In this episode of the Demystifying Diversity Podcast, Daralyse explores how the American obsession with body shape and size leads people to victimize themselves and others. She speaks with dieticians, nutritionists, psychotherapists, yoga therapists, teachers, authors, and body liberation activists about their experiences and insights.

They discuss the importance of pushing back against diet culture and dismantle the myth that external appearance reflects internal experience. This episode illuminates the ways in which misconceptions about how eating disorders present keep a lot of people stuck in cycles of shame and abuse.

Eating disorders come in all shapes and sizes and they center around struggles that include trauma histories, anxiety, perfectionism, loneliness, isolation, wanting to belong, and desperately craving a sense of control.

Although eating disorders are a mental, biologically based illness, diet culture and fatphobia can trigger the illness and exacerbate its duration and intensity. Fatphobia is rampant in American society and eating disorders are on the rise.

On a hopeful note, there are things we can do, both individually and as part of a larger social collective. In this episode, you will be asked to see an embrace of body diversity as an essential part of social justice and to release the dogma of diet culture. This episode is an invitation for body liberation, for each and every one of us.

Learn more at:

https://www.demystifyingdiversitypodcast.com/

Resources:

Demystifying Diversity: Embracing Our Shared Humanity: Buy the Book

NEDA: https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/

ANAD: https://anad.org/

Voices Featured:

Caitie Corradino

Dani Adriana

Diana Clarke

Adeija Jones

Brian Pollack

Aaron Flores

Emily Zargan

Bibi Lorenzetti

Jennifer Kreatsoulas

Episode Sponsors:

Next Level Trainings. For $50 off on Shift, their introductory virtual training (and a FREE voucher to their in-person Discovery training), go to nextleveltrainings.com/diversity and enter the promo code diversity.

Lavin & Associates, a branch of Primerica. Contact Jon Lavin directly at 610-453-2331 or email him at Jonlavin@me.com for a free insurance needs assessment and/or Financial Needs Analysis.