How Disordered Eating Can Play Into Chronic Illness with Eliza Wheeler

Illustrator and author Eliza Wheeler joins us to discuss the intersection of chronic illness and disordered eating. She shares the unexplained symptoms that led her to try more than a dozen different “wellness” diets, her winding path to an eventual diagnosis of Lyme disease under stringent CDC criteria, why the functional-medicine approach didn’t work for her, how starting to heal her relationship with food has made her chronic illness more manageable, and more.

Eliza Wheeler is an illustrator and author of books for children, and was a recipient of the Sendak Fellowship Award. Her first picture book, Miss Maple’s Seeds, was a New York Times best seller, and her newest book Home In The Woods is based on the true story of her grandmother’s childhood experience of living in a tar-paper shack in the woods with seven siblings and their single mom. Eliza grew up in the northwoods of Wisconsin, lived in Los Angeles, CA for a time, and now calls Minneapolis, Minnesota home. Learn more about her work at wheelerstudio.com.

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