The Mindful Dietitian - Snack Sized Insights – Details, episodes & analysis

Help! My kid has been sent home with a serve of diet culture!

If you recognise this, either as a parent, or as a health professional, you'll love this episode with Gwen Kostal from Dietitians 4 Teachers. Educators, we love you! And we would love to work with you to make our schools and education settings a safer place for more kids.

In this episode, Gwen shares her career trajectory, the intention behind D4T; Dietitians 4 Teachers, how no educator intends to cause harm, what we can offer teachers as we begin to work shoulder-to-shoulder, questions dietitians can reflect on when wanting to work in schools, questions we can ask teachers to learn more about their needs and concerns, an introduction to a helpful change management framework, ‘Best Practice’ for giving school talks and presentations and how we as dietitians can best support our student clients when they are in the classroom/school setting.

Here Fi and Gwen chat about;

• Gwen’s trajectory from primary care dietetics into problem solving and the intention behind @Dietitians4Teachers.
• The importance of working beside teachers and educators and why Gwen’s work is grounded in support and validation. 
• How no educator intends to cause harm, acknowledging the impacts of diet culture on educators and the trouble with ‘health’ and ‘healthy eating’ being assumed knowledge in the classroom.
• The permission giving statement we can offer teachers and educators in the first instance to reduce shame and defensiveness and the ways in which we can begin to partner and work shoulder-to-shoulder.
• Important reflective questions we can ask ourselves as dietitians when we have a desire/interest to work in schools.
• How change work must start with humans and what we must offer teachers to empower change within the classroom/school.
• The vital questions we can ask teachers when it comes to resources and offerings and how we can encourage resistance and rejection when using existing curriculum and lessons.
• Change Management Framework’s and an introduction to an effective method; ‘What? So What? Now What?
• Gwen gently guides us through ‘Best Practice’ for initiating and providing school presentations/talks.
• How dietitians can best support their school student clients when they notice concerns within the school/classroom settings. 

Connect with Gwen:

Instagram

Website

Linktree

Email

Grace Wong on inclusive, flexible feeding modalities and how we can bring a more reflective spirit to our work.

In this episode, Grace discusses the ARFID (Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder) umbrella diagnosis and its shortcomings, Responsive Feeding Therapy (RFT); how it was developed. who was part of its curation and its rationale, what each of the 5 interrelated values offers, why moving away from manualised approaches can help more people and how dietitians can use their supervision space well.

In conclusion, Fi and Grace each share how they both engage in their own reflective work. 

Here Fi and Grace chat about;

• • What Grace has been up to since her last chat with Fi on TMD podcast (2017).

• Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID); Grace explains what the DSM-V diagnosis is, along with its main strength and its shortcomings. 

• Responsive Feeding Therapy (RFT); Grace introduces us to the curated framework developed in collaboration with Dr Katja Rowell, Dr Jo Cormack, and Heidi Moreland and the rationale behind its development.

• • The 5 interrelated values at the core of RFT; Grace provides us with context as to why RFT has been developed in this way.
  • Grace steps us through each value;  
    • Autonomy; why this is first and foremost and how autonomy creates safety.
    • Relationship; the harm which can occur when feeding is taken outside of relationships. 
    • Internal motivation; how it helps behaviour change to be more sustainable and helpful long-term.
    • Individualised care: how centring our client story can guide us as practitioners

• Competence; how this works and is weaved in with RFT

• Moving away from a one-way model and manualised approach; why not being manualised is the best approach for a whole lot of people. 

• How dietitians can use their supervision space well and how we can unpack in supervision to not get in our clients way.
• Reflective work; Fi and Grace both share examples of how they carry out their own reflections and how its okay to do this work individually, collaboratively and in supervision.  

More about Grace: 

Grace Wong MSc, RD, CEDS-S is a registered dietitian specializing in feeding and eating disorders.  She works with all ages and provides medical nutrition therapy from a weight inclusive lens.  Grace is experienced in working with a broad range of eating challenges along with complex co-existing conditions including medical conditions, developmental concerns, mental health concerns, addictions, and trauma.  Besides her clinical practice, she provides training and supervision for health professionals in Canada and overseas.

Connect with Grace:

Facebook

Email

Judith Matz on uncovering the sneakiness of diet culture, how it shows up in healthcare and how we can move forward.

In this episode, Judith shares more about her inspiring and long career, how her first book ‘Beyond the Shadow of a Diet evolved and how it helped her find community, how this work has changed over time, the process of learning and unlearning and the cruciality of the ongoing learning/work, the many sneaky faces of diet culture, more about the Body Positive Card Deck created by Judith and Amy Pershing and Judith’s hope for the future of HAES and anti-diet work.

As mentioned in the podcast:

• Beyond the Shadow of a Diet, 2nd Edition (Book), by Judith Matz, LCSW and Dr Ellen Frankel, PhD.
• The Diet Survivors Handbook, by Judith Matz, LCSW
• Body Positive Card Deck by Judith Matz, LCSW and Amy Pershing, LMSW, ACSW, CCTP-II
• Jess Campbell, HAES student doctor and Nutritionist. 
• Dr Natasha Larmie, The Fat Doctor.
• Dr Joshua Wolrich MBBS MRCS, NHS Surgical Doctor (HAES).
• Dr Lisa Erlanger, MD
• Dr Lesley Williams, MD, Author, Physician, Advocate

About Judith:

Judith Matz, LCSW is a nationally recognized speaker on the topics of diet culture, binge eating, emotional eating, body image, and weight stigma. She is co-author of The Body Positivity Card Deck, The Diet Survivor’s Handbook and Beyond a Shadow of a Diet, and author of the children's book, Amanda's Big Dream. Judith's work has been featured in the media including NPR, New York Times and Psychotherapy Networker, and she has a private practice in the Chicago area. Judith offers a popular full day training (live webinar or digital) for mental health/health professionals: Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Bingeing and Body Image: What Every Clinician Needs to Know through PESI, Inc.

Connect with Judith:

Website

Instagram

Books

Facebook

Training

The mic is turned for this one, hosted by Christy Harrison for a discussion about Fi's book "Vitamin A to Z; Your BS-free Guide to Wellbeing"

In this episode, the tables are flipped on Fi and she is interviewed by Christy Harrison about her newly released book, Vitamin A to Z – Your BS-free guide to wellbeing. Fi shares how her book came to fruition, her intention and hope for her book, how the stages of change transtheoretical model was considered and then she delves more into some of the chapters to include Vitamin M = Mindfulness, Vitamin H = Health (redefined) and Vitamin V = Values.        

As mentioned in the podcast:

• Vitamin A to Z – Your BS-free guide to wellbeing, by Fiona Sutherland, RD, The Mindful Dietitian

• • ANTI-DIET; Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating, by Christy Harrison, MPH, RD.
  • Stages of Change Transtheoretical Model by Prochaska and Diclemente

• Radical Belonging; How to Survive and Thrive in an unjust world (while transforming it for the better), by Lindo Bacon, PhD. 

More about Christy: 

Christy Harrison, MPH, RD, CDN is an anti-diet registered dietitian nutritionist, certified intuitive eating counselor, and author of the book Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating (Little, Brown Spark 2019). She offers online courses and private intuitive eating coaching to help people all over the world make peace with food and their bodies. Since 2013 Christy has hosted Food Psych, a weekly podcast exploring people’s relationships with food and paths to body liberation. It is now one of Apple’s top 100 health podcasts, reaching tens of thousands of listeners worldwide each week. 

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.

Connect with Christy:

Website

Instagram

Podcast

Facebook

Whitney Trotter on Trafficking, Trauma and coming back to our bodies in Anti Diet work.

In this episode, Whitney shares her goals for 2021 and more about her specialisation as a Human Trafficking Activist to include what defines human trafficking, the most important factors for us to understanding about human trafficking and how we can begin to screen our clients. She also shares more on trauma-informed care in practice and how we can address and prioritise grief in anti-diet work.

As mentioned in the podcast:

• RestoreCorps, anti-trafficking organisation co-founded by Whitney Trotter.
• Body Image: The Missing Piece of Body Healing, by Fiona Sutherland and Marci Evans
• Courses & Webinars by Whitney Trotter (coming soon)
• WIND Spring 2021 Symposium
• Dianne Bondy – Yoga is for Everyone!

More about Whitney: 

Whitney Trotter: (she/her) is dually licensed as a Registered Dietitian, Nurse, and yoga instructor. Whitney has over nine years of experience working as a registered dietitian serving in the HIV/AIDS community as well as working in the eating disorder field. Whitney also previously worked at a Level One Pediatric Trauma center, as a pediatric emergency room nurse. In addition to working as a RDN and RN ,Whitney served as a member of her county's Rape Crisis Center as a member of their Sexual Assault Response Team. Her work at the Rape Crisis Center equipped her to co-found an anti-trafficking organization Restore Corps, where she now provides medical training to the community focusing on human trafficking response. Whitney is the founder/owner of Bluff City Health, a practice dedicated to embodiment, social justice and eating disorders.

Connect with Whitney:

Website

Instagram

Unapologetic Eating with Alissa Rumsey

In this episode, Alissa shares her journey from dietitian to author, what it was like writing a book during 2020, how the title of her book ‘Unapologetic Eating’ came to be, she also warmly invites us into her book by stepping us through the main sections; ‘Fixing’, ‘Allowing’, ‘Feeling’ and ‘Growing’ and she also shares her wish for what she hopes the book will leave people with. 

Links:

www.alissarumsey.com

instagram.com/alissarumseyRD

From this episode:

Order Unapologetic Eating: www.alissarumsey.com/book

Kelly Diels - We Are The Culture Makers

About Alissa:

Alissa Rumsey, MS, RD, CDN, CSCS is a registered dietitian, nutrition therapist, certified intuitive eating counselor, and the author of Unapologetic Eating: Make Peace With Food and Transform Your Life. Alissa is passionate about advocating for women to reclaim the space to eat and live unapologetically. She is the founder of Alissa Rumsey Nutrition and Wellness, a weight-inclusive nutrition practice that offers virtual counseling and online programs to help people liberate themselves from dieting, cultivate a peaceful relationship to food and their bodies, and live a more authentic, connected life. Her expertise has been featured in hundreds of media outlets and she speaks regularly at events, online trainings, and conferences around the country. She calls New York City home and spends her free time exploring the city’s food scene and searching for patches of green space to sunbathe in. 

Rebecca McConville on breaking down stereotypes and stigma in sport.

In this episode, Rebecca shares her experience from college athlete to sport dietitian and gives us a comprehensive insight into Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) to include how it came to be, the current gaps and room for improvements, an introduction into assessing and screening for RED-S, and the main myths surround the condition. She also shares how we can overcome hesitations from coaches and athletes when it comes to bringing a dietitian onboard and the importance of sports clinicians coming together to create a safer environment for athletes. 

Here Fi and Rebecca speak about:

• • First meeting each other within the sport dietetic sector and what Becca has currently been up to
  • Becca’s experience as a college athlete, to landing her first job as a dietitian and then finding the IE / HAES / non-diet movement.
  • Relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S);
    • What RED-S is?
    • How RED-S came to be and how it has evolved – whilst paying homage to the important work of those who have come before us!
    • Where there are gaps, room for improvements and the need for further research. 
    • An intro to assessing and screening; what to look out for and how people are presenting.
    • The main myths, stigma and stereotypes surrounding RED-S.
  • What the main hesitations are of bringing dietitians into sporting cultures and ways we can help overcome concerns and get involved.  

• The problematic behaviour of not speaking about and overlooking disordered eating and eating disorders in sports and how we must work towards creating safer environments for athletes.

• How you can learn to support and impower your athletes by joining Becca’s clinician training program – find out more here!

As mentioned in the podcast:

RED-S:

• The Female Athlete Triad, Roberta Trattner Sherman PhD, Ron A. Thompson, PhD https://doi.org/10.1177/10598405040200040301

• Roberta Sherman, PhD, FAED, CEDS, Consulting Psychologist and Co-Founder of The Victory Program
• Kathryn Ackerman, MD, MPH, Physician, Sports Medicine Division; Director, Female Athlete Program
• Ron A. Thompson, PhD, FAED, CEDS, Consulting Psychologist and Co-Founder of The Victory Program
• The Mindful Dietitian Podcast Episode 43 with Nicola Rinaldi
• Dr Claire-Marie Roberts
• InPower Masterclass on RED-S by Becca McConville
• Finding your Sweet Spot by Rebecca McConville

More about Rebecca: 

Becca McConville MS, RD, LDN, CSSD, CEDRD-S is a board certified sports specialist and eating disorder dietitian.  In addition to Becca’s private practice, she has served as a consultant to the University of Missouri Kansas City Athletics, Kansas City Ballet, local colleges and previously worked with the Kansas City Chiefs. Becca is also the author of Finding your Sweet Spot: How to Avoid RED-S (Relative Energy Deficit in Sport) by Optimizing Your Energy Balance and the InPower masterclass on RED-S. She is a co-host of a podcast called PHIT for a Queen devoted to female athletes. Co-author with sports psychologist Dr. Mel Streno on a workbook devoted to transition out of sport soon to be released-Spring 2021.

Connect with Rebecca:

Website

Instagram

Twitter

In this episode, Kirsten shares her career trajectory to becoming an anti-diet content marketer and dietitian, how can find our target audience and engage and connect with them, understanding the beauty of imperfect content marketing, how testing and tracking our content engagement can help us do better, why we don’t have to be on all the platforms to be efficient and effective content marketers, how we can thoughtfully integrate social justice ideas into our content, the concept of values priming and how we can connect with others through intrinsic values.

Here Fi and Kirsten speak about:

• Kirsten’s career pathway; from working as a journalist for 20+ years, to returning to study to become a dietitian, to establishing herself as an anti-diet content marketer and dietitian. 
• How we can begin to start finding our target audience – a key part for anybody looking to get strategic in their marketing work!
• Beginning to communicate foundational ideas and embracing imperfection when testing out new things.  
• Engagement; what it really means to ‘engage’ and how we can connect genuinely and meaningfully with our target audience.
• The importance of having a consistent anti-diet message.
• Why testing, monitoring and tracking how others respond to our content online allows us to shift and be flexible and do better work and how go-to topics and things like content calendars and content planning can help us feel less overwhelmed.
• Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Pinterest and your business website / blog – there are so many! Kirsten gives her insight into how you know which platforms you should be using! Plot reveal; you don’t have to be on them all (PHEW).
• More on embracing imperfection in our content marketing and tips for people who feel anxious about getting up close and familiar with imperfection and their own personal blooper reel.
• How we can be thoughtful about integrating social justice ideas into our content creation. 
• The concept of ‘Values Priming’ and how we can connect with the intrinsic values of other people, genuinely and strategically, in our marketing. 

As mentioned in the podcast:

• The Transtheoretical Model or Stages of Change Model by Prochaska & DiClemente.
• Body Liberation Photos with Lindley Ashline

More about Kirsten: Fi to input

Kirsten is a wearer of many hats.

Anti diet dietitian. Anti diet content marketer. Digital projects manager for an eating disorder organisation.

What ties all of these roles together is her deep sense of purpose to bring down diet culture and help folks heal their relationship with food and body.

 Kirsten’s anti diet work started during her dietetics studies (2015-2019) and as a former journalist and with a 15+ year career in marketing and communications, Kirsten used her writing background to gain work experience creating content for several Non Diet Dietitians in Australia, New Zealand and the UK.  Regardless of which hat Kirsten is wearing, she is determined to make a meaningful contribution towards dismantling diet culture and creating connected, inclusive communities.

Connect with Kirsten:

Website

Instagram

In this episode, Safeena and Gurneet share what justice means to them, how privilege can manifest in health care, ‘calling in’ Dietitians of Canada, their hopes for greater diversity within the profession, the extension of Diversify Dietetics USA into Canada, the need for new HAES and Weight-Inclusive frameworks to ensure consideration of race, ethnicity and culture and how we can begin to make our practice more inclusive – right now!

On this important episode of The Mindful Dietitian, Fi chats to Safeena Jabar and Gurneet K. Dhami, Dietetic Students and RD’s-to-be based in Canada, we hear;

• What justice means to Gurneet; from what it is to fit in, to the lack of diversity in dietetics and questioning; why are these conversations being centred now?
• What justice means to Safeena; from being asked the hard questions, to her lived experience, and understanding; that with our personal privileges, comes power.
• Gurneet and Safenna step us through the origins, definitions and meaning behind the term; white privilege, and ways privilege can manifest in health care. 
• ‘Calling in’ Dietitians of Canada;
  • Safeena and Gurneet share how their cowritten statement to Dietitians Canada came about and the current developments brought about by it. 
  • Their hopes for how the statement might start a shift towards racial and ethnical diversity within the dietetic profession.
  • How in response to the statement, extensions of diverse groups and communities have been built and why we need to power groups and movements that are already happening, rather than reinventing the wheel.
• HAES and Weight Inclusive Practice and the ways in which we are not including race and culture into the framework;
  • Safeena shares her experience finding HAES and weight inclusive practice and her difficulty and discomfort in trying to reconcile HAES with her culture identity. She also shares how a new HAES framework can become more inclusive and applicable to all different types of people.
  • Gurneet shares her experience learning about HAES, the challenge of putting it into practice (as it stands) with a consideration for culture and race and why we need to understand all the intersections at play. She also shares the need to meet clients where they are at to ensure client-centred care and why we need to continue to have these messy and mucky conversations.
• In finishing up, Safeena and Gurneet graciously offer us additional ways in which we can begin to enhance our practice to ensure it is truly inclusive.

As mentioned in the podcast:

• Safeena Jabar - IGTV unpacking privilege
• Dietitians of Canada
• Diversify Dietetics 
• Diversify Dietetics Canada Chapter
• Book: White Fragility - Why it's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
• Safura Syed, MSc. Applied Human Nutrition (c) and Dietetic Intern
• Kimberlé Crenshaw, Civil rights advocate 
• Stephanie Yeboah, author, content creator, lifestyle and fashion blogger 
• Hunter Shackelford 
• Sonya Renee Taylor 
• Sabrina Strings, author of fearing the black body
• The Rosy Nutritionist, by Rosie Mensah
• Nutrition Positive, by Julia Lévy-Ndejuru 

Exercises to work through our privilege:

• Flower power exercise:  http://lgbtq2stoolkit.learningcommunity.ca/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/flower-power-exercise.pdf

• Peggy McIntosh - White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/mcintosh.pdf

• Peggy McIntosh - Extending the Knapsack: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02703149.2015.1059195

• Checking Your Privilege with the Social Determinants of Health: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CAx8TC6AKaR/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

• Social Location Wheel Exercise: https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/inclusive-teaching/sample-activities/social-identity-wheel/

Weight inclusive RDs that are incorporating justice into their practice:

• Vincci Tsui (vinccird): http://vinccitsui.com/
• Grace Wong: https://www.facebook.com/gracewongrd/
• Rosie Mensah (@therosienutritionist): https://therosienutritionist.com/
• Jessica Wilson (@jessicawilson.msrd): www.jessicawilsonmsrd.com
• Christyna Johnson (@encouragingdietitian)

About Safeena Jabar:

Safeena Jabar is a dietetic intern completing her Master’s degree in Nutrition Communication at Ryerson University in Toronto. After a turbulent time navigating nutrition information in her adolescence, Safeena committed to becoming a Registered Dietitian in order to gain a deeper, scientific understanding of nutrition and the body. She aims to provide a safe space for clients to discuss their goals and concerns while dispelling common myths. She is passionate about working with people to improve and maintain their wellness from an anti-diet, Health At Every Size®-informed approach. Safeena has a special interest in the impact of food on wellbeing based on her knowledge of complex historical and institutional factors that have shaped our food landscape. Health and social inequities persist through these systems, so Safeena is advocating for change through educating and empowering her fellow health care practitioners, local communities, and national organizations to ensure a future where all people have equitable access to appropriate healthcare.

About Gurneet Kaur Dhami

Gurneet Kaur Dhami is a South Asian, Sikh woman travelling between Toronto to Halifax, where she is completing an MSc in Applied Human Nutrition at Mount Saint Vincent University. Her emerging thesis work focuses on the experiences of racialized dietitians navigating dietetics using Critical Race Theory. Gurneet is both a researcher and social activist, as she partakes in food justice work by working on food security projects and being involved in the student food movement. As a youth leader she hopes to further dialogue on race, reconciliation and equity beyond our kitchens t

Professor Margit Berman on acceptance-oriented approaches in weight inclusive practice.

About Margit:

Margit I. Berman has a Ph.D. in counseling and social psychology from the University of Minnesota. She is currently Program Director and Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at Augsburg University and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. She is the author of A Clinician’s Guide to Acceptance-Based Approaches for Weight Concerns: The Accept Yourself! Framework (Routledge, 2018) and A Workbook of Acceptance-Based Approaches for Weight Concerns: The Accept Yourself! Framework (Routledge, 2018). She was a recipient of the 2015 Hitchcock Foundation Scholars Career Development award for her research and development of the Accept Yourself! intervention for women with obesity and depression. She is past chair of the Society for Counseling Psychology’s Section for the Promotion of Psychotherapy Science, and is on the editorial boards of The Counseling Psychologist and the Journal of Counseling Psychology. She is a feminist, cognitive-behavioral therapist who trains clinicians in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and self-acceptance based interventions throughout the U.S.