This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Christy shares answers she gave to a journalist writing a piece about Casey Means, a functional-medicine doctor, diet-book author, and wellness entrepreneur who has become a key advisor to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The full version of this episode is for paid subscribers. Listen to the first question here, and sign up for a paid subscription to hear the rest! Get full show notes and references here . Ask a ...
Dec 04, 2024•4 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Disordered-eating dietitian Katherine Metzelaar joins us to discuss her history with diet and wellness culture, how she developed orthorexia, how praise and compliments from others affected her behaviors, and the role of the internet in her relationship with food. Behind the paywall, we get into how orthorexia led her to become anti-vaccine and believe in conspiracy theories, how naturopathic doctors mi...
Dec 02, 2024•38 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Christy answers an audience question about whether artificial food colorings and other additives really have any impact on ADHD. The full version of this episode is for paid subscribers. Listen to the first question here, and sign up for a paid subscription to hear the rest! Get full show notes and references here . Ask a question of your own for a chance to have it answered in a future episode! Christy...
Nov 18, 2024•3 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Psychotherapist Asher Pandjiris joins us to discuss their experience with chronic illness and “autoimmune diets,” why they were attracted to naturopaths and other alternative-medicine providers, the role of values in people’s attraction to wellness culture, cultural healing traditions vs. cultural appropriation, their approach to working with orthorexia, and lots more. Paid subscribers can hear the full...
Nov 11, 2024•39 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Former anti-vaccine “crunchy mom” and current public-health nurse Lydia Greene joins us to discuss why she was susceptible to anti-vax messaging despite having a science background, how and why she developed orthorexia, how a chronic digestive disorder made her susceptible to “leaky gut” rhetoric, how her orthorexia affected her parenting, and more. Behind the paywall, we get into why she came to rethin...
Nov 04, 2024•33 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com In this solo episode, Christy discusses the evidence on sugar and health—specifically what the science really says about the links between sugar and the risk of various chronic diseases, as well as the inherent limitations of the data. Plus, in honor of Halloween this week, she shares some thoughts (and some data) on princess culture and girls’ body image, and why she’s starting to let go of some of her...
Oct 28, 2024•9 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Cognitive psychologist Gordon Pennycook explains the psychological reasons we fall for misinformation, conspiracy theories, and general bullshit (a technical term!). We discuss why people with an analytical cognitive style tend to be more skeptical of alternative medicine and health misinformation, some of the pitfalls of intuitive thinking (and why intuitive eating may actually be more of an analytical...
Oct 21, 2024•34 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com New York Times bestselling cookbook author Julia Turshen joins us to discuss intuitive cooking and how it relates to intuitive eating, how diet-culture recovery has influenced her approach to cooking and recipe writing, learning to accept that not every meal is going to be stellar (and why that’s a powerful antidote to social-media diet culture), her new book, What Goes with What , and more. Behind the ...
Oct 14, 2024•45 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Registered dietitian and author Shana Minei Spence joins us to discuss how a career in fashion affected her relationship with food and her body, her experience with a holistic provider who recommended elimination diets, how values and social norms influenced her use of alternative medicine, her disordered motivations for becoming a dietitian, and more. Behind the paywall, we get into how she recovered f...
Oct 07, 2024•31 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com In this solo episode, Christy discusses how evidence-based mind-body practices like yoga and meditation can be essential for balancing overactive minds, helping us shift out of our intellects and into different modes of being—but they can also act as a gateway into the more out-there parts of wellness culture, where we get exposed to ideas and protocols that are lacking evidence and riddled with pseudos...
Sep 30, 2024•3 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Registered dietitian Kat Garcia-Benson joins us to discuss the multilevel marketing (MLM) industry and its connection to diet and wellness culture, her experience of getting recruited to an MLM as a new dietitian, how she eventually got out, why she shifted to an anti-diet approach in her work, and more. Behind the paywall, we get into how MLMs affect people’s relationships with food and their bodies, h...
Sep 23, 2024•37 min
In this solo episode, Christy shares the first in what has become a multi-part series about why bright, analytical minds are often susceptible to wellness woo. Get full show notes and references here . Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap , is available wherever books are sold! Order it online or ask for it in your favorite local bookstore. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com/sub...
Sep 16, 2024•10 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Clinical psychologist, author, and science communicator Jonathan Stea joins us to discuss why there’s such a huge market for pseudoscientific mental-health practices, the truth about diets for mental health, how to recognize misinformation and develop science literacy, and lots more. Behind the paywall, we get into TikTok therapists, what the science really says about supplements for mental health, the ...
Sep 09, 2024•38 min
Nutritionist and author Laura Thomas joins us to discuss what it’s like for kids living in the long shadow of “clean eating,” the “almond mom” trend on TikTok, the "wellness to woo pipeline," how parents and caregivers can let go of wellness-culture beliefs about food for themselves and their kids, and more. Laura Thomas is an anti-diet Registered Nutritionist. Her clinical work focuses on supporting parents and families to end intergenerational dieting and body shame, and work towards a greater...
Aug 26, 2024•1 hr 1 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Medical doctor and pharmaceutical-policy researcher Joel Lexchin joins us to discuss the impact of industry sponsorship on medical research, why merely disclosing these financial conflicts of interest is not enough (and may not be accurate or complete), some of the surprising tactics drug- and device-makers use to get more favorable study results and conclusions, and lots more. Behind the paywall, we di...
Aug 19, 2024•29 min
Journalist and medical doctor Seema Yasmin joins us to discuss why misinformation and conspiracy theories about health and wellness are so alluring; how to recognize and fight back against false claims; the difference between misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation; holding the two truths that science is one of the best tools we have for finding facts and science hasn’t always gotten it right; and more. Plus, Christy shares an excerpt from the audiobook of The Wellness Trap about well...
Aug 12, 2024•49 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Christy answers an audience question about whether light drinking is really as risky as some wellness influencers make it out to be, and shares some ways to explore your relationship with alcohol. The full version of this episode is for paid subscribers. Listen to the first question here, and sign up for a paid subscription to hear the rest! Get full show notes and references here . Ask a question of yo...
Aug 07, 2024•6 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Psychologist and body-image researcher Charlotte Markey joins us to discuss myths and misinformation about body image, how chronic illness and pain affect perceptions of our bodies, the body positivity vs. body neutrality debate, the potential body-image harms of social media (and how to mitigate them), how the discourse about GLP-1 weight-loss drugs is influencing people’s body image, and more. Paid su...
Aug 05, 2024•43 min
Author and podcaster Mary Jelkovsky joins us to discuss her history as a fitness influencer starting at age 16, and how it triggered and exacerbated her eating disorder; how social media algorithms drive us toward extreme diet and wellness content; why and how Christy took a huge step back from social media, and why Mary is contemplating doing the same; career moves for influencers after influencing; why “just try not to think about it" is sometimes the most helpful advice in the face of wellnes...
Jul 29, 2024•1 hr 1 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Christy answers audience questions about IgG tests for food sensitivity, glyphosate in food, recent headlines about chemicals in baby wipes and tampons, and whether you really need to avoid dairy for acne. The full version of this episode is for paid subscribers. Listen to the first question here, and sign up for a paid subscription to hear the rest! Get full show notes and references here . Ask a quest...
Jul 24, 2024•5 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Family doctor and science communicator Brad McKay joins us for a wide-ranging conversation about alternative medicine, chronic fatigue, Peter Attia, wellness IV drips, how placebos can actually cause harm, and more. Behind the paywall, we talk about the weight-inclusive approach, my book ANTI-DIET, our differing views on GLP-1 drugs, pharmaceutical-industry influence and the need for healthy skepticism,...
Jul 22, 2024•37 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com In this bonus episode, we discuss the experience of getting a new diagnosis, and the insatiable curiosity, vulnerability to misinformation, and identity shifts that often go along with it. This episode is for paid subscribers. Listen to a free preview here, and sign up for a paid subscription to hear the full episode! Get full show notes and references here . Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap , i...
Jul 17, 2024•3 min
Cookbook author Julia Turshen joins us to discuss her history with an eating disorder and how orthorexic thinking showed up in her work, how a loved one’s boundary on diet talk helped her realize her relationship with food was problematic, how letting go of diet and wellness rules changed her cooking, how social media is like diet culture and how she’s taken a big step back from it, and more. Julia Turshen is a New York Times bestselling cookbook author. Her latest book, Simply Julia, is a natio...
Jul 15, 2024•51 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Science and parenting journalist Melinda Wenner Moyer joins us to discuss the real risks of social media and smartphones for kids (and all of us), what the popular book THE ANXIOUS GENERATION gets wrong about the science on teens and technology, the similarities in the discourse about tech and “ultraprocessed” food, diet culture in the parenting space, how to raise kids to have a healthy relationship wi...
Jul 08, 2024•37 min
Author and rhetoric professor Colleen Derkatch joins us to discuss why wellness sells (and her new book by that name), how wellness culture promises an alternative to the biomedical/pharmaceutical model but fails to deliver, why it’s important to acknowledge that certain aspects of wellness culture are helpful to people even as we critique its harms, and more. Colleen Derkatch is Associate Professor of Rhetoric in the Department of English at Toronto Metropolitan University. She is the author of...
Jul 01, 2024•52 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Jenn Romolini, author of AMBITION MONSTER, joins us to discuss how ambition and overwork affected her well-being, why workaholism is often a response to trauma, why she developed an eating disorder as a teenager (and the specific personality trait that helped her recover), what it was like to have her mom get into New Age philosophies, how she’s found healing from trauma and work addiction, and more. Pa...
Jun 24, 2024•33 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Christy answers an audience question about the food rules she stopped following—and shares four food-related principles she tries to practice. The full version of this episode is for paid subscribers. Listen to the first question here, and sign up for a paid subscription to hear the rest! Get full show notes and references here. Ask a question of your own for a chance to have it answered in a future epi...
Jun 20, 2024•7 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Jessica Steier of The Unbiased Science Podcast joins us to discuss the need for empathy and bridge-building in science communication, why she’s critical of restrictive diets and other wellness trends while holding space for their proponents to evolve (and why she’s faced backlash for that), tribalism in the science community, our differing views on weight and why she’s open to learning about the weight-...
Jun 17, 2024•43 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Christy answers an audience question about going autoimmune diets and celiac disease, and there’s a bonus one for paid subscribers about going gluten-free for an autoimmune thyroid condition. Become a paid subscriber to hear the whole thing! Get full show notes and references here . Ask a question of your own for a chance to have it answered in a future episode. Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap ...
Jun 12, 2024•10 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Psychologist Alexis Conason joins us to discuss her background in “obesity” research, how she came to question the conventional weight paradigm and move to a weight-neutral approach, the industry influence behind the American Medical Association’s decision to classify obesity as a disease in 2013, the mental-health effects of bariatric surgery, how to talk about pharmaceutical-industry influence in ways...
Jun 10, 2024•38 min
