Katja Rowell, M.D. joins us to discuss responsive feeding, picky eating, and how to parent without passing diet culture norms on to your kids.

We also explore the science behind a few common misperceptions from parents and doctors including: why playful or gamified tactics to change eating habits can be harmful and backfire, the problems with many “early interventions” around child BMI, and reasons to question growth charts in early childhood.

This episode is cross-posted from our other podcast, Rethinking Wellness.

Katja Rowell, M.D. is a family doctor, author, and feeding specialist. Described as “academic, but warm and down to earth,” Rowell believes that helping children grow up to have a healthy relationship with food and their bodies is preventive medicine. Her interest in the world of feeding was sparked by her own worries as a parent, ending up with a toddler preoccupied with food. Helping her family get onto a better path inspired Rowell to learn more. Rowell expanded her knowledge; learning from and collaborating with OTs, Speech Pathologists, dietitians, psychologists, and eating disorder experts.

Rowell has particular interests in avoidant, or “extreme picky eating” including ARFID, as well as food preoccupation. She supports adoptive and fostering parents through a trauma-informed lens. Learn more at thefeedingdoctor.com.

More from Christy:

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!

Registered dietitian Jackie Silver joins us to discuss nutritional approaches that are helpful for neurodivergence, why neurodivergent people are often the targets of wellness and diet culture, the kinds of wellness-culture messages she’s gotten as a person with a disability, and why the advice to cut out gluten for autism is often harmful. Behind the paywall, we get into why ultraprocessed food consumption doesn’t cause autism and why cutting out these foods doesn’t “cure” it, the harmful discourse around autism and ADHD in the culture right now, why it’s harmful to categorize foods as “good” and “bad,” and more. This episode is cross-posted from our other podcast, Rethinking Wellness.

Jackie Silver is a Registered Dietitian and founder of Jackie Silver Nutrition, a virtual private practice specializing in supporting neurodivergent kids, teens, and adults with ADHD, autism (ASD), and intellectual/developmental disabilities (IDD). Her team offers neurodiversity-affirming, nonjudgmental, and weight-inclusive care.

Jackie earned her Master of Health Science in Nutrition Communication from Toronto Metropolitan University and has specialized training in mindful eating and sensory-based feeding therapy.

She and her team support clients across Ontario, Canada, and several U.S. states, including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, helping with meal planning, selective eating, food aversions, digestive health, chronic disease management, and more.

In her free time, Jackie enjoys rock climbing, yoga, pilates, swimming, traveling, visiting museums, and spending time with family and friends. Learn more about her work at jackiesilvernutrition.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!

Physician and writer Mara Gordon joins us to discuss diet and wellness culture among medical doctors, why she took Ozempic for weight loss (and what made her quit), how she came to practice weight-inclusive care, and lots more. Behind the paywall, we get into why she was initially reluctant to write about weight inclusivity, her perspective on Ozempic and other GLP-1s now (and whether she prescribes them to patients), her upcoming book, and more. This episode is cross-posted from our other podcast, Rethinking Wellness.

Dr. Mara Gordon is a family physician and writer based in Philadelphia. She is a frequent contributor to NPR and often writes about size-inclusive medicine, fatphobia in health care, and is at work on a book about body justice. She also writes the Substack newsletter "Chief Complaint" at maragordonmd.substack.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!