Food Psych Podcast with Christy Harrison

Marketing strategist and copywriter Maggie Frank-Hsu joins us to discuss her eating-disorder experience and recovery, how pregnancy and parenthood changed her relationship with food and her body, how contradicting societal ideals oppress women and femmes, working at a food magazine while struggling with disordered eating, giving yourself permission to live in your truth, and so much more. Plus, Ch...

Writer and feminist marketing consultant Kelly Diels joins us to discuss the links between diet culture, patriarchy, and anti-feminist marketing practices (aka The Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand); the role of abundance in healing from diet culture; how to reclaim your life from The Life Thief; understanding and healing our relationship with money; and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a list...

Eating-disorder therapist and style blogger Shira Rosenbluth joins us to discuss how diet culture steals our money through the high cost and low effectiveness of eating-disorder treatment, why she decided to share her story as a therapist recovering from an eating disorder, fatphobia in eating-disorder treatment centers and its effect on recovery, eating disorders as a form of trauma, and so much...

Non-diet dietitian Cara Harbstreet joins us to discuss hypothalamic amenorrhea and the lack of adequate care in conventional and alternative health, the normalization of diet-culture thoughts and behaviors in collegiate athletics and dietetics education, why thin privilege and other privileges don’t necessarily protect a person from internalizing body shame, why you don’t have to engage in or valu...

Comedian, author, and fellow podcaster Sofie Hagen joins us to discuss her new book, Happy Fat; how fatphobia affects people of all sizes; why health isn’t a matter of individual responsibility (and why framing it as one is oppressive); how science often gets twisted by diet culture and the media, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about how to define “health” outside of d...

Anti Diet Riot Club founder Becky Young joins us to discuss how diet culture intersects with other forms of oppression, how to respond to people who push back against the anti-diet message, why anger is important in eating-disorder recovery, how unconditional permission to eat can free your mind to focus on things other than food, and so much more. Plus, Christy answers a listener question about t...

Activist and scholar Jeff Iovannone joins us to discuss diet culture and harmful body standards in the gay community, how oppression and the AIDS crisis shaped the “normate gay” aesthetic, why every body is a Pride body, how to create a gay men’s body-liberation movement, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about fatphobia in eating-disorder treatment programs. (This episod...

Eating-disorders psychologist Lauren Muhlheim joins us to discuss how we can model a peaceful relationship with food for the kids in our lives, the problem with “childhood obesity” interventions, how some eating-disorder-treatment methods are being co-opted for weight loss, the rise of orthorexia, weight bias in medicine and the eating-disorders field, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a lis...

Writer and social-justice lawyer Savala Trepczynski joins us to discuss how she stopped a lifetime of dieting and started decolonizing her relationship with food, why pathologizing emotional eating is problematic, how fatphobia shows up even in social-justice-oriented communities, why there’s so little legal protection for discrimination based on body size, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers...

Fellow anti-diet dietitian and certified intuitive eating counselor Alissa Rumsey shares her experience with intuitive eating personally and professionally, how adopting a Health At Every Size® approach shifted her work with food companies, how stopping exercise helped her examine her relationship with movement and with her body, what she learned when she stopped wearing makeup, and so much more!...

Mental-health counselor and fellow podcaster Tiffany Roe joins us to discuss how diet culture paints false pictures of what health and eating disorders “look like”; the connections between religion, shame, diet culture, and eating-disorder recovery; why we need to fight fatphobia in the eating-disorder-treatment field; why even therapists have internalized stigma about mental illness and treatment...

Non-diet dietitian, certified intuitive eating counselor, and author Jenna Hollenstein returns to discuss her new book, Eat to Love: A Mindful Guide to Transforming Your Relationship with Food, Body, and Life, the role of self-compassion and non-judgment in recovery, how to rebuild trust in your body and inner wisdom, the importance of having enough, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a liste...

Fellow anti-diet dietitian and friend of the pod Kimmie Singh joins us to discuss her experiences being diagnosed and living with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), fatphobia and racism in healthcare and dietetics training, how reframing beauty ideals helped in her eating-disorder recovery, why eating-disorder providers need to talk to their clients about fatphobia, and so much more! Plus, Christ...

Fellow anti-diet dietitian Amee Severson joins us to discuss why intuitive eating is NOT a weight-loss plan, her experiences as a fat dietitian, how she moved from the weight-management paradigm to Health At Every Size®, the social-justice side of HAES and intuitive eating, how social media can be helpful and harmful in recovering from diet culture, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listen...

Fellow anti-diet dietitian and podcaster Kirsten Ackerman joins us to discuss how diet culture steals our time and energy, why intuitive eating is the default mode (and how diet culture robs us of that innate skill set), how to recognize true self-care versus diet culture’s version, why there’s so much unchecked privilege in weight-loss marketing, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener...

Comedian, fat-positive activist, and fellow podcaster Jana Schmieding joins us to discuss using comedy to call out diet culture, why there needs to be more Native representation in the media, how Western values contribute to oppression and ill health, how diet culture’s demonization of emotional eating causes additional distress, and so much more. Plus, Christy answers a listener question about wh...

Psychotherapist and fellow certified intuitive eating counselor Devinia Noel joins us to discuss how her work as a therapist influenced her own process of re-learning intuitive eating, why using food as a coping skill isn’t a bad thing, how diet culture creates shame, the need for diversity among intuitive-eating counselors, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about what to...

Fellow anti-diet dietitian and certified intuitive eating counselor Katherine Metzelaar joins us to discuss orthorexia within the health-and-wellness field, the cultural shift that made it cool to eliminate foods, mourning the loss of community and connection when you stop dieting, why growing up with a peaceful relationship with food doesn’t guarantee a lifetime of immunity against diet culture,...

In this final episode before our hiatus, Christy shares some parting words and resources for ongoing support—including the Food Psych Weekly newsletter , an advice column on how to make peace with food and your body, heal from disordered eating and diet culture, and reclaim your life for bigger and better things. Christy Harrison, MPH, RD, CEDRD is an anti-diet registered dietitian nutritionist, c...

Eating psychology coach and body image mentor Lu Uhrich joins us to discuss how a cancer scare and chronic illness in the family made her fall prey to the Wellness Diet, how to get your period back if you’ve lost it, why it’s so easy to tumble into disordered eating with just one diet or exercise program, the process of leaving a religion and reimagining your faith, and so much more. Lu Uhrich is...

Social worker and body-liberation coach Kent Thomas joins us to discuss the harms of gay body ideals, how queer people can use their experience of living outside cultural norms to help in healing their relationships with their bodies, his experience with diet culture in the church, the dance of advocating for the Health At Every Size® paradigm without becoming dogmatic about it, and so much more....

Be Nourished co-founders Hilary Kinavey and Dana Sturtevant return to discuss the process of unlearning, including/especially for healthcare providers; wanting body liberation for others while thinking it doesn’t apply to ourselves; how diet culture reinforces perfectionism; how the wellness industry hasn’t actually improved wellness; rebuilding trust in our relationship with food and our bodies;...

Anti-diet eating-disorder-recovery mentor, fat activist, and video content creator Daph Levy joins us to discuss her journey from being a dieting “success story” and weight-loss camp counselor to pursuing a career in eating-disorder treatment and recovery, privilege within the eating-disorder-treatment field, the feeling of not belonging and dieting to try to fit in, sitting with discomfort in rec...

Health At Every Size® therapist Nancy Ellis-Ordway joins us to discuss weight stigma in education, healthcare, and beyond; why individual health behaviors are less important than they’re made out to be; the evolution of HAES® over time; the role of money and industry in perpetuating diet culture; and so much more. Plus, Christy shares some big news about her next project and the future of the podc...

Media studies scholar and author Emily Contois returns to the podcast to discuss gender dynamics in food media and marketing; her new book, Diners, Dudes, and Diets: How Gender and Power Collide in Food Media and Culture; the avatar of The Dude; the parallels between Dad Bod and body positivity; and so much more. Plus, ”Ask Food Psych” guest co-host Joy Cox answers a listener question about the li...