Food Psych #213: Intuitive Eating for the Culture with Christyna Johnson

Photographer: Khali MacIntyre

Fellow anti-diet dietitian Christyna Johnson joins us to discuss adapting intuitive eating for different cultures and life situations, how microaggressions can contribute to eating-disorder behaviors and poor health, fatphobia and Eurocentrism in dietetics and clinical nutrition, how diet culture has warped the way we view and manage chronic illness, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about emotional eating and why distinguishing between “mental hunger” and physical hunger can be such a minefield. 

Christyna Johnson is a registered dietitian in Dallas, Texas. She has a private practice helping individuals cultivate a healthy relationship with food and body. In her free time she’s becoming an urban gardener. Find her online at EncouragingDietitian.com.

We Discuss:

  • Christyna’s experience growing up with a mother who was a dieter

  • Her disordered relationship with food and body in high school

  • How her eating disorder was ignored by those around her

  • Why representation matters when it comes to eating disorders and disordered eating

  • The normalization of eating-disorder behaviors in the black community

  • Microaggressions, and disordered eating as a coping mechanism

  • Christyna’s own experiences with racism

  • The desire to fit in

  • The Wellness Diet, and how it can be much harder to navigate than previous iterations of diet culture

  • How studying nutrition fueled her disordered relationship with food

  • Chronic illness, and how diet culture promotes a narrative of individual responsibility

  • Fatphobia and the dietetics field

  • The role of therapy in Christyna’s recovery

  • Eurocentrism in nutrition recommendations

  • Why dietitians would benefit from therapy and supervision

  • Removing the stigma around mental health concerns

  • The myth that children don’t have worries

  • How Christyna learned about Health At Every Size®

  • How she worked through the weight-centric rotations in her dietetic internship

  • The flaws in current bariatric surgery pre-screening practices

  • Fatphobia in clinical nutrition

  • How she started incorporating intuitive eating into her dietetics practice

  • How working in eating-disorder treatment helped Christyna and Christy in their own recovery

  • Christyna’s private practice, and why she works virtually with her clients

  • Her podcast, Intuitive Eating for the Culture

  • Adapting intuitive eating for different situations

  • How Christyna’s own experiences working long hours inform her intuitive eating counseling

Resources Mentioned

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Listener Question of the Week

Is it OK to eat if it feels like your mind wants it more than your body? How can someone differentiate between whether they need help with intuitive eating or eating-disorder recovery? What are some signs of diet mentality and/or eating-disorder mentality? What are some strategies for eating-disorder recovery and overcoming diet mentality? Where can people find providers who are well-versed in HAES and intuitive eating? What are some of the ways that hunger can manifest? Why is it important to give ourselves unconditional permission to eat?

Resources Mentioned:

 
Christy HarrisonDieting, disordered eating, eating disorders, race, racism, microaggressions, The Wellness Diet, dietetics, nutrition, chronic illness, fatphobia, weight stigma, therapy, Health At Every Size, HAES, intuitive eating, eating-disorder treatment, podcast, diet mentality, eating-disorder mentality, hunger, unconditional permission, S719