About Ali Shapiro

&

Truce with Food®

What If Food Wasn’t the Real Issue, But the Invitation?

Hi, I’m Ali!

If you’ve ever found yourself eating to try to break free after a stressful day, eating in secret even though you “know” better, or being with others yet thinking about how to eat later, I want you to know: I’ve been there.

I understand the frustration of knowing so much about nutrition and still feeling out of control around food. You’re smart. You’ve done the research. You’ve tried the plans. But none of them explain why you keep sabotaging your progress… or why the discipline that works everywhere else in your life keeps failing here.

That gap between knowing and doing? It lit a (frustrating) fire in me.

For as long as I can remember, I thought food was the problem.

I went to my first Weight Watchers meeting at age 11. I was diagnosed with cancer at 13. In college, my emotional eating escalated; bingeing and depression became my norm. By my early twenties, I had IBS, antibiotic-resistant acne, and zero trust in my body. I kept chasing diets, hoping one would finally work. But nothing did.

After pure exhaustion, I stopped trying harder and started asking better questions.

I left corporate America and went back to school for holistic nutrition, and later, earned a Master’s in Organizational Dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania (it’s like getting an MBA in human behavior). I dove deep into adult development, change theory, and the psychology of transformation. I paired that academic research with nearly two decades of working directly with clients to develop a completely different approach to food and our bodies.

What I discovered changed everything.

Most “food issues” aren’t really about food. They’re the symptoms of brilliant survival strategies—patterns that kept you safe, accepted, and successful. But eventually, they stop working. That’s when we hit the wall. Not because we’re weak. But because the real issue was never food to begin with.

That’s why I created Truce with Food®—a trauma-informed, research-based framework designed to uncover and heal the real roots of emotional eating. Not through control, but through clarity. Not through managing symptoms, but by shifting the story beneath them.

Over the last 19+ years, I’ve helped hundreds of clients stop obsessing over food and start listening to it. We don’t override or silence hunger—we decode it. We don’t double down on discipline—we build emotional agility, self-trust, and true agency.

This work isn’t about perfection. It’s about liberation.

Today, I live in Pittsburgh with my husband Carlos (a writer and sharp feminist mind), our miracle son Eça (conceived naturally at 40 after a devastating infertility diagnosis), and our aging dog Coffee (he was my first pet at 39!). I host the top ranked Insatiable podcast, certify and mentor other health practitioners in my Truce methodology, collaborate with thoughtful companies and medical systems, and am a sane voice in a wellness industry that too often confuses shame for motivation or wants you to make health your full-time job and budget.

If you’ve read this far, I know one thing: you’re ready for something deeper. Not another plan. But an understanding that finally makes sense—and gives you your power back.

Let’s begin.

Ali Shapiro, MSOD, CHHC

I Did Everything “Right” (at least tried to) And Still Felt Lost…

How I Got Here…

1978

Born into my mother’s family who fought the Nazis in the Hungarian-Austrian mountains and my Dad’s who were Jews fleeing persecution in the Ukraine. Truth, a side-eye and intensity are in my blood.
1982

Eye surgery to correct a lazy eye. I wear a full Wonder Woman underwear set to my follow-up appointment and show my optometrist. I am deemed enthusiastic and full of chutzpah.
1987

I get a pink slip home for “shouting” out in class without being called upon (probably only the boys were getting called on).

I start an underground newspaper the teachers don’t know about. I will not be silenced!
1989

Relentlessly bullied by the popular girls and isolated in fifth grade. For the first time, I begin eating bagels after school in private. I join Weight Watchers the next year to try and lose weight.
1992

Diagnosed with cancer. Six months of chemotherapy and one month of radiation.
I lose lots of weight. Despite being skinny from almost dying, the 80s/90s vibe that health = thinness persists in my teenage mind.
1994-1997

I’m skinny from chemo. And it’s AMAZING. I get attention and positive feedback from everyone. I get a boyfriend. I can wear whatever I want, including at Contempo Casuals, one of the “it” stores. I am normal.
1997-2001

I become an emotional eater in college. By the end of college, my emotional eating has escalated to bingeing.

I gain and lose weight through out. I struggle with depression. I get on meds and find a therapist. I don’t find noteworthy relief.
2002

Devastating first work experience in the corporate world. I’m diagnosed with IBS.
The pressure of food making me feel so awful makes my eating worse, not better.
2004

Hoping my continual weight gain is because of my thyroid, I see my primary care doctor. My thyroid is normal, and she gives me a low-fat salmon recipe with Splenda.
SPLENDA? That’s a known carcinogen.
SPLENDA of all things, is my slide into the Heroine’s Descent
(life is hysterical)
I have done everything right, worked hard, got good grades, graduated from Penn State’s Schreyers Honors College, had the well-paying corporate job working all over the world (hello Paris, London, Madrid, Stockholm and Prague).
And yet, I feel fat. Unfulfilled in my job. Never going to meet a partner.
Being thin was amazing. Why couldn’t I stay there? I’ve tried so hard.
Listening to everyone else wasn’t working. I needed better questions.
2005

I meet Carlos at an Irish Pub in Philly. He’s attractive. Smart. Kind. And really into me. So of course, this freaks me out.
He asks me out and I say yes. I realize I have to do this for me regardless of what he eventually thinks of me.

We fall in love even though I’m 30 pounds above my “goal” weight. This interrupts my unshakeable ‘once I lose weight, then I’ll meet someone’ logic.
What else don’t I know about what I thought I knew?
2006-2009

I go back to school at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and discover food can be more than calories, it can be medicine (this was 10 years before functional medicine went mainstream and influencers were selling all sorts of things for gut health and hormones).

My skin glows, and my IBS and depression clear up. How did I not know about this for the past 18 years?
Dark night of the soul ensues as I realize no one is at the wheel of our medical system. And Big Corporate interests are riding shot gun.
What else don’t I know about what I thought I knew?
When you stop eating pre-packaged foods, you stop wanting a pre-packaged life.

Everyone needs to know about the power of food!
2007

After getting results with my first several clients, I leave my corporate life to spread the good news and support other people who want food freedom too (this is literally my business plan).
2009

Two years into seeing nutrition clients, I discover I wasn’t the only one with a crazy relationship with food. My high-functioning clients do too! We stop talking about food after the four session.

I enter Penn for my Masters to study what transformational emotional change happened with me and is happening with my clients. And while my food is much better, I still emotionally eat during really intense stress like my cancer scans and the financial strain of being a self-funded newbie business owner (who knows nothing about business! My parents were city school teachers!).

Food is only part of this equation. Yet I’m unclear what the second half is beyond overly simplified self-help and coaching platitudes.
2015

What an (exhilarating!) rabbit hole.
It turns out my medical records left out the most meaningful experiences and medicines of my life.
* The pesticide poisoning at the age of six that caused toxicity, inflammation and my initial weight gain.
* The steroids and mustard gas in my chemo and the antibiotics and Accutane for my skin, which were destroying my gut and were the root cause of my depression, stomach and skin issues.
* The traumatic experiences of being bullied, having cancer (and all the physical and emotional effects) made me my own worst enemy.

Turns out my battle with food was just a reflection of my internal battle with myself and my needs (physical and emotional nourishment).
I was self-critical and self-monitoring but not self-aware.
2015-Present

The resilience and results from building my business healed me from cancer as much as chemo did to cure me. I released old stories, patterns and behaviors and replaced them with my natural and well-earned chutzpah and enthusiasm.
I’ve returned to my roots: the nine-year-old me who owned the underground newspaper is now the host of the Insatiable podcast. It’s an independent, wisely rebellious show because there’s tremendous value in going against the (GMO’d) grain.
I consider myself a midwife for others who want to get off the all-or-nothing eating roller coaster, stop monitoring themselves with food (and in life!) and reclaim the freedom and bravery to step into who they truly are.
It’s the soul cage rattle and opportunity of a lifetime. If you’ve read this far, you certainly have the curiosity and stamina to set yourself free, too!

Now listening

266. Dr. Stacy Sims “Women Are Not Small Men”

Are you struggling with food? Done with diets? Want another option between diet culture and body positivity?

This is *not* another diet culture in disguise wellness podcast. Host Ali Shapiro, creator of Truce With Food® and the ICF accredited and trauma informed Truce Coaching Certification, dedicated academic, and well-known integrated health behavior change expert shares a more truthful, holistic approach to freedom from cravings, emotional eating, bingeing, bargaining, and body image.

Join Ali for interviews, practical advice, and radically honest discussions about food, truth, psychology and change.