the public and professionals apply the models and discover the joys and rewards of being trusting with eating and feeding. Satter is the author of the division of responsibility in feeding , which is considered the gold standard for feeding children. Satter’s “What is normal eating?” is a refrigerator-door and social media icon.