Food Psych - Intuitive Eating, Health At Every Size, Positive Body Image, Eating Disorder Recovery, Smashing Diet Culture

Eating-disorders therapist Stephanie Zone joins us to discuss how diet culture steals our happiness and joy, the physical and emotional effects of restriction and self-blame, why dieting and disordered eating are like being in an abusive relationship, the problem with the narrative that trauma “causes” larger body size, and so much more. Plus, Christy answers a listener question about studying nutrition and dietetics while trying to heal from your own disordered eating. (This episode originally aired on December 16, 2019.) Stephanie Zone, PsyD, JD, is a clinical psychologist specializing in eating disorders and trauma, as well as other issues including anxiety and depression. She works with all types of clients at an HMO and in private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is also a professor, workshop leader, and yoga teacher. Stephanie began her career as a lawyer. Her passion for legal aid and social justice fueled a career change to psychology. She wrote her dissertation on feminism and eating disor

Fellow anti-diet dietitian Julia Lévy-Ndejuru joins us to discuss her experience with the Wellness Diet and binge eating disorder, why there’s no such thing as “light restriction,” how pregnancy affected her relationship with her body, how even body-liberation activists can still be triggered by diet culture, and so much more. Plus, Christy answers a listener question about whether home-testing kits for food sensitivities are accurate or bogus. (This episode originally aired on March 16, 2020.) Julia Lévy-Ndejuru is a registered dietitian, blogger and MSc. candidate currently living in Montreal, Canada. Her clinical work is rooted in intuitive eating and Health At Every Size. She holds bachelor's degrees in Dietetics and in Psychology, and her Masters research project focuses on the interplay between intuitive eating and the practice of relaxation activities. She firmly believes that everyone deserves to have a good relationship with food and their body, and recognizes the importance of social justice wor

Health At Every Size® health coach and certified intuitive eating counselor Linda Tucker joins us to discuss how dieting causes health problems, why intuitive eating is compatible with managing chronic illnesses, how diet culture and its new guise as the Wellness Diet twist the definition of self-care and health, why Linda combines the principles of intuitive eating, HAES®, and body liberation in her work, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about how to handle the feeling that things were just *easier* in a smaller body. (This episode originally aired on December 10, 2018.) Linda is a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor who incorporates Health at Every Size, body liberation, and intuitive living into her private coaching practice. Linda works through a truly holistic lens, meaning that ALL aspects of someones lived experience are examined. She has her own history of disordered eating and chronic illness and wants to raise awareness and release shame around both. Find her online at Li

Anti-diet therapist and author Judith Matz joins us to talk about shifting the focus of emotional eating toward the underlying deprivation and diet mentality, why turning to food to meet emotional needs isn’t an “eating problem” but a “soothing problem,” how diet culture and marginalization rob us of the ability to meet our needs, why Health at Every Size and intuitive eating are better approaches for true health, Judith’s work teaching other therapists about weight stigma, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about how to frame public health efforts to change the built environment in a way that doesn’t stigmatize people in larger bodies. (This episode originally aired on April 9, 2018.) Judith is the co-author of two books on the topics of eating and weight struggles. Beyond a Shadow of a Diet: The Comprehensive Guide to Treating Binge Eating Disorder, Compulsive Eating and Emotional Overeating has been called “the new bible” on this topic for professionals. The Diet Survivor’s Handboo

Fat-positive psychologist and eating-disorder specialist Rachel Millner joins us to discuss how she navigated a changing body while helping clients in eating-disorder recovery, coping with discomfort in a larger body, how the HAES community responded to her weight gain compared to the culture at large, teaching kids how to navigate diet culture and other forms of oppression, and so much more. Plus, Christy answers a listener question about how to navigate eating-disorder recovery while socially distanced from your support system because of COVID-19. (This episode originally aired on March 30, 2020.) Rachel Millner is a fat-positive psychologist and activist, certified eating-disorder specialist, and Certified Body Trust® Provider. She specializes in working with adolescents and adults with all forms of eating disorders and those wanting to break free from diet culture. Rachel is in private practice in Bucks County, PA and sees clients virtually and in-person. She has given talks nationally on topics related t

Medical doctor and Health At Every Size advocate Louise Metz joins us to discuss why weight management has no place in evidence-based medicine, how our current medical system can get in the way of providing compassionate care, why it’s actually not necessary for doctors to weigh their patients, how physicians can shift their practice to be more weight-inclusive, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about dealing with digestive symptoms. (This episode originally aired on September 30, 2019.) Louise Metz is an Internal Medicine Physician who has expertise in the medical management of eating disorders and gender-related health care. She is the owner and founder of Mosaic Comprehensive Care, a medical practice in Chapel Hill, NC offering primary care and specialty care that is inclusive and affirming of all bodies. After receiving an undergraduate degree in Biology and Women’s Studies at Duke University, she attended medical school at the University of North Carolina. She completed her inte

Anti-diet therapist and Binge Eating Disorder expert Amy Pershing joins us to discuss how our fatphobic culture hinders recovery, how diet culture steals our personal power, the healing that can be found in getting angry, the role of restriction and trauma in binge eating, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about quick ways for primary-care providers to talk to patients about intuitive eating and HAES. (This episode originally aired on March 26, 2018.) Amy Pershing LMSW, ACSW is the Clinical Director of the Center for Eating Disorders (CED) in Ann Arbor. In 1993, she developed “Bodywise™,” a comprehensive treatment program to serve a growing population of clients coming to the center with binge eating disorder (BED). In 2008, Pershing and Chevese Turner, CEO and founder of Binge Eating Disorder Association (BEDA), joined forces to found Pershing Turner Consulting LLC which offers training to clinicians treating BED nationwide. Pershing has pioneered an integrated approach based on alm

Anti-diet dietitian and certified intuitive eating counselor Vincci Tsui joins us to discuss weight loss surgery and its consequences on physical and mental health, her journey from working in bariatrics to specializing in intuitive eating and Health At Every Size®, thin privilege, disordered eating and how it interplays with bariatric surgery, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about how to deal with the fear of weight gain in recovery from an eating disorder. (This episode originally aired on December 3, 2018.) Vincci Tsui is a former bariatric dietitian turned Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor and Health At Every Size advocate. She is passionate about helping people find freedom in their relationship with food and with their body, so that they can worry less and get the most out of life. Ultimately, she is on a mission to prove that it is possible to improve health without focusing on weight. Vincci takes a collaborative and compassionate approach to nutrition counselling and co

Fat-positive sex and relationship coach and fellow podcast host Dawn Serra returns to the podcast to discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting our relationships with food and highlighting existing social injustices, how diet culture robs us of our ability to embody pleasure, desirability politics and its links to diet culture and oppressive beauty standards, navigating romantic relationships while in recovery, and so much more. Plus, Christy answers a listener question about how to tell whether your eating and exercise are intuitive or compulsive amid COVID-19 stress. (This episode originally aired on May 11, 2020.) Dawn Serra has dedicated her life to unraveling the cultural stories that impact our relationship to our pleasure, our bodies, and our lives. Dawn is considered a leader in the field of sexuality and relationships, with a focus in pleasure for people recovering from eating disorders and those in fat bodies. She is a therapeutic sex & relationship coach, a Certified Body Trust® Provider, s

Fellow anti-diet dietitian Lauren Newman joins us to discuss how to manage diabetes without weight loss and restriction, why the restrict-binge cycle and weight cycling are especially harmful to blood-sugar regulation, why carbohydrates are necessary for health, how to take the focus away from nutritional minutiae and numbers, and so much more. (This episode originally aired on January 27, 2020.) Lauren Newman, RD, LD is a registered dietitian in Houston, TX passionate about helping individuals with diabetes make peace with food and their bodies. Lauren practices from a Health At Every Size® and weight inclusive approach to help clients connect with their body’s needs, and learn to respond without rigidity, restriction, or shame. Find her online at LaurenNewmanRD.com. Subscribe to our newsletter, Food Psych Weekly, to keep getting new weekly Q&As and other new content while the podcast is on hiatus! If you're ready to break free from diet culture once and for all, come check out Christy's Intuitiv

Plus-size-yoga teacher and wellness coach Rachel Estapa returns to discuss why mindfulness is a tool rather than a be-all-end-all, how seeking validation on social media mirrors seeking weight-loss praise, how to balance vulnerability and boundary-setting when sharing your lived experiences, the role of forgiveness in healing from diet culture, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about how health and wellness professionals can handle concerns about potential clients getting “scared off” by the anti-diet approach. (This episode originally aired on September 23, 2019.) Rachel Estapa, founder and CEO of More to Love, is passionate about empowering people to love and appreciate their bodies. Her own path to body acceptance began many years ago. After yo-yo dieting throughout her teenage years and into adulthood, Rachel took stock of her life and realized she wasn’t happy. Even when she reached her “goal weight,” she felt something was missing. That’s when she decided she would stop trying

Fellow author and podcaster Caroline Dooner returns! We discuss her new book, The F*ck It Diet: Eating Should Be Easy, why mental deprivation is just as much of a problem as physical deprivation, why people often treat intuitive eating as another diet (and why that’s wrong), the essential role of rest in healing our relationship with movement, why focusing on fullness can be problematic, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about whether a certain model of treatment for binge-eating disorder is actually making the problem worse. (This episode was originally published on March 25, 2019.) Caroline is the creator of The F*ck It Diet, where she teaches chronic dieters how to heal their relationship with food and weight. Caroline recently released her first book, The F*ck It Diet: Eating Should Be Easy. Find her online right here. Subscribe to our newsletter, Food Psych Weekly, to keep getting new weekly Q&As and other new content while the podcast is on hiatus! If you're ready to br

Fellow anti-diet dietitian and certified intuitive eating counselor Ayana Habtemariam joins us to discuss how she’s bringing intuitive eating to marginalized communities, whether food environments influence health, the oppressive roots of diet culture, paternalistic nutrition policies, and so much more. Plus, Christy answers a listener question about how to deal with worries about your partner’s health. (This episode originally aired on February 17, 2020.) Ayana is a nutrition therapist, certified intuitive eating counselor, and macro social worker. She is the founder of Truly Real Nutrition, LLC, a private nutrition practice where she empowers clients to give up dieting in exchange for trusting their bodies and breaking free from food rules that result in feelings of failure and shame. She encourages her clients to embrace the beauty, power, and connection that their food traditions, personal experiences, and values add to their lives. Ayana is committed to increasing awareness of intuitive eating and weight

Weight-stigma and eating-disorders researcher Kendrin Sonneville joins us to discuss how diet culture steals our well-being by perpetuating fatphobia, why even seemingly subtle forms of weight stigma can lead to poorer health, the role of science in the paradigm shift toward Health At Every Size®, why weight stigma is more than just a health issue, and so much more. Plus, Christy answers a listener question about intuitive eating and fears around weight loss. (This episode originally aired on December 9, 2019.) Kendrin Sonneville, ScD, RD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Dr. Sonneville also holds an adjunct appointment at Harvard Medical School and is a Collaborating Mentor for the Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders (STRIPED) at Boston Children's Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Sonneville is a registered dietitian, behavioral scientist, and public heal

In this special bonus episode, Christy returns briefly to answer a listener question about how to navigate intuitive eating and eating-disorder recovery while pregnant, and to share some exciting personal news. Christy Harrison, MPH, RD, CEDRD is an anti-diet registered dietitian nutritionist, certified intuitive eating counselor, certified eating disorders registered dietitian, and journalist. She’s the author of Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating (Little, Brown Spark 2019), and her second book, Rethinking Wellness, will be published by the same imprint in 2023. Since 2013 Christy has hosted Food Psych, a weekly podcast exploring people’s relationships with food and paths to body liberation. It’s been one of Apple’s top 100 Health podcasts for the past 5 years, reaching tens of thousands of listeners worldwide each week. In addition to her media work, Christy offers online courses and private intuitive eating coaching to help people all over the world make

Nurse practitioner and fellow HAES dietitian Robyn Nohling joins us to discuss her experiences with disordered eating and hypothalamic amenorrhea (HA), how diet culture wreaks havoc on our hormones, why doing less may actually be better for our health, how The Wellness Diet is making us sicker, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about how to navigate intuitive eating with diabetes. (This episode originally aired on May 13, 2019.) Robyn’s own health journey has been the catalyst to her career focused on counseling, nursing, mentoring, and teaching in the field of women's health and eating disorders. As a Board Certified Family Nurse Practitioner and Registered Dietitian, Robyn specializes in hormone & reproductive health along with eating disorders and disordered eating. She uses a weight inclusive and non diet approach and firmly believes health goes far beyond your plate and exercise routine. Alongside her private practice, blog and inpatient NP position, Robyn opened an onli

Intuitive eating & HAES dietitian Katherine Zavodni shares her own experience with chronic illness and The Wellness Diet, how it ultimately led her to embrace a Health At Every Size® approach in her work, why the popular narrative of personal responsibility in diet and wellness culture is harmful, what to do when others are stuck in diet mentality, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about how to stop obsessing over getting "enough" exercise. (This episode originally aired on January 28, 2019.) Katherine Zavodni is a registered dietitian in private practice in Salt Lake City, UT. She is a certified eating-disorders dietitian and specializes in child and family feeding concerns, intuitive eating and Health At Every Size in addition to nutrition therapy for disordered eating. She is passionate about non-diet work and particularly about a non-diet approach to school nutrition education, and is working on developing a curriculum to teach food and nutrition within a positive, ag

Sociology professor, writer, and performer Kimberly Dark returns to the podcast to discuss her latest book, Fat, Pretty, and Soon to be Old; why appearance is a form of privilege; how ageism intersects with other oppressions; how diet culture has influenced our ideas about self-improvement; why women are often penalized for not wearing makeup; and so much more. Plus, Christy answers a listener question about how alcohol consumption fits into intuitive eating. (This episode originally aired on February 10, 2020.) Kimberly Dark is a writer, professor and raconteur, working to reveal the hidden architecture of everyday life so that we can reclaim our power as social creators. She’s the author of Fat, Pretty, and Soon to be Old, The Daddies, and Love and Errors. Her essays, stories and poetry are widely published in academic and popular publications alike (Ms, Ravishly, Everyday Feminism). Since the 1990s, Kimberly has been facilitating discovery-based learning internationally -- in person, as well as in writing.

Social psychologist and weight-stigma researcher Jeffrey Hunger joins us to discuss why we can’t fight weight stigma while also advocating for weight loss, how “wellness” has been co-opted by diet culture (aka The Wellness Diet), why we need to do more than just tell people “diets don’t work,” the role of critical thinking in taking down diet culture, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about how to handle cravings for sugar and “processed” foods after a restrictive Wellness Diet. (This episode originally aired on April 8, 2019.) Jeffrey Hunger, PhD, is currently a postdoctoral scholar in Health Psychology at UCLA and will be joining the Miami University as an assistant professor in Psychology this fall. He received his Bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Minnesota, Master’s degree in psychological research from CSU Fullerton, and PhD in Psychological and Brain Sciences from UC Santa Barbara. As a social and health psychologist, Dr. Hunger is interested in using insi

Fellow anti-diet dietitian Christyna Johnson joins us to discuss adapting intuitive eating for different cultures and life situations, how microaggressions can contribute to eating-disorder behaviors and poor health, fatphobia and Eurocentrism in dietetics and clinical nutrition, how diet culture has warped the way we view and manage chronic illness, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about emotional eating and why distinguishing between “mental hunger” and physical hunger can be such a minefield. (This episode originally aired on November 11, 2019.) Christyna Johnson is a registered dietitian in Dallas, Texas. She has a private practice helping individuals cultivate a healthy relationship with food and body. In her free time she’s becoming an urban gardener. Find her online at EncouragingDietitian.com. Subscribe to our newsletter, Food Psych Weekly, to keep getting new weekly Q&As and other new content while the podcast is on hiatus! If you're ready to break free from diet cu