Food Psych Podcast with Christy Harrison

Registered dietitian and author Shana Minei Spence joins us to discuss how a career in fashion affected her relationship with food and her body, her experience with a holistic provider who recommended elimination diets, how values and social norms influenced her use of alternative medicine, her disordered motivations for becoming a dietitian, and more. Behind the paywall, we get into how she recovered from her eating disorder, why she takes an anti-diet approach to nutrition, her experience working in the public-health field, cultural appropriation in wellness, and where she stands on wellness culture and alternative medicine now. Shana is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist based in Brooklyn, New York. She currently works in public health for the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, doing community nutrition lessons, and also owns her own company, The Nutrition Tea ®. She describes herself as an "all foods fit" dietitian. and creates a platform for open discussion on nutrition and wellness topics that are inclusive, non-diet, and weight-neutral, all with an intersectionality of social justice. She also writes frequently for publications such as Self, Shape, Outside, and Well + Good Magazines. Her debut book came out in August 2024, titled Live Nourished: Make Peace with Food, Banish Body Shame, and Reclaim Joy (Bookshop affiliate link). Speaking engagements include Peloton, NEDA, Eating Recovery Center, The Rose Retreats, Food Fluence, Eat Well Global, and NBC. She can be seen in media such as NPR, Shape Magazine, GQ, SELF Magazine, Women's Health Magazine, Outside Magazine, ABC Good Morning America, and Healthline. Check out Christy’s three books, Anti-Diet, The Wellness Trap, and The Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook for a deeper dive into the topics covered on the pod. If you’re ready to break free from diet culture and make peace with food, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. For more critical thinking and compassionate skepticism about wellness and diet culture, check out Christy’s Rethinking Wellness podcast! You can also sign up to get it in your inbox every week at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Ask a question about diet and wellness culture, disordered-eating recovery, and the anti-diet approach for a chance to have it answered on Rethinking Wellness. You can also subscribe to the Food Psych Weekly newsletter to check out previous answers!

Endocrinologist Gregory Dodell joins us to discuss myths and facts about hormones, including the problems with doing diets and supplement protocols for “hormone balancing,” why weight-loss recommendations aren’t helpful for hormone health, how to manage thyroid conditions without falling prey to wellness fads, the truth about “adrenal fatigue,” the Ozempic craze, and more. This episode is a cross-post from our sister podcast, Rethinking Wellness, where paid subscribers can hear an extended interview with Greg. Gregory Dodell, MD FACE is a board-certified endocrinologist. He received his medical degree from Albany Medical College. He completed his internal medicine and endocrinology Fellowship at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, affiliated with Columbia University. He is the President of Central Park Endocrinology, PC.  Check out Christy’s three books, Anti-Diet, The Wellness Trap, and The Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook for a deeper dive into the topics covered on the pod.  If you’re ready to break free from diet culture and make peace with food, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. For more critical thinking and compassionate skepticism about wellness and diet culture, check out Christy’s Rethinking Wellness podcast! You can also sign up to get it in your inbox every week at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Ask a question about diet and wellness culture, disordered-eating recovery, and the anti-diet approach for a chance to have it answered on Rethinking Wellness. You can also subscribe to the Food Psych Weekly newsletter to check out previous answers!

Psychologist and body-image researcher Charlotte Markey joins us to discuss myths and misinformation about body image, how chronic illness and pain affect perceptions of our bodies, the body positivity vs. body neutrality debate, the potential body-image harms of social media (and how to mitigate them), how the discourse about GLP-1 weight-loss drugs is influencing people’s body image, and more. This is a cross-post from our other podcast, Rethinking Wellness. Paid subscribers can hear the full interview, and the first half is available to all listeners. Upgrade to paid for the whole thing! Charlotte Markey, Ph.D., is a professor of psychology and chair of the Health Sciences Department at Rutgers University (Camden). Dr. Markey received her doctorate in psychology from the University of California (Riverside) and began conducting research on eating behavior and body image over 25 years ago. She has published over 100 book chapters and articles in peer-reviewed journals. The Body Image Book for Girls: Love Yourself and Grow Up Fearless was published in 2020 to enthusiastic reviews and was a recommended book by A Mighty Girl. It was followed up with Being You: The Body Image Book for Boys (2022), the only book about body image for boys. Body Positive: Understanding and Improving Body Image in Science and Practice (co-edited with Drs. Elizabeth Daniels and Meghan Gillen; Cambridge University Press; 2018) offers a scholarly approach to improving body image. Her newest book is Adultish: The Body Image Book for Life (2024). Dr. Markey writes for U.S. News and World Report, Psychology Today, and a variety of other publications. Her research has garnered widespread media attention, and she has been featured in and interviewed by publications including The New York Times, The Economist, The Today Show, ABC News, Time Magazine, The Washington Post, ScienceDaily, and NBC News. Check out Christy’s three books, Anti-Diet, The Wellness Trap, and The Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook for a deeper dive into the topics covered on the pod. If you’re ready to break free from diet culture and make peace with food, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. For more critical thinking and compassionate skepticism about wellness and diet culture, check out Christy’s Rethinking Wellness podcast! You can also sign up to get it in your inbox every week at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Ask a question about diet and wellness culture, disordered-eating recovery, and the anti-diet approach for a chance to have it answered on Rethinking Wellness. You can also subscribe to the Food Psych Weekly newsletter to check out previous answers!

Eating-disorders therapist Shira Rosenbluth returns to discuss how she was able to get into solid eating-disorder recovery after many years of struggling, her experience of recovering into a larger body and how she navigated weight stigma in that process, being a plus-size bride, how the hype around GLP-1s has affected her recovery (and her clients’), and more. Shira Rosenbluth, LCSW, is a licensed clinical social worker treating clients in New York and California. She has a passion for helping people feel their best in their body at any size and specializes in the treatment of disordered eating, eating disorders, and body-image dissatisfaction using a weight-neutral approach. She’s also the author of a popular body positive blog and has been featured in The New York Times, Insider, The Cut, The Everygirl, InStyle, and Healthline. You can find her on Instagram, @theshirarose. Learn more about her therapy practice at ShiraRosenbluthLCSW.com. Check out Christy’s three books, Anti-Diet, The Wellness Trap, and The Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook for a deeper dive into the topics covered on the pod. If you’re ready to break free from diet culture and make peace with food, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. For more critical thinking and compassionate skepticism about wellness and diet culture, check out Christy’s Rethinking Wellness podcast! You can also sign up to get it in your inbox every week at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Ask a question about diet and wellness culture, disordered-eating recovery, and the anti-diet approach for a chance to have it answered on Rethinking Wellness. You can also subscribe to the Food Psych Weekly newsletter to check out previous answers!

Eating-disorders psychologist Alexis Conason joins us to discuss her background in “obesity” research, how she came to question the conventional weight paradigm and move to a weight-neutral approach, the industry influence behind the American Medical Association’s decision to classify obesity as a disease in 2013, the mental-health effects of bariatric surgery, how to talk about pharmaceutical-industry influence in ways that don’t give rise to conspiracy theories or make it seem like we’re impugning the entire medical establishment, and more. Then, in the paywalled portion of the interview, we discuss how social media makes it hard to have nuanced conversations about wellness and diet culture, the discourse around GLP-1 drugs, and the trouble with the research underlying weight-loss recommendations. This is a cross-post from our other podcast, Rethinking Wellness. Paid subscribers can hear the full interview, and the first half is available to all listeners. Upgrade to paid for the whole thing! ALEXIS CONASON, PSY.D., CEDS-S, is a clinical psychologist and certified eating disorder specialist-supervisor in private practice in New York City. Her group practice, Conason Psychological Services, specializes in the treatment of binge eating disorder, disordered eating, body image concerns, and psychological issues related to bariatric weight loss surgery. She is the founder of The Anti-Diet Plan, a weight-inclusive online mindful eating program designed to help people stop dieting, eat more attuned with their body, and live more peaceful and pleasurable lives. She is the author of The Diet Free Revolution: 10 Steps to Free Yourself from the Diet Cycle with Mindful Eating and Radical Self-Acceptance (June 2021, North Atlantic Books), available wherever books are sold. Dr. Conason is a fierce advocate for helping people recognize and question the societal norms that encourage feeling not good enough about themselves so they can stop fixating on shrinking their bodies and reclaim the space that they deserve in the world. You can find her on social media @theantidietplan. Check out Christy’s three books, Anti-Diet, The Wellness Trap, and The Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook for a deeper dive into the topics covered on the pod. If you’re ready to break free from diet culture and make peace with food, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. For more critical thinking and compassionate skepticism about wellness and diet culture, check out Christy’s Rethinking Wellness podcast! You can also sign up to get it in your inbox every week at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Ask a question about diet and wellness culture, disordered-eating recovery, and the anti-diet approach for a chance to have it answered on Rethinking Wellness. You can also subscribe to the Food Psych Weekly newsletter to check out previous answers!

Writer, speaker, and weight-inclusive health/fitness professional Ragen Chastain joins us to discuss the potential side effects and other downsides of using GLP-1 drugs (like Ozempic and its ilk) for weight loss, the massive influence the manufacturers of these drugs are having on the public discourse about them, why the media don’t often report on these conflicts of interest, how drugmakers have co-opted talking points about weight stigma and weight cycling, how opposition to these drugs in some integrative- and functional-medicine spaces still perpetuates stigmatizing ideas about body size, and more. The first half of this interview is available to everyone, and you can hear the whole thing by becoming a paid member at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Ragen Chastain is a speaker, writer, researcher, Board Certified Patient Advocate, multi-certified health and fitness professional, and thought leader in weight science, weight stigma, health, and healthcare. Utilizing her background in research methods and statistics, Ragen has brought her signature mix of humor and hard facts to healthcare, corporate, conference, and college audiences from Kaiser Permanente and the Diabetes Education Specialists National Conference, to Amazon and Google, to Dartmouth, Cal Tech and canfitpro. Author of the Weight and Healthcare newsletter, the book Fat: The Owner's Manual, co-author of HAES Health Sheets, and editor of the anthology The Politics of Size, Ragen is frequently featured as an expert in print, radio, television, and documentary film. In her free time, Ragen is a national dance champion, triathlete, and marathoner who holds the Guinness World Record for Heaviest Woman to Complete a Marathon. Ragen lives in Oregon with her fiancée Julianne and a rotating cast of foster dogs. Check out Christy’s three books, Anti-Diet, The Wellness Trap, and The Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook for a deeper dive into the topics covered on the pod. If you’re ready to break free from diet culture and make peace with food, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. For more critical thinking and compassionate skepticism about wellness and diet culture, check out Christy’s Rethinking Wellness podcast! You can also sign up to get it in your inbox every week at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Ask a question about diet and wellness culture, disordered-eating recovery, and the anti-diet approach for a chance to have it answered on Rethinking Wellness. You can also subscribe to the Food Psych Weekly newsletter to check out previous answers!

Dietitian and author Heidi Schauster joins us to discuss why putting kids on gluten-free diets or other elimination diets in the name of health often backfires; how parents can help kids develop a good relationship with all foods, including demonized ones like sugar; developmentally appropriate ways to talk to kids about nutrition; why pleasure is actually more important than nutrition; and more. Heidi Schauster, MS, RD, LDN, CEDS-S, SEP is a nutrition and body image therapist, Somatic Experiencing (SE)™ practitioner, clinical supervisor, and Embodiment Warrior who writes about whole-self wellness. She has practiced in the Boston area for nearly 30 years and is the author of the award-winning book Nourish: How to Heal Your Relationship with Food, Body and Self and the new book Nurture: How to Raise Kids Who Love Food, Their Bodies, and Themselves (Bookshop affiliate links). Heidi is a lifelong dancer, a plant lady, and the proud mama of two outrageous young women. Join the Nourishing Words mailing list on her website (https://www.anourishingword.com/) or Substack, or follow her on Instagram @nourishingwords. Check out Christy’s three books, Anti-Diet, The Wellness Trap, and The Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook for a deeper dive into the topics covered on the pod.  If you’re ready to break free from diet culture and make peace with food, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. For more critical thinking and compassionate skepticism about wellness and diet culture, check out Christy’s Rethinking Wellness podcast! You can also sign up to get it in your inbox every week at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Ask a question about diet and wellness culture, disordered-eating recovery, and the anti-diet approach for a chance to have it answered on Rethinking Wellness. You can also subscribe to the Food Psych Weekly newsletter to check out previous answers!

Project HEAL CEO Akiera Gilbert joins us to discuss her relationship with food growing up, why she didn’t realize she had an eating disorder, how she finally began to find healing, the importance of community in disordered-eating recovery, what to do if community feels tricky to you, and more.  Akiera Gilbert (she/her), CEO of Project HEAL, reminds us that eating disorders are more than personal struggles—they're a critical public health issue.  Project HEAL is recognized as the leading national non-profit focused on creating equitable access to eating disorder care. In 2023 alone, they provided access to over $5 million worth of free services, including treatment placement, clinical assessments, cash assistance, insurance navigation, and meal support.  Previously, Akiera founded Body Reborn to foster healing spaces for people of color who struggle with food and body image. Driven by her belief that healing is our collective right, she is actively transforming mental healthcare to be more affirming, accessible, and affordable. To explore Akiera’s vision and the transformative impact of Project HEAL’s work, visit theprojectheal.org.  Check out Christy’s three books, Anti-Diet, The Wellness Trap, and The Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook for a deeper dive into the topics covered on the pod. If you’re ready to break free from diet culture and make peace with food, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. For more critical thinking and compassionate skepticism about wellness and diet culture, check out Christy’s Rethinking Wellness podcast! You can also sign up to get it in your inbox every week at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Ask a question about diet and wellness culture, disordered-eating recovery, and the anti-diet approach for a chance to have it answered on Rethinking Wellness. You can also subscribe to the Food Psych Weekly newsletter to check out previous answers!

In honor of Eating Disorders Awareness Week (EDAW), we’re sharing a teaser of next month’s episode. It’s with Akiera Gilbert, the new CEO of Project HEAL, whose theme for EDAW is “let your community be your compass.” In this mini-episode, Akiera shares the importance of community when it comes to eating-disorder recovery, her goals with Project HEAL, and a little glimpse of her own process of healing from an eating disorder. There’ll be lots more in the main episode, which is a classic Food Psych format where we talk about her relationship with food growing up and how she found healing. Look for that in a couple weeks, and meanwhile we hope you enjoy this preview! Akiera Gilbert (she/her), CEO of Project HEAL, reminds us that eating disorders are more than personal struggles — they're a critical public health issue. Project HEAL is recognized as the leading national non-profit focused on creating equitable access to eating disorder care. In 2023 alone, they provided access to over $5 million worth of free services, including treatment placement, clinical assessments, cash assistance, insurance navigation, and meal support. Previously, Akiera founded Body Reborn to foster healing spaces for people of color who struggle with food and body image. Driven by her belief that healing is our collective right, she is actively transforming mental healthcare to be more affirming, accessible, and affordable. To explore Akiera’s vision and the transformative impact of Project HEAL’s work, visit theprojectheal.org. Check out Christy’s three books, Anti-Diet, The Wellness Trap, and The Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook for a deeper dive into the topics covered on the pod. If you’re ready to break free from diet culture and make peace with food, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. For more critical thinking and compassionate skepticism about wellness and diet culture, check out Christy’s Rethinking Wellness podcast! You can also sign up to get it in your inbox every week at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Ask a question about diet and wellness culture, disordered-eating recovery, and the anti-diet approach for a chance to have it answered on Rethinking Wellness. You can also subscribe to the Food Psych Weekly newsletter to check out previous answers!

Therapists and authors Judith Matz and Amy Pershing join us to discuss our new collaboration, The Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook; why the typical diet-culture response to emotional eating is unhelpful, and what to do instead; how to know if you’re a chronic dieter (as opposed to just a “healthy eater”); the role of trauma in binge eating; why high body weight isn’t a sign that you’ve suffered trauma; and lots more.   Judith Matz, LCSW, ACSW, is a therapist, nationally recognized speaker, and consultant on the topics of diet culture, binge eating, emotional eating, body image, and weight stigma. She is co-author of the new Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook, as well as The Diet Survivor’s Handbook, Beyond a Shadow of a Diet, The Making Peace with Food Card Deck, The Body Positivity Card Deck, and author of Amanda’s Big Dream. Judith offers continuing education and training for professionals through PESI as well as customized presentations for a variety of companies and organizations. Judith’s work has been featured in the media including NPR, The New York Times, Good Housekeeping and Psychotherapy Networker. She has a private practice via telehealth in Illinois where she meets with clients seeking to heal their relationship with food and their bodies. Find her at judithmatz.com and on Instagram @judmatz. Amy is an internationally known leader in the development of treatment paradigms for BED, and one of the first clinicians to specialize in BED treatment. Based on 35 years of clinical experience, Amy has pioneered an approach to BED recovery that is strengths-based and trauma informed, incorporating Internal Family Systems (IFS) and body-based techniques to heal the deeper issues that drive binge behaviors. Her approach integrates a non-diet body autonomy philosophy, helping clients create lasting change with food and body image. She is the author of the book Binge Eating Disorder: The Journey to Recovery and Beyond (Taylor and Francis, 2018) and The Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook, with co-authors Judith Matz and Christy Harrison (PESI Publishing, 2024). She also offers a variety of trainings on BED treatment through PESI. Amy maintains her clinical practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Learn more about her work at thebodywiseprogram.com. Check out Christy’s three books, Anti-Diet, The Wellness Trap, and The Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook for a deeper dive into the topics covered on the pod.  If you’re ready to break free from diet culture and make peace with food, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. For more critical thinking and compassionate skepticism about wellness and diet culture, check out Christy’s Rethinking Wellness podcast! You can also sign up to get it in your inbox every week at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Ask a question about diet and wellness culture, disordered-eating recovery, and the anti-diet approach for a chance to have it answered on Rethinking Wellness. You can also subscribe to the Food Psych Weekly newsletter to check out previous answers!

Katie Dalebout guest-hosts the show to interview Christy about her new book, The Wellness Trap! Christy shares why she wanted to write a book about wellness, the potential harms of integrative and functional medicine (and why we’re understandably attracted to these approaches), the connections between wellness culture and diet culture, the legacy of the “hysteria” diagnosis and why women are still having to push back against the idea that symptoms are all in our heads, the role of social media in spreading wellness mis- and disinformation, and more. This episode first ran on our new podcast, Rethinking Wellness. Subscribe there for ongoing content! Christy Harrison, MPH, RD, is a registered dietitian nutritionist, certified intuitive eating counselor, and journalist who has been covering food, nutrition, and health for more than 20 years. She is the author of two books, The Wellness Trap and Anti-Diet, and the producer and host of the podcasts Rethinking Wellness and Food Psych, which have helped tens of thousands of people around the world think critically about diet and wellness culture and develop more peaceful relationships with food. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, SELF, BuzzFeed, Refinery29, Gourmet, Slate, the Food Network, and many other publications, and her work is regularly featured in national print and broadcast media. Learn more about Christy and her work at christyharrison.com. Katie Dalebout is a writer who produces and hosts podcasts. Her weekly interview show, Let It Out, began in 2013 and now has over 400 episodes. In 2019 she started producing Spiraling, a mental health show she co-hosts with Serena Wolf. In 2016, she published her book Let It Out, an interactive book about using writing for emotional wellness. She now teaches writing workshops, consults with individuals and brands on creative strategy, and writes a weekly newsletter. She lives in Los Angeles where she walks everywhere like she still lives in New York. If you like this conversation, subscribe to hear lots more like it! You can also sign up to get it in your inbox each week (with a full transcript) at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Pre-order Christy's new book, The Wellness Trap, for its April 25 release, and get access to an exclusive webinar discussing the book by submitting your proof of purchase at christyharrison.com/bookbonus! If you're looking to make peace with food and break free from diet and wellness culture, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course.

In the penultimate episode of Food Psych, Christy answers an audience question about the wellness-culture trend of monitoring every bodily function, and whether it’s compatible with intuitive eating. Pre-order Christy's upcoming book, The Wellness Trap, for its April 25 release! If you're ready to break free from diet culture and make peace with food, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. For lots more on diet and wellness culture, check out the new Rethinking Wellness podcast! Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or sign up to get it in your inbox each week at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Ask your own question about intuitive eating and the anti-diet approach at christyharrison.com/questions.

Nutritionist and author Laura Thomas joins us to discuss what it’s like for kids living in the long shadow of “clean eating,” the “almond mom” trend on TikTok, the "wellness to woo pipeline," how parents and caregivers can let go of wellness-culture beliefs about food for themselves and their kids, and more. Laura Thomas is an anti-diet Registered Nutritionist. Her clinical work focuses on supporting parents and families to end intergenerational dieting and body shame, and work towards a greater sense of embodiment and ease in their relationship with food. She supports families of children experiencing a wide range of feeding and eating challenges, such as concerns with weight, very selective eating, food preoccupation, and other feeding and eating differences. Laura also runs the newsletter, podcast, and community Can I Have Another Snack? on Substack, where she is exploring bodies, appetite, and identity with a focus on parenting. She is the author of two books: Just Eat It and How To Just Eat It. If you like this conversation, subscribe to hear lots more like it! You can also sign up to get it in your inbox each week (with a full transcript) at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Pre-order Christy's upcoming book, The Wellness Trap, for its April 25 release, and get access to an exclusive webinar discussing the book by submitting your proof of purchase at christyharrison.com/bookbonus. If you're looking to make peace with food and break free from diet and wellness culture, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course.

Christy answers a listener question about Ozempic and other GLP-1 agonist drugs, and why we all should be extremely wary of any new diet drug being hailed as a "miracle." Pre-order Christy's upcoming book, The Wellness Trap, for its April 25 release! If you're ready to break free from diet culture and make peace with food, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. For lots more on diet and wellness culture, check out the new Rethinking Wellness podcast! Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or sign up to get it in your inbox each week at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Ask your own question about intuitive eating and the anti-diet approach at christyharrison.com/questions.

Alan Levinovitz, religious-studies scholar and author of Natural and The Gluten Lie, joins us to discuss the problems with framing eating and wellness practices as “natural,” the weird parallels between gun culture and wellness culture, the tricky balance between empathizing with why people are driven to harmful wellness practices and being clear in calling out misinformation, the need for nuance when discussing the connection between physical and psychological issues, and more. Alan Levinovitz is associate professor of philosophy and religion at James Madison University, and the author, most recently, of Natural: How Faith In Nature's Goodness Leads to Harmful Fads, Unjust Laws, and Flawed Science. Rethinking Wellness now has its own feed! If you like this conversation, subscribe to the new podcast to hear lots more like it! You can also sign up to get it in your inbox each week (with a full transcript) at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Pre-order Christy's upcoming book, The Wellness Trap, for its April 25 release, and get access to an exclusive webinar discussing the book by submitting your proof of purchase at christyharrison.com/bookbonus.

We discuss whether autoimmune diets really work, placebo effects and the problem with anecdotal evidence about diets, and the harmful side effects that can come from restricting what you eat. For lots more on wellness culture, check out the new Rethinking Wellness podcast! Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or sign up to get it in your inbox each week at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Pre-order Christy's upcoming book, The Wellness Trap, for its April 25 release! If you're ready to break free from diet culture and make peace with food, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. Ask your own question about intuitive eating and the anti-diet approach at christyharrison.com/questions.

Jenée Desmond-Harris, Slate Magazine's Dear Prudence advice columnist, joins us to discuss her path toward making peace with food and realizing she didn’t have food sensitivities, how infertility can make people desperate enough to try dubious wellness-culture treatments, the harmful wellness messages she’s gotten while navigating her son’s sensitive stomach as a breastfeeding parent, how social media influences our relationships with food and body, and lots more. Jenée Desmond-Harris is a Slate staff writer and editor. She writes the Dear Prudence advice column and previously worked at the New York Times, Vox.com and the Root. Find her work at slate.com. If you like this conversation, you can hear lots more like it on the new Rethinking Wellness podcast! Just search for Rethinking Wellness with Christy Harrison wherever you get your podcasts, or sign up to get it in your inbox each week at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Pre-order Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, for its April 25 release! If you're ready to break free from diet culture and make peace with food, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course.

Casey Gueren, award-winning health journalist and author of It's Probably Nothing, joins us to discuss how to deal with health anxiety, strategies for recognizing and avoiding wellness misinformation online, how to develop greater media literacy, and more. Pre-order Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, for its April 25 release! If you're ready to break free from diet culture and make peace with food, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. Christy's first book, Anti-Diet, is available wherever you get your books. Order online at christyharrison.com/book, or at local bookstores across North America, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Grab Christy's free guide, 7 simple strategies for finding peace and freedom with food, for help getting started on the anti-diet path. Subscribe to our newsletter, Food Psych Weekly, for weekly Q&As and more. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, go to christyharrison.com/foodpsych. Ask your own question about intuitive eating and the anti-diet approach at christyharrison.com/questions.

We discuss why intuitive eating is NOT the hunger-and-fullness diet, the real reason many of us eat when we’re “not hungry,” setting boundaries on food talk in a 12-step alcohol-recovery program, how to transition clients from weight loss to intuitive eating, and more. Pre-order Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, for its April 25 release! If you're ready to break free from diet culture and make peace with food, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. Christy's first book, Anti-Diet, is available wherever you get your books. Order online at christyharrison.com/book, or at local bookstores across North America, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Grab Christy's free guide, 7 simple strategies for finding peace and freedom with food, for help getting started on the anti-diet path. Subscribe to our newsletter, Food Psych Weekly, for weekly Q&As and more. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, go to christyharrison.com/foodpsych. Ask your own question about intuitive eating and the anti-diet approach at christyharrison.com/questions.

Fitness and wellness historian Natalia Mehlman Petrzela joins Christy to discuss her new book, Fit Nation; the historical shifts that made fitness go from being viewed as a narcissistic practice to being seen as a good thing across the political spectrum; why so many people are disillusioned with our medical system and looking for answers and validation in the alternative medicine space; how people can be critical consumers of online wellness content; and more. (Content warning: discussions of fitness and the food environment.) Natalia Mehlman Petrzela is a historian of contemporary American politics and culture. She is the author of FIT NATION: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession (University of Chicago Press, 2023) and Classroom Wars: Language, Sex, and the Making of Modern Political Culture (Oxford University Press, 2015). She is co-producer and host of the podcast WELCOME TO YOUR FANTASY, from Pineapple Street Studios and Gimlet – and recognized as the “best of 2021” by Vogue, Esquire, the New York Times, and Vulture – and the co-host of Past Present Podcast. Her work has been supported by the Spencer, Whiting, Rockefeller, and Mellon Foundations. Natalia is a frequent media guest expert, public speaker, and contributor to international and domestic news outlets, from the New York Times to the Washington Post to CNN to the Atlantic. She is Associate Professor of History at The New School, co-founded and directed the wellness education program Healthclass 2.0, and is a Premiere Leader of the mind-body practice intenSati. She holds a B.A. from Columbia and a master’s and Ph.D. from Stanford and lives with her husband and two children in New York City. Learn more about her and her work at NataliaPetrzela.com. Pre-order Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, for its April 25 release! If you're ready to break free from diet culture and make peace with food, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. Christy's first book, Anti-Diet, is available wherever you get your books. Order online at christyharrison.com/book, or at local bookstores across North America, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Grab Christy's free guide, 7 simple strategies for finding peace and freedom with food, for help getting started on the anti-diet path. Subscribe to our newsletter, Food Psych Weekly, for weekly Q&As and more. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, go to christyharrison.com/foodpsych. Ask your own question about intuitive eating and the anti-diet approach at christyharrison.com/questions.