#121: The Truth About Diet Culture with Emily Contois, Cultural Historian

Food Psych Podcast with Christy Harrison

Christy Harrison, MPH, RD, CEDS

Health, Food, Bodypositive, Antidiet, Recovery, Fat, Dietculture, Weight, Eating, Positivity, Intuitive, Diet, Nutrition, Psychology, Mental Health, Health & Fitness, Body

4.7 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 11 September 2017

⏱️ 92 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Cultural historian Emily Contois joins us to talk about the history of diet culture, how women's political power increased the pressure on women and femmes to restrict their eating, the need for an intersectional approach to healthcare and food access, the religious undertones to our food behavior, gender roles in food, the body-image issues that men face in an industrialized patriarchal society, "dude food," and so much more! PLUS, Christy answers a listener question about intuitive eating in recovery from a restrictive eating disorder.

Emily Contois is the author of more than 20 academic articles, chapters, and reviews. Her dissertation, "The Dudification of Diet: Food Masculinities in Twenty-First-Century America," examines how media representations of food, cooking, and dieting construct and negotiate what it means to be "a real man" in the United States today. Her research has been referenced in The Huffington Post, Salon, The Globe and Mail, and NPR, among others. As a food writer, she has contributed to the Providence Journal, Nursing Clio, and Zester Daily.

Born in Australia and raised in the Big Sky Country of Montana, Emily spent a bit over a decade training in classical ballet before turning her attention to the study of food, health, and identities in American culture. Emily holds three master’s degrees—an MA in American Studies from Brown University, an MPH focused in Public Health Nutrition from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MLA in Gastronomy from Boston University, where she was a three-time recipient of the Julia Child Award. She is currently a PhD candidate in American Studies at Brown University, where she teaches courses in food studies, American studies, and gender studies.

Prior to her current research and teaching, Emily worked in the field of worksite wellness for five years. She now lives in Providence with her husband, Chris, and their rescue pup, Raven.

To learn more about Food Psych and get full show notes for this episode, go to christyharrison.com/foodpsych.

Ask your own question about intuitive eating, Health at Every Size, or eating disorder recovery at christyharrison.com/questions.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Food Psych, a weekly podcast about intuitive eating, health at every size, and body liberation.
0:06.5	I'm your host, Kristi Harrison, and I'm a registered dietitian and certified intuitive eating counselor.
0:12.0	Join me as I talk with interesting people from all walks of life about their relationships with food and their bodies.
0:31.0	Hey there, welcome to episode 121 of Food Psych. I'm your host, Kristi Harrison, and today is our season 5 premiere.
0:42.0	It's actually been a little over four years since I officially launched Food Psych and started sharing episodes with a world in September of 2013.
0:50.0	And it's been pretty incredible how much we've grown and developed since then, so I'm really excited to be going into our fifth season.
0:58.0	And today I thought it would be fitting since I'm thinking about the history of the podcast.
1:02.0	To talk about the history of something we cover a lot on the podcast, these past few seasons, which is Diet Culture.
1:09.0	So my guest is Emily Conto, a historian, author, and academic who studies the history of Diet Culture. Like how cool is that?
1:17.0	I met Emily at a retreat we both spoke at, and I knew immediately that I had to have her on the show, because she has such a fascinating perspective on all the stuff we're always talking about on the podcast.
1:27.0	So we talked about how women getting the vote increased pressure on women and FEMS to restrict the need for an intersectional approach to healthcare and food access, the religious undertones to our food behavior, gender roles in food, the body image issues that male identified people face, and so much more, I can't wait to share it with you in just a moment. It's such a good episode.
1:49.0	Today's listener question is from a listener named Beth who writes, I'm in recovery from a restrictive eating disorder and I've lost all knowledge of my body. I don't even know what I truly look like anymore due to the illness.
2:00.0	Intuitive eating is something I wish to do, but I'm scared of overeating and I don't really have hunger signals.
2:06.0	Do you have any tips on coming back and touch with your body's natural signals after so long?
2:10.0	So thanks Beth for this great question and before I answer it, just my standard disclaimer that these answers are for informational and educational purposes only and aren't a substitute for individual medical or mental health advice.
2:22.0	So intuitive eating is generally not recommended in the initial stages of recovery from a restrictive eating disorder, and here's why.
2:31.0	Intuitive eating is based on being able to get in touch with your body's signals and use them to guide you, right?
2:37.0	And it's not the hunger and fullness diet as I talked about with Isabel Fox and Duke a few weeks back in our episode.
2:43.0	It's not about only eating when you're hungry and having to stop when you're full. There are no rules with intuitive eating.
2:49.0	So it's not like you can never eat for any reason other than hunger with intuitive eating, right?
2:54.0	Or that you have to stop when you're full and you're bad if you overeat, like that's not the point of it, right?
2:59.0	It's not about diet rules because that's turning intuitive eating into a diet, right? The hunger and fullness diet.
	...

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