Anti-diet dietitian Leah Kern joins us to discuss how struggling with anxiety made her susceptible to a wellness diet that promised safety and longevity, how that diet quickly spiraled into full-on disordered eating, how being eco-conscious and “earthy” can easily lead into wellness traps, the connection between spirituality and wellness culture, why she finally stopped trying to fix her anxiety with food and started taking meds, and more. This episode previously aired on our other podcast, Rethinking Wellness.

Leah Kern is an anti-diet dietitian and certified intuitive eating counselor who specializes in helping people heal their relationships with food and body. Her approach to coaching is firmly evidence-based, rooted in the Health At Every Size (HAES®) & Intuitive Eating frameworks. In her private practice, Leah teaches her clients to harness their body’s innate wisdom to govern how they eat and live. Leah believes that the work involved with unraveling years of conditioning in diet culture and learning to come home to one’s body is deeply spiritual work and she treats it as such. It is Leah’s mission to help her clients make peace with food and body so they can unlock their most aligned and fulfilling lives. Learn more about her work at leahkernrd.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!

Christy offers 5 tips for dealing with diet evangelists and diet-culture messaging this time of year. This episode originally aired in January 2023.

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.

Journalist and professor Mallary Tenore Tarpley joins us to discuss her new book Slip and the realities of life in the middle of eating disorder recovery.

She shares how losing her mother as a young girl led to disordered eating, why residential treatment was beneficial (and not), and how the pressures of maintaining “full recovery” led to years of struggle.

Behind the paywall, Mallary and Christy discuss the many definitions of “full recovery,” the challenges of writing a book about disordered eating that’s honest without being activating, and how Mallary talks to her kids about food.

Heads up that Mallary’s book (and parts of our conversation) contain a frank discussion of eating disorders including some potentially triggering details.

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

Mallary Tenore Tarpley is the author of the new memoir SLIP, which blends personal narrative, reportage, and research to offer up a new way of thinking about recovery as a "middle place" where slips happen but progress is always possible.

Mallary is a journalism and writing professor at the University of Texas at Austin's Moody College of Communication and McCombs School of Business. She frequently leads trainings on memoir and personal essay writing, and she gives talks and writes articles about topics such as eating disorders, recovery, and embracing imperfections.

A journalist by trade, Mallary’s recent work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, TIME Magazine, and Teen Vogue, among other publications. She lives outside of Austin with her husband and two young children.

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!