More, Please: On Food, Fat, Bingeing, Longing, and the Lust for “Enough.”

This debut book by Vogue culture writer Specter is a narrative about eating disorders and their associated culture. Specter discusses their own relationship with dieting and bingeing through childhood, their teenage years, their first professional writing job, and the COVID lockdown. To discuss perspectives about food and body images, the book also incorporates the experiences of yoga instructors, athletes, physical trainers, and burlesque dancers who’ve historically been expected to have specific body types. Specter also shares quotes from their favorite food writers, which encouraged them to enjoy eating and cooking as treasured sensory experiences. They explain what strategies have worked for them in coping with body anxiety as eating-disorder recovery led to new insights about dating, mental health, work, and exercise.