

Food Psych Podcast with Christy Harrison
Christy Harrison, MPH, RD, CEDS
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.)
(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
Mentioned books

May 3, 2021 • 1h 17min
[Repost] #209: Giving Up the Weight-Loss Fantasy with Amee Severson, Anti-Diet Dietitian and Fat-Acceptance Advocate
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 listener question about what to do if your hunger cues are absent. (This episode was originally published on October 14, 2019.) Amee Severson is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist in Bellingham WA whose work focuses on body positivity, fat acceptance, and intuitive eating through a social-justice lens. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Food and Nutrition from Montana State University, is completing her Master's in Professional Practice in Dietetics from Iowa State University, is a dietitian registered in the State of Washington, and is currently working toward becoming a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor and a Certified Body Trust Provider. Find her online at ProsperNutritionAndWellness.com. Subscribe to our newsletter, Food Psych Weekly, to keep getting new weekly Q&As and other new content while the podcast is on hiatus! If you're ready to break free from diet culture once and for all, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. You'll get all your questions answered in an exclusive monthly podcast, plus ongoing support in our private community forum and dozens of hours of other great content. 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. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, go to christyharrison.com/foodpsych. Ask your own question about intuitive eating, Health at Every Size, or eating disorder recovery at christyharrison.com/questions.Our Sponsors:* Join Armoire and get up to 50% off your first month: https://armoire.style/PSYCHAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Apr 26, 2021 • 1h 24min
[Repost] #215: The Life Thief, Part 1: How Diet Culture Steals Your Time and Messes Up Your Intuitive-Eating Skills with Kirsten Ackerman, Anti-Diet & Fat-Positive Dietitian
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 question about how to avoid falling into restrictive eating and diet-culture thinking when you have a genuine medical condition like celiac disease. (This episode was originally published on November 25, 2019.) Kirsten Ackerman is a Fat-Positive Registered Dietitian and Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor. She practices from a Health at Every Size® approach and works with clients to help them heal their relationship to food and body in order to support them in living full and meaningful lives. Find her online at TheIntuitive-RD.com. Subscribe to our newsletter, Food Psych Weekly, to keep getting new weekly Q&As and other new content while the podcast is on hiatus! If you're ready to break free from diet culture once and for all, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. You'll get all your questions answered in an exclusive monthly podcast, plus ongoing support in our private community forum and dozens of hours of other great content. 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. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, go to christyharrison.com/foodpsych. Ask your own question about intuitive eating, Health at Every Size, or eating disorder recovery at christyharrison.com/questions.Our Sponsors:* Join Armoire and get up to 50% off your first month: https://armoire.style/PSYCHAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Apr 19, 2021 • 1h 10min
[Repost] #223: Fat-Positive Comedy, Diet-Culture Recovery, and Native American Representation with Jana Schmieding of Woman of Size Podcast
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 whether cultural changes over the centuries have influenced average body sizes. (This episode was originally published on January 20, 2020.) Jana Schmieding is a Lakota Sioux comedian, writer, performer and educator currently living and working in Los Angeles. Jana puts a lot of focus into her creative work and advocacy as the host and producer of the podcast and accompanying live show, Woman of Size where brilliant people discuss weight stigma, fat acceptance and marginalized cultures. She's currently working on screenwriting and publishing essays that revolve around moving the needle on Native representation in media and entertainment. (2021 update: Jana is now starring in the NBC Peacock show Rutherford Falls with Ed Helms, which debuts this week!) Subscribe to our newsletter, Food Psych Weekly, to keep getting new weekly Q&As and other new content while the podcast is on hiatus! If you're ready to break free from diet culture once and for all, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. You'll get all your questions answered in an exclusive monthly podcast, plus ongoing support in our private community forum and dozens of hours of other great content. 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. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, go to christyharrison.com/foodpsych. Ask your own question about intuitive eating, Health at Every Size, or eating disorder recovery at christyharrison.com/questions.Our Sponsors:* Join Armoire and get up to 50% off your first month: https://armoire.style/PSYCHAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Apr 12, 2021 • 1h 12min
[Repost] #201: The Path Back to Intuitive Eating with Devinia Noel, Anti-Diet Psychotherapist and Intuitive Eating Counselor
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 do if you get a diagnosis of pre-diabetes. (This episode was originally published on July 8, 2019.) Devinia Noel is a cognitive-behavioural psychotherapist and certified intuitive eating counsellor. She believes in a health at every size paradigm and a weight-neutral approach. Her mission is to create a safe diverse intersectional space for all individuals to develop peace with food and their bodies. Devinia is passionate about making non-diet spaces more diverse by sharing her experiences as a black woman previously trapped by diet culture. She also works in the community as a cognitive behavioural psychotherapist helping people with a wide range of problems including depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and disordered eating. Her experience of implementing self-care and self-compassion, inspires her to encourage clients to implement these practices. When Devinia has free time, she can be found baking, lifting weights and spending time with family and friends. Find her online at DeviniaNoel.com. Subscribe to our newsletter, Food Psych Weekly, to keep getting new weekly Q&As and other new content while the podcast is on hiatus! If you're ready to break free from diet culture once and for all, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. You'll get all your questions answered in an exclusive monthly podcast, plus ongoing support in our private community forum and dozens of hours of other great content. 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. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, go to christyharrison.com/foodpsych. Ask your own question about intuitive eating, Health at Every Size, or eating disorder recovery at christyharrison.com/questions.Our Sponsors:* Join Armoire and get up to 50% off your first month: https://armoire.style/PSYCHAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Apr 5, 2021 • 1h 18min
[Repost] #203: Healing from Orthorexia and The Wellness Diet with Katherine Metzelaar, Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor and Anti-Diet Dietitian
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, and so much more. Plus, Christy answers a listener question about how to deal with physical discomfort like thigh chafing and waistbands digging into your belly. (This episode was originally published on July 22, 2019.) Katherine Metzelaar, MSN, RDN, CD is a Seattle-based Dietitian and Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor who is passionate about inclusive healthcare for all bodies. She is the owner and founder of Bravespace Nutrition, a private nutrition practice that helps women, both virtually and in-person, to create peace with food and their body free from rules, dieting, and perfectionism. Through the use of a client-centered, therapeutic, non-diet approach, she helps women and womxn to recover from disordered eating, eating disorders and body image challenges. In addition to her practice, Katherine is the founder of Body Image Badass: Compassion, Connection, Embodiment, a body-acceptance group that works to create community and a safer space for women to talk about the challenges of what in means to exist in a world that seeks to control and oppress women’s bodies via dieting and body-shaming.When not at work, you can find her checking out the local foodie scene, dancing salsa, and in the pursuit of finding the best latte in town. Find her online at BraveSpaceNutrition.com. Subscribe to our newsletter, Food Psych Weekly, to keep getting new weekly Q&As and other new content while the podcast is on hiatus! If you're ready to break free from diet culture once and for all, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. You'll get all your questions answered in an exclusive monthly podcast, plus ongoing support in our private community forum and dozens of hours of other great content. 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. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, go to christyharrison.com/foodpsych. Ask your own question about intuitive eating, Health at Every Size, or eating disorder recovery at christyharrison.com/questions.Our Sponsors:* Join Armoire and get up to 50% off your first month: https://armoire.style/PSYCHAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Mar 15, 2021 • 8min
#275: Pausing the Podcast, and Where to Find Us Until We Return - Introducing the Food Psych Weekly Newsletter
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, certified intuitive eating counselor, certified eating disorders registered dietitian, and journalist. She’s the author of Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating (Little, Brown Spark 2019), and her second book, Rethinking Wellness, will be published by the same imprint in 2023. Since 2013 Christy has hosted Food Psych, a weekly podcast exploring people’s relationships with food and paths to body liberation. It’s been one of Apple’s top 100 Health podcasts for the past 5 years, reaching tens of thousands of listeners worldwide each week. 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. Christy began her career in 2003 as a journalist covering food, nutrition, and health, and she’s written for publications including The New York Times, SELF, BuzzFeed, WIRED, Refinery29, Gourmet, Slate, The Food Network, and many others. Learn more about Christy and her work at christyharrison.com. Subscribe to our new newsletter, Food Psych Weekly for weekly Q&As and more. It's a great way to keep getting new content while the podcast is on hiatus! If you're ready to break free from diet culture once and for all, 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. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, go to christyharrison.com/foodpsych. Ask your own question about intuitive eating, Health at Every Size, or eating disorder recovery at christyharrison.com/questions.Our Sponsors:* Join Armoire and get up to 50% off your first month: https://armoire.style/PSYCHAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Mar 8, 2021 • 1h 12min
#274: Getting Your Period Back, Healing from the Wellness Diet, and the First-Diet Trap with Lu Uhrich, Eating Psychology Coach and Body Image Mentor
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 a Certified Eating Psychology Coach and Body Image Mentor. Using a Health at Every Size®, Anti-Diet approach, Lu supports clients in finding food freedom, befriending their bodies and moving on with their lives. Through self-awareness and compassion, she’ll guide you to deconstruct diet mentality and give you plenty of resources and insight to call bullshit on fatphobia and diet culture, too—all for the sake of redefining your relationship with food, body, and self. Lu provides the tools, teaching, and support necessary to make a loving and lasting change—in your own time and on your own terms. She leads clients in practicing Intuitive Eating and Movement, Body Acceptance and Self-Compassion. She’s also adept at coaching around period recovery, self-care, ditching diets, and overcoming binge eating. Through her intimate 1:1 Mentorship and the MEND Sessions course, she's helped hundreds of women worldwide to recover from disordered eating. And she can help you, too. When Lu's not working with clients, she enjoys life as [anything but] usual with her husband and three kids. She’s an infant foster parent who loves memoirs and YA fiction reading, American Sign Language studying, Netflix watching, true crime podcast listening, tattoo collecting, nature hiking, cookie baking, craft beer drinking, moon charting, hip hop dancing and fact googling. Learn more about Lu and her work at LuUhrich.com. Subscribe to our new newsletter, Food Psych Weekly for weekly Q&As and more. It's a great way to keep getting new content while the podcast is on hiatus! If you're ready to break free from diet culture once and for all, 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. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, go to christyharrison.com/foodpsych. Ask your own question about intuitive eating, Health at Every Size, or eating disorder recovery at christyharrison.com/questions.Our Sponsors:* Join Armoire and get up to 50% off your first month: https://armoire.style/PSYCHAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Mar 1, 2021 • 53min
#273: Diet Culture in the Church, and Challenging Body Ideals in Gay and Queer Communities with Kent Thomas, Body-Liberation Coach and Social Worker
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. Kent Thomas, MSW is a social worker who focuses on Body Liberation Coaching and is passionate about helping others find freedom and a greater sense of home in their bodies. Kent works with people of all genders and sexualities, and is passionate about working with men to unlearn body shame and toxic body norms. As a gay man, Kent is especially passionate about helping queer men heal and create a fat positive and inclusive gay community. In addition to Body Liberation Coaching, Kent is a community organizer who advocates for queer inclusion in religious spaces and helps individuals tell their stories and heal from religious trauma. All of Kent’s coaching services are on Zoom and are available regardless of the client’s location. Kent can be found on Instagram @KentThomasMSW and his website is KentThomasMSW.com. Subscribe to our new newsletter, Food Psych Weekly for weekly Q&As and more. It's a great way to keep getting new content while the podcast is on hiatus! If you're ready to break free from diet culture once and for all, 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. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, go to christyharrison.com/foodpsych. Ask your own question about intuitive eating, Health at Every Size, or eating disorder recovery at christyharrison.com/questions.Our Sponsors:* Join Armoire and get up to 50% off your first month: https://armoire.style/PSYCHAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Feb 22, 2021 • 1h 6min
#272: Rebuilding Body Trust, the Importance of Unlearning, and Why Body Liberation Is for Everyone with Hilary Kinavey and Dana Sturtevant of Be Nourished
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; and so much more. In 2005, Hilary Kinavey, MS, LPC and Dana Sturtevant, MS, RD co-founded Be Nourished, a community based outpatient clinic and professional training institute that created Body Trust®—a strength-based, trauma-informed, scientifically grounded healing modality that encourages movement toward a compassionate, weight-inclusive model of radical self-care to address body oppression, heal body shame and associated patterns of chronic dieting and disordered eating. The Be Nourished Training Institute offers programs for helping professionals and educators interested in adopting client-centered, trauma-informed, justice-based approaches to healing—including an intensive cohort-based six-month training to become a Certified Body Trust Provider. Their work has been featured in The New York Times, Self, Real Simple, Huffington Post, and the TEDx stage. Learn more at BeNourished.org. Subscribe to our new newsletter, Food Psych Weekly for weekly Q&As and more! If you're ready to break free from diet culture once and for all, 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. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, go to christyharrison.com/foodpsych. Ask your own question about intuitive eating, Health at Every Size, or eating disorder recovery at christyharrison.com/questions.Our Sponsors:* Join Armoire and get up to 50% off your first month: https://armoire.style/PSYCHAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Feb 15, 2021 • 1h 19min
#271: From Weight-Loss "Success Story" to Eating-Disorder Recovery Mentor and Fat Activist with Daph Levy (Dishin' with Daph)
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 recovery, and so much more. Daph Levy (she/her) is an anti-diet eating-disorder recovery mentor, fat activist, and video content creator based in Boston, MA. She completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Dietetics, Nutrition & Food Science at the University of Vermont, and her Dietetic Internship from Simmons University. As a person who identifies as queer, fat, and Latina, Daph strives to offer a unique perspective on how to view health and wellbeing. She brings forth her expertise in the area of size diversity and health with conviction and care to the individuals with whom she speaks. Daph draws from her infinite curiosity and advocacy work to listen reflectively in order to best inform how she shares her valuable knowledge from her educational background, clinical training, and lived experiences in her recovery from eating disorders on her YouTube channel and Instagram “dishinwithdaph.” On the channel she dives deep into topics including eating disorder recovery, Health at Every Size, Intuitive Eating, and more. In the near future, Daph hopes to offer one-on-one and group coaching services to support people who struggle with body image and relationship to food. You can support her work by following her on social media platforms and subscribing to her YouTube channel. If you're ready to break free from diet culture once and for all, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. Christy's 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. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, go to christyharrison.com/foodpsych. Ask your own question about intuitive eating, Health at Every Size, or eating disorder recovery at christyharrison.com/questions.Our Sponsors:* Join Armoire and get up to 50% off your first month: https://armoire.style/PSYCHAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy