Food Psych Podcast with Christy Harrison
Helping people make peace with food since 2013. Registered dietitian nutritionist, certified intuitive eating counselor, and journalist Christy Harrison, MPH, RD, CEDS talks with guests and answers listener questions about making peace with food, healing from disordered eating, learning body acceptance, practicing intuitive eating, escaping harmful wellness culture, and more--all from a body-positive, anti-diet perspective. Along the way, Christy shares her own journey from disordered eater and dieter to food writer and anti-diet dietitian. This podcast challenges diet culture in all its forms--including the restrictive behaviors that often masquerade as wellness and fitness. Food Psych® is designed to offer safe and non-triggering support for listeners in recovery from eating disorders, weight stigma, and body shame. Subscribe for new anti-diet inspiration every week! Learn more and get full show notes and transcripts at christyharrison.com/foodpsych (Disclaimer: All content in this podcast, including medical opinion and any other health-related information, is for informational purposes only and should not be considered to be a specific diagnosis or treatment plan for any individual situation. Use of the information contained in this podcast does not constitute a doctor-patient relationship.)
Episodes
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.
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 cri...
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 dis...
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...
Hey there! It’s been a minute, but I wanted to pop in and let you know that my Intuitive Eating Fundamentals course is enrolling a new cohort now.
I designed the course for anyone who wants to give up dieting, make peace with food, and see what life is like without diet culture in charge.
The course normally has open enrollment, but if you join...
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 id...
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.
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 int...
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.
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 betw...
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 We...
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 w...
Christy answers an audience question about how to avoid eating too little throughout the day and ending up in an unintentional restrict-rebound cycle. We discuss how to reframe the issue so that you’re not forcing yourself to eat or demonizing “overeating,” and explore why tuning into subtle signs of hunger is essential for self-care. (This episode originally aired on June 20, 2022.)
Pre-order Christy's second book, The Wellness Tr...
Are you “doing intuitive eating wrong” if you find yourself eating just because you feel bored/tired/sad/otherwise emotional, or just because you *want* to eat, without being hungry per se? Christy responds, with 5 key ideas to consider. (This episode originally aired on June 13, 2022.)
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 f...
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 I...
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 ou...
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 onli...
Christy answers audience questions about how to deal with diet culture in the workplace, whether “lifestyle medicine” is compatible with an anti-diet approach, and whether she thinks diet foods should be forbidden.
If you're ready to break free from diet culture once and for all, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course.
Pre-order Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, for its April 2023 release!
Christy answers an audience question about how elimination diets can do damage to your mental and physical well-being, and how/whether to tell a doctor who put you on an elimination diet that it was harmful.
If you're ready to break free from diet culture once and for all, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course.
Pre-order Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, for its April 2023 release!
We consider whether labeling some foods as “fun”—and limiting their consumption—is compatible with intuitive eating and diet-culture recovery.
If you're ready to break free from diet culture once and for all, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course.
Pre-order Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, for its April 2023 release!
Christy's first book, Anti-Diet, is available wherever you get your books. O...
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