Food Mad - Paperback

Eating disorders are not a failure of willpower. They are a failure of fuel.

Food Mad: The Nutritional Neuroscience of a Starved Brain is a guide to understanding what starvation does to the human brain - and what nutritional rehabilitation can undo. Written by Victoria Schonwald, a Registered Dietitian specialising in eating disorder recovery, it translates the neuroscience of restriction, refeeding, and recovery into plain, compassionate, and clinically grounded language.

When a brain is starved, it cannot think flexibly, rationally, or safely. It cannot weigh consequences, regulate emotion, or respond to reason. This book explains why, and why food is not simply support for recovery, but the biological precondition for it.

Food Mad is for patients navigating recovery, families and caregivers trying to understand what their loved one is experiencing, and clinicians who want a clear, science-backed resource to share. It addresses the biology behind the behaviours, why a starved brain resists recovery, and why understanding the neuroscience changes everything about how we support the people we care for.