I’m So Effing Hungry: Why We Crave What We Crave—and What to Do About It

Shah, a doctor of internal medicine, follows up I’m So Effing Tired with an encouraging take on how readers can conquer their cravings. Her five-step plan for developing healthier eating habits involves adding filling foods to one’s diet, breaking cravings, resetting one’s circadian rhythm, and getting more sleep and exercise. Shah extols some standard nutritional advice (“Plan your diet around natural, fiber- and nutrient-rich foods”) but her focus on retraining rather than resisting cravings is novel. The body, she explains, can build up a tolerance to sugary processed foods, and to restore a healthy baseline, readers should confine their junk food consumption to three randomly selected days each week because the uncertainty teaches the body not to rely on unhealthy foods for dopamine release. She also recommends following a nutrient-dense diet because the fullness one gets from eating such foods as cruciferous vegetables and legumes has been found to reduce cravings for processed foods. The emphasis on reshaping one’s appetite is a welcome departure from traditional dieting advice focused on eliminating certain foods, and the lists of options featuring “target nutrients” make the recommendations easy to implement. This is the rare guide on how dieters can lean into their hunger instead of fighting it. (Feb.)