Ep 9. COVID-19 and Diet Culture: Discerning Wisdom from Wellness Wankery in Uncertain Times

Explicit content warning

04/13/20 • 40 min

With great uncertainty comes fear and uprooted trauma. COVID-19 has seen an amplification of weight stigma, wellness wankery, and conspiracy theories that have the potential to magnify our stress and trauma. Here's what to look out for, as well as ways to ground, protect and nurture yourself and your loved ones at this uncertain time.
Show notes:

The 3 categories of BS “health advice” circulating in the age of COVID-19: The Seemingly Innocuous, The Social Media Misinformation Storm, and The Blatantly Fat Phobic
Privileged health advice
Is cutting out sugar the most important thing to consider right now? (Clue: No, it's not.)
Essential oils, colloidal silver, celery juice: should we be using these to "boost" immunity?
What I really think about MLM (Multi-Level Marketing), and the ethics of downline recruitment and questionable advertising during a pandemic
Weight control during COVID VS. just surviving COVID
Higher BMI is NOT a risk factor for contracting COVID-19, and may even be a protective factor
Conspiracy theories, and the appeal of these to healers and lightworkers
What we really need to be focussing on right now
The ways we deal with stress and trauma, and how this manifests in our relationships with food, eating, our bodies and movement
How coronavirus is impacting me personally
Gentle ways we can support ourselves and others
Supplements and herbs can help support your immune health, but not having access to these is not the end of the world
Accessible nutrition counselling and yoga services I am currently offering during COVID-19

Links:
All Fired Up Podcast with Louise Adams
Bringing The Body Into the Room: Somatics, Food and Eating Experiences with Tracy Brown and Fiona Sutherland
Dr. Jennifer Gaudiani – author of the book Sick Enough
Dr. Kristin Neff on Self-Compassion
Stephen Harrod Buhner on herbal support for COVID-19 infection
Casey's LIVE yoga classes by-donation
Casey's accessible COVID-19 Nutrition Counselling Services
Mugwort Herbal Body Oil GIVEAWAY!

Support the show

The 3 categories of BS “health advice” circulating in the age of COVID-19: The Seemingly Innocuous, The Social Media Misinformation Storm, and The Blatantly Fat Phobic
Privileged health advice
Is cutting out sugar the most important thing to consider right now? (Clue: No, it's not.)
Essential oils, colloidal silver, celery juice: should we be using these to "boost" immunity?
What I really think about MLM (Multi-Level Marketing), and the ethics of downline recruitment and questionable advertising during a pandemic
Weight control during COVID VS. just surviving COVID
Higher BMI is NOT a risk factor for contracting COVID-19, and may even be a protective factor
Conspiracy theories, and the appeal of these to healers and lightworkers
What we really need to be focussing on right now
The ways we deal with stress and trauma, and how this manifests in our relationships with food, eating, our bodies and movement
How coronavirus is impacting me personally
Gentle ways we can support ourselves and others
Supplements and herbs can help support your immune health, but not having access to these is not the end of the world
Accessible nutrition counselling and yoga services I am currently offering during COVID-19

Support the show

Previous Episode

Ep 8. Inclusivity, Rage, and Other Forms of Kindness: Merging Yoga and Dietetics with Fiona Sutherland

In this episode:

The book that pivoted both Fiona’s and my own trajectory (If not dieting)
Fiona’s yoga teaching as embodied movement VS a fitness class
The 3 C’s: Care, consent and choice as essential factors in being inclusive dietitians, inclusive yoga teachers and inclusive humans
Doing the work doesn’t always feel good
What determines whether the yoga we practice will help or hinder healing from disordered eating and body image issues
Healthsplaining, healthism and the actual determinants of health
“We don’t sit separately from harm” – the way we show up in the world really matters
Thin privilege, weight bias and systematic oppression
Working with clients who want to lose weight, and what people might be actually looking for when they pursue weight loss
Some of the 100's of evidence based things a non-diet dietitian can do that isn’t giving out a meal plan
The power of the question “I wonder if you’re eating enough?”
The pervasive expectation on women and femmes to be “nice” and never angry: how mindfulness is not the same as niceness, and how recognising compassion and kindness in all its forms (including a box of rage!) can help us move away from “nice girl” syndrome

Links:
Fiona's Instagram
The Mindful Dietitian Facebook page
The Mindful Dietitian Private Facebook group for practitioners
Support the podcast at the Non-Diet Yogi Patreon!

Support the show

Next Episode

undefined - Ep 10. Gym Culture without Weight Loss Challenges: Bringing HAES®, Intuitive Eating and Body Positivity into Fitness with Monique Jephcote

Ep 10. Gym Culture without Weight Loss Challenges: Bringing HAES®, Intuitive Eating and Body Positivity into Fitness with Monique Jephcote

Gym culture can be incredibly toxic for people struggling with body image and eating concerns. Monique Jephcote, APD, PT and Intuitive Eating Counsellor, is infusing weight-neutral principles into the fitness world with compassion, respect and gusto.
In this episode:

How and why Monique opened her non-diet private practice soon after graduating
HAES just makes sense: “Every single body deserves dignity and respect” (and weight loss dietetics is SO boring!)
Monique’s lived experience of disordered eating recovery from her days as a competitive bodybuilder (including the fun, sassy “Beyonce” side of things)
“We get obsessed with food when we’re under-eating”
How Monique never disliked her body as much as she did when she was closest to society’s ideal body shape
The contrast in body diversity and body acceptance between the bodybuilding VS powerlifting scenes
The myriad ways diet culture manifests in the gym setting
On being a non-diet dietitian in a gym, and dealing respectfully with weight-centric fitness professionals: “We don’t know what we don’t know”
The way Monique is challenging perspectives on weight and health in the gym world
The importance of informed consent, body autonomy and compassion regardless of whether clients take a weight-centric or weight-neutral approach
Low energy availability or RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport), Hypothalamic Amenorrhoea in female athletes, and the problem with dismissing menstrual disturbances as “just what happens to active women”
Monique’s experiences with Vipassana meditation, and where this fits in with her work as a dietitian and fitness professional

Links: