#68: How Wellness Culture Steals Our Well-Being with Christy Harrison, Author and Registered Dietitian

Christy Harrison, RD MPH CEDS, joins Abbie on the pod to talk all things wellness culture. This conversation is such an important one, as they explore how the diet culture contrived version of wellness preys on those with medical conditions, is steeped in healthism, and perpetuates misinformation about pseudo-scientific diagnoses. Christy's second book, "The Wellness Trap", just released last week, so you'll also get to her more of the BTS on her book launch and writing process in this episode, too!

Topics discussed:

• Our love affair with chips of all kinds
• Christy's experience launching her second book in a different stage of life and as a new mom
• Creating boundaries and protecting your mental and emotional well-being on social media
• Wellness misinformation during pregnancy and postpartum
• Debunking dubious diagnoses: "adrenal fatigue", "candida overgrowth", and "leaky gut"
• How our consumption of social media influences our experience of diet and wellness culture
• The spread of misinformation and disinformation about health conditions
• How fearing food harms our health and wellbeing
• Chronic illness and wellness culture
• Finding trustworthy sources of information
• How diets cherry-pick insignificant studies or cite studies that don't support their claims
• The meaning behind Christy's new book cover and new podcast art

Christy Harrison, MPH, RD, CEDS is a journalist, registered dietitian, and certified intuitive eating counselor. She’s the author of The Wellness Trap: Break Free from Diet Culture, Disinformation, and Dubious Diagnoses and Find Your True Well-Being (coming in April 2023) and Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating.  

Christy is also the coauthor, with psychotherapist Judith Matz, of The Making Peace with Food Card Deck.

Christy is the producer and host of two podcasts, Rethinking Wellness and Food Psych, which have helped tens of thousands of listeners around the world think critically about diet and wellness culture and develop more peaceful relationships with food. In addition to her media work, Christy offers online courses and private intuitive eating coaching to help people all over the world make peace with food and their bodies.

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