Body-acceptance activist Gloria Lucas shares why she created an organization devoted to helping people of color heal from diet culture, why the traditional medical model of eating disorder recovery didn't work for her, the role of trauma in her disordered eating, how intersectional feminism helped in her healing, why the mainstream body-positive movement isn't meeting the needs of people of color and other marginalized groups, the role of historical trauma in creating and maintaining body shame, and lots more!

Gloria is the founder and director of Nalgona Positivity Pride, a xicana-indigenous body-positive project that focuses on eating disorders awareness and cultural affirmation. She is a frequent lecturer across the country covering topics such as the connection of historical trauma and disordered eating. Gloria’s work has been featured at the Huffington Post, Univision, Bitch Magazine, and The Body is not an Apology. She lives in Los Angeles, CA where she is an active entrepreneur and eating disorders support group organizer. Find her on Instagram at @nalgonapositivitypride and on Tumblr at @nalgonapride.

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We Discuss:

• Gloria’s relationship with food growing up, including her experience with binge eating disorder and bulimia

• The role of depression, trauma, poverty, family instability, and violence in the development of disordered eating

• Eating disorders as both emotional regulation and self-punishment

• The impact of hypersexualization on body image

• Religion, sexuality, and shame

• Feminism, diet culture, and eating disorders

• The lack of representation of people of color in eating-disorder treatment and the body-positive movement

• Recovery versus healing

• Harm reduction and eating disorders

• The limitations of the current eating-disorder-recovery model, especially for people of color

• Nalgona Positivity Pride and decolonizing eating disorder treatment

• The need for more people of color (POC) as treatment providers

• Racism, privilege, discrimination, and the white-supremacist beauty ideal

• Intersectional identity and oppression

• The privilege that comes from being in a "plus-size" body versus a "fat" body that faces systemic oppression

• Health trolling

• The impact of family on body image and disordered eating

• Food insecurity, food scarcity, and binge eating

• Historical trauma, intergenerational trauma, and systemic oppression

• Capitalism, mass incarceration, and current political rhetoric

• The limitations of the current body-positivity movement for POC and people who don’t conform to the status quo

• Bodily autonomy

• Rejecting the expectation of beauty

Resources Mentioned

• The Binge Eating Disorder Association (BEDA) and Conference

• The film 13th

• Ladyfest

• Womyn of Color for Decolonization

• Ashleigh Shackelford

• Virgie Tovar’s second Food Psych Podcast episode

• Sonya Renee Taylor's website, The Body Is Not an Apology

• Everyday Feminism's anti-racism course, Healing from Toxic Whiteness

• Nalgona Positivity Pride on Instagram and Etsy store