The Washington Post
A philosophy of moderation and common sense that fosters good health, good eating habits and, most of all, a loving relationship between parents and children.


Family Journal
A uniquely comforting, now-I'm-on-the-right-track approach... warm, sensible, professional and expert advice about what is, after all, a universal set of situations.


Nutrition Educator
It's wonderful when she says, "the secret of feeding a healthy family is to love good food, trust yourself and share that with your children." Encouraging people to eat well is far better than laying on all the rules.


Recovering Dieting Casualty
I love your book and I am having so much fun planning menus and learning to cook! I have never planned menus unless I was on a diet, but I am now and I am enjoying my food and feel safe because I know what is coming next.


Reviewer
When Satter says, "a family is what you are when you start taking care of yourself," it makes it OK to go to the trouble of feeding myself. Secrets was written for me, as well as for people with children.


Recovering Enthusiast
I am going to try your recipe for Yellow Spaghetti, which will give me an opportunity to revisit bacon, a banned food item for longer than I can remember. I appreciate your good-humoured and thoughtful work.


Book Description
Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family completes Ellyn Satter's trilogy of child nutrition books and begins to build the bridge to her writing abut adults and their eating. Child of Mine is about what to feed, How to Get Your Kid to Eat is about how to feed. Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family is about how to get a meal on the table-and feed ourselves as well as our children. Early reviews of Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family have called it a pioneering work that, like the earlier two, fills a vital niche for both professionals and the public.


From the Author
Why did I write this book? It's part of my mission to revolutionize eating and feeding. But like any worthwhile project I have ever done, I backed into it. I thought I had a clear direction but what I hadn't anticipated is that, like a spirited child, Secrets has been a most willful book! In response to reader request, I started out to write a short and simple primer about child feeding following my golden rule, the division of responsibility in feeding: The parent is responsible for the what, when and where of feeding, the child is responsible for the how much and whether of eating. The problem that soon became apparent is that the cornerstone of that division of responsibility is family meals, and today's families have extraordinary difficulty getting meals on the table. It's not for lack of commitment or trying. There are too many barriers: lack of time and food skills, guilt and anxiety about eating and, not the least, all the rules that have taken the fun out of eating. Thus, Secrets turned into a book about reclaiming the family meal for the enjoyable, connecting, soothing and energizing backbone of the family. We all absolutely depend on knowing we are going to be fed. To do well with eating, we have to have meals. We must make meals a priority or we will scare ourselves and our children, whether we know it or not. We'll grab at not-so-good food, and end up feeling hungry and unsatisfied, both emotionally and physically.


About the Author
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.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Ellyn Satter is an internationally recognized authority on child nutrition and feeding. She is a Registered Dietitian with masters degrees in both nutrition and social work, a holder of the Diplomat in Clinical Social Work, has a private psychotherapy practice where she specializes in treatment of eating problems with people of all ages, and is a sought-after speaker and consultant. During her 35 years of teaching, counseling and writing she has touched many lives and empowered inividuals and clinicians alike to become healthier and more positive in their relationships with children, with food and with their own bodies.

SYNOPSIS

Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family by Ellyn Satter helps adults chood food joyfully, appealingly and wisely, manage eating, and establish a positive feeding relationshiop with children. Recipes, planning and shopping chapters offer the reader a kitchen primer: food preparation for the "thinking cook," fast tips, night-before suggestions, in-depth background information, ways to involve kids in the kitchen and guidelines for adapting menus for young children. Satter's comment that "you are a family when you begin taking care of yourself," makes this a book for all.

FROM THE CRITICS

The Washington Post

A philosophy of moderation and common sense that fosters good health, good eating habits and, most of all, a loving relationship between parents and children.

Journal Family

A uniquely comforting, now-I'm-on-the-right-track approach... warm, sensible, professional and expert advice about what is, after all, a universal set of situations
— Family Journal

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

It's wonderful when she says, "The Secret of Feeding a Healthy Family is to love good food, trust yourself and share that with your children." Encouraging people to eat well is far better than laying out all the rules. — Educator Nutrition

Love your book and am having so much fun planning menus and learning to cook! I have never planned menus unless I was on a diet, but I am now and I am enjoying my food and feel safe because I know what is coming next. — Dieting Casualty Recovering