An internationally recognized authority on eating and feeding, Ellen Satter is a registered dietitian and board certified diplomat in clinical social work. For the first time in book form, Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family outlines her unconventional and remarkably effective eating advice for adults. More a cooking primer than a cookbook, Satter’s simple and delicious recipes provide a backdrop for cooking lessons, fast tips, night-before suggestions, in-depth background information, ways to involve kids in the kitchen and guidelines on adapting menus for young children. Satter cites the studies to build a convincing case that we can lighten up on fat and sodium restriction without endangering ourselves or our children, while emphasizing her well-known division of responsibility in feeding — parents are responsible for the what, when and where of feeding, and children are responsible for the how much and whether of eating.
I was born and raised on a farm in South Dakota and moved to Wisconsin to do an internship in dietetics after I graduated from SD State University in Brookings. I have remained here since, marrying and raising three now-grown children: a girl and two boys. My daughter is married and has three daughters. After earning a masters in nutrition at the University of Wisconsin in Madison I practiced as an outpatient dietitian at a large medical practice. I wrote my first book about child nutrition, Child of Mine; Feeding with Love and Good Sense on the cusp of my transition to becoming a mental health professional. It was intended as a farewell gift to my own sweet and wonderful experiences with raising my children and my clinical practice as a dietitian in pediatrics.
To my surprise, I have become an authority on child nutrition and feeding and have gone on to consult, teach, train, write magazine and journal articles and write books two and three: How to Get Your Kid to Eat...But Not Too Much and Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family. I keep trying to find time to write about adults and their eating, something more about children seems to come up and claim my attention. Children have a way of doing that! In my 35 years of practice I have developed a uniquely freeing and effective approach to helping adults with their eating. That book may be called something like Secrets of Being a Healthy Eater, but the title smacks of tofu and virtue. My son-in-law suggested Celebrate the Cookie, which has a nice ring to it but implies a cookie cookbook. I have nothing against cookie cookbooks, but I don't plan to write one. The current title attempt is Eating Joyfully in a Food-Crazed World. Suggestions are welcome.
In these times of book-world upheaval, my solution to being an economically solventor perhaps survivingauthor has been to diversify. Along with my writing and training endeavors and after getting a second masters in clinical social work, for the last 20 years I have been in private practice as a psychotherapist specializing in eating disorders. Ten years ago I established Ellyn Satter Associates with the mission of providing resources about eating and feedingbooks, teaching materials, training materials and trainingfor the public and for professionals.
