Episodes
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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!
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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!
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Missing episodes?
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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!
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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!
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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 now you’ll get a chance to be part of a community of people going through the course at the same time.
You’ll get access to a forum where you can connect with other participants during the 3 months of the course, monthly Q&As with me, and well over a hundred hours of content teaching you the principles of intuitive eating (with lifetime access to that material, so you don’t have to do all those hours at once).
If you’re ready to make peace with food and break free from diet culture, I’d love to have you join this cohort of the course, which is open through next Monday, September 4.
To learn more and sign up, go to christyharrison.com/course. Hope to see you there!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 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.
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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 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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'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.
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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!
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.
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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. 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.
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