LEAP, the new imprint at Bonnier Books UK focusing on inspiring and informing positive change, has acquired How Diets Make Us Fat by Shahroo Izadi, the first in a two-book deal.
Publisher Carole Tonkinson acquired World All Language rights from Sarah Williams at Sophie Hicks Agency in a direct approach to author and agent.
Shahroo Izadi uncovers how diets aren’t simply ineffective; they are positively detrimental to maintaining a healthy weight. Izadi unpicks how the all-or-nothing mindsets inculcated by diet culture simultaneously create a sense of overwhelming powerlessness and an addiction to food that sets dieters up to fail, fuelling the multi-billion-pound industry. Izadi has tackled diet culture before, but this book brings together startling new insights particularly pertinent to dominant new cultural preoccupations: how restriction-thinking proves dangerous to neurodivergent brains; how Ozempic (like the gastric band before it) is not the cure for healthy weight-management long-term.
Shahroo Izadi is an addiction specialist, who has worked for the NHS, in private practice, and written two bestselling books. Her work has featured on The Diary of a CEO podcast (garnering more than a million views) and in print including The Times, The Telegraph, Marie Claire and Grazia, among others. Shahroo herself says she only lost the 8 stone and found peace when she started to change her thinking around food and food addiction.
Shahroo Izadi said: “People know how to lose weight. What they’ve never been given is a way to keep it off – without shame, without fear, and without losing themselves. How Diets Make Us Fat is for everyone who was punished by diet culture for not being the right size, failed by body positivity for not being happy about whatever size they were, and left with nowhere to go. I’m looking forward to working with the team at Bonnier, whose insight, empathy, and bold vision match the urgency of this moment.”
Carole Tonkinson said: “Finally a book that gives people the tools to understand how diet-based thinking has undermined a fundamental trust in ourselves. This book shows us how to rebuild faith in our own individual instincts; quiet the noise in their heads; and attain their chosen weight long-term. ”
Sarah Williams said: “Shahroo recently texted me a photo of the note a woman on the tube had shyly handed her before she got off. It said: ’Thank you. You have really helped me.’ It’s just one small example of the impact Shahroo Izadi has on the lives of countless women, and I can’t wait for her new book to reach even more of them.”
How Diets Make Us Fat will be published in hardback, audio and eBook on 18th December 2025 by LEAP.
