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Julie: It’s time to name the neglect from typical food advice. Welcome to the Find Your Food Voice podcast, hosted by me, Julie Duffy Dillon. I’m a registered dietitian with 20 years of experience partnering with folks just like you on their food peace journey. What have we learned? Well, cookie cutter approaches exclude too many people, and you don’t need to be fixed. It’s not you. It’s not me. It’s all of us. Only together we can start a movement and fix diet culture. And we will. Let’s begin with now.

Julie: Well hello there friend. Welcome to episode 360 of the Find Your Food Voice podcast. I am Julie Duffy Dillon. Sitting on my bed. I should be editing my book. And instead I’m on this podcast mic that is just hooked up to my voice app on my phone because I have so much to stay about a recent article. Have you seen this recent article? It’s the Washington Post article that was published on April 3rd and I’m recording this on April 15th. I have lots of reasons why there’s been a pause. I’ll go into a little bit about it. But I just have so much to say and there’s something that is simple for me to just plug in a mic, use my voice app, sitting on my bed with my dog Doug, who I’m hoping does not bark while recording. But if he does, I’ll ask, we’ll just roll with it. It just, it helps me to be able to get my thoughts out, communicate with you because I know you been wondering. I’ve gotten a number of DMs and emails with requests for my opinion and I want to give it but I also am not in the headspace to record a TikTok or write a blog post so I’m just going to go ahead and communicate it. 

Julie: So I was going to tell you the name of this article and so let me tell it to you in case you haven’t read it yet. The as I go through this is about ready to like say the name of the article there is stigmatizing language so take care of yourself and the article name is As Obesity Rises Big Food and Dieticians Push “Anti -Diet Advice” and then the kind of the sub title is General Mills Warns of “Food Shaming”, Dietitian Influencers Promote Junk Foods and Discourage Weight Loss Efforts. And again, this is published in the Washington Post on April 3rd. So I have so many thoughts. I made some notes after I read this article and I talked to Rachel Popik. You know, she’s the person who is the production assistant for this podcast. So many thoughts that I’m actually going to just do an introductory episode right now and then I’m going to do a couple minisodes. I don’t know when they’re going to drop so if you push subscribe it’s a great way just to make sure that you get them. It also supports the show and kind of this independent kind of podcasting that Rachel and I are putting together and I hope it helps you to discern your next best steps because these types of of articles are an important part of the conversation and I think also reflect what is going on in our conversation about food and health and trying to have a bigger picture but just can’t get there yet. So we’re going to pause for just a second for a very quick sponsor break. Full disclosure, having a podcast is not free so in order for us to be able to provide it, we have sponsors. Sorry, Washington Post, although you have sponsors too, you have to pay to read your articles as I found trying to click on the links in your articles. Anyway, so like I said, we’re going to pause just for a very quick sponsor break and then I’m going to give you a little bit of an introduction on my thoughts on this article.

Julie: Welcome back. So I named this episode Are Anti Diet Dietitians Killing Us Softly? because the thing that I got from reading this article is that we need to be harder on ourselves and in order to be healthy and we need to take an individualistic approach. It’s up to us. And if we consider other variables, we’re flipping to this like all or nothing kind of mentality. So be aware, be warned, don’t get too easy on yourself, be guarded. And we must be mean to ourselves and work hard in order to be healthy. I have a lot of issues with that kind of way of interpreting health research and kind of counter cultural types of ways of living. And there’s lots of different counter cultural ways of living that are out there. I just happen to be an expert in non diet ways of living. It’s just the type of oppressive system that I have chosen as my calling to push against.

Julie: So I have a lot to say when these types of things come across my quote unquote desk. So when I was talking to to Rachel Popik, who I mentioned at the top of the show about this article, something that she said was that obviously capitalism has co-opted the anti -diet conversations, but that doesn’t discount its benefits. And I was like, that’s that is it. Like the harm is by capitalism, not by this healing philosophy.

Julie: This Washington Post article in a nutshell lacks nuance and I didn’t mention this but I do have in the show notes for you a link to this article and like I said at the beginning this this mini episode is really just a summary, a very brief summary of my initial thoughts and then I’m gonna really dive into some nuance on at least three different like bullet points but I would encourage you to read it, let yourself mull it over, maybe jot down some of your own reactions, and then come back to hear what I have to say and weigh that against what you have to say. And again, I do think this this article is using a lot of problematic patriarchal and just rigid ways of thinking that also discourage us from like looking outside of ourselves and really blaming the individual and kind of co -opting the very language that they’re saying that they’re against in order to put down a way of helping people to not be harmed by these really stigmatizing types of oppressive systems. 

Julie: And you know, I really appreciate journalism. I worry about journalism. I think it’s really, really important. And this article, though, is something that is shining a light in a way that is countering so much that I believe that journalism is is also trying to dismantle these oppressive systems. So with that being said, one thing that I gathered from reading this article is that the authors are trying to say that weight gain after hearing anti -diet messaging means it’s not working and that’s a really important highlight that I think helps to shine a light on how this article is using the very oppressive systems it’s trying to say it’s against. It’s saying that if you gain weight after hearing anti -diet messaging, that means it’s not working. And I will have a whole mini episode on that part for sure. It also says that because big food uses anti -diet messaging in their marketing that means anti -diet messaging techniques, whatever, are null and void. So because the big food industries use anti -diet messaging rather in their marketing, that means anti -diet techniques are null and void. And lastly, they also, these authors try to say that that promoting a healing technique means that we anti -dietitians are playing with our dolls in our little fantasy land. We’re just these little girls who are in our little lala land. We haven’t lived our life. When I got to this part of the article, I almost flipped the table. I felt so much anger. And anger is a really normal reaction when you are coming up against misogyny. Because so much of what this article left me with is that as someone who claims the title of an anti diet dietitian, I am playing make believe. I’m not considering science and I’m not a grown -up that I don’t have a fully functioning prefrontal cortex and they’re fucking wrong and I’m pissed so with that all being said let’s wrap up and over the next few days look for the first part of my deep dive on this Washington Post article that slams anti -diet dietitians. I can’t wait. And I would love to hear your thoughts as you’re mulling it over. My email inbox is always open. This is my email, julie @juliedillonrd.com. So julie @juliedillonrd.com, feel free to email me. I would love to know what you think, even if you don’t agree with me. I’m cool with that. Let’s talk. Anyway, I will be back in your podcast inbox soon. Subscribe so you don’t miss it. I can’t wait to dive in. Bye for now.