Food Psych #163: How to Unlearn Diet Culture's Rules with April Quioh

April

TV writer and fellow podcaster April K. Quioh joins us to talk about how intersectional feminism and sociology helped her to finally let go of dieting and embrace her body size, why we need to challenge fatphobia and fight for it to be considered a valid form of discrimination, why it’s important to unlearn the diet-culture rules we’ve internalized around food and our bodies, the historical roots of diet culture, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about how to know if you're ready to start re-learning intuitive eating.

April K. Quioh is a comedy writer and podcast host from Minneapolis, Minnesota. She writes about fun stuff like popular culture, love, and blackness and has worked on television shows on Comedy Central, YouTubeRed, and Netflix. She has perfect skin and is a lawful good. She co-hosts A Little Forward, a weekly podcast that kicks down the walls of conformity, and She's All Fat, a podcast about body positivity and intersectional feminism. Find her online at AprilKQuioh.com.

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We Discuss:

  • April’s relationship with food growing up, including her experience with going on diets with her family and exploring the different kinds of beauty ideals she was exposed to

  • April’s process of breaking free from dieting, reconnecting with her internal cues, and her feelings around intuitive eating

  • Why it’s important to unlearn the diet-culture rules we’ve internalized around food and our bodies

  • How intersectional feminism and sociology helped April to finally let go of dieting and embrace fat acceptance and body positivity

  • The role of body-positive Instagram bloggers in her journey to body acceptance

  • April’s experience with internal and external body shame

  • Why we need to extend compassion to parents who pass diet culture along to their children

  • The historical roots of diet culture, and how race plays a role in our body expectations

  • April’s exploration of storytelling, how she found her passion for writing, and her professional journey to television writing in Los Angeles

  • Fatphobia and discrimination in the entertainment industry, and the ways in which April has had to navigate calling out weight stigma and racism in professional settings

  • Why we need to shame people who are fat-shamers

  • The power in calling out injustice on a public platform

  • How to talk to the people in our lives about Health at Every Size and weight-based discrimination, and why we need to remember that our time and our mental health is more important than trying to change the minds of people who aren’t open to hearing alternative viewpoints

  • Why fatness does not equate to health status, and why people have such a visceral reaction being told that people at every size can pursue and embody health

  • Why we need to challenge fatphobia and fight for it to be considered a valid form of discrimination

  • The birth of the She’s All Fat Podcast and the value in sharing our trauma with the world

 

Resources Mentioned

Some of the links below are affiliate links. Affiliates or not, we only recommend products and services that align with our values.

Listener Question of the Week

How do we know when we’re ready for intuitive eating? Is working with an intuitive eating therapist or nutrition coach a good path for intuitive eating support? How does deprivation play a role in bingeing and feelings of overeating? Does the current representation of eating disorders hold us back from finding recovery? Why do we turn to food to soothe or emotions, and how can we stop?

(Resources Mentioned: Certified Intuitive Eating Counselors Directory, Judith Matz’s Food Psych Podcast episode, Isabel Foxen Duke’s first Food Psych Podcast episode, Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course)

 
Christy Harrisonbeauty ideals, intuitive eating, diet culture, emotional eating, deprivation, restriction, bingeing, overeating, Health at Every Size, HAES, weight-based discrimination, mental health, intersectional feminism, sociology, fat acceptance, body positivity, body acceptance, body image, body shame, weight stigma, racism, fatphobia, fat shaming, healthism, trauma, discrimination, S518