Food Psych #246: Chronic Illness, Body Acceptance, and Breaking Free from the Wellness Diet with Asher Pandjiris

Photographer: Khali MacIntyre

Eating-disorders therapist and fellow podcaster Asher Pandjiris joins us to discuss chronic illness in the context of body acceptance, the experience of living with an autoimmune disorder, the intersection of eating disorders and trauma, how the “personal responsibility” narrative perpetuates stigma, how being queer and non-binary has affected Asher’s relationship with their body, and so much more. Plus, Christy answers a listener question about whether trying to let go of restrictions in order to heal from diet culture means that you can’t follow Kosher customs. 

Asher Pandjiris is a psychotherapist and host of the Living in this Queer Body Podcast. Asher is a queer, white, non-binary (she/they pronouns) parent. Asher is also someone living with auto-immune based chronic health issues. They served as the Program Director at Balance Eating Disorder Treatment Center and have years of experience working with issues related to trauma and its impact on the body. Asher has published on the topics of intergenerational trauma transmission, the treatment of eating disorders, sexual assault in the music industry and gender dysphoria. Most recently, Asher published "Tenuous Embodiment: In Queer Communities, Disordered Eating Has Complex Roots" for Bitch Magazine. Find her online at LivingInThisQueerBody.com.

We Discuss:

  • The factors that protected Asher from having a negative relationship with food and body growing up

  • Food as a source of pleasure

  • Their experiences being diagnosed and living with Crohn’s disease

  • What drew her to working with eating disorders

  • Eating disorders and trauma

  • Eating disorders as a form of self-regulation and coping

  • The importance of curiosity as an eating-disorder treatment provider

  • Autoimmune disease and embodiment

  • How the Wellness Diet moralizes different bodies

  • The Wellness Diet’s obsession with “fixing” inflammation

  • Christy’s experience with autoimmune conditions including Hashimoto’s thyroiditis 

  • Why most people with autoimmune conditions other than celiac disease DON’T need to avoid gluten and dairy

  • How being queer and non-binary has affected Asher’s relationship with their body

  • Accepting versus “curing” autoimmune diagnoses

  • Healthism

  • Trauma in the history of the Wellness Diet and diet culture

  • How the “personal responsibility” narrative perpetuates stigma

  • Trauma-informed care and recovery

  • Approaching health and wellbeing from a place of compassion

  • The discomfort of the early stages of eating-disorder recovery

Resources Mentioned

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Listener Question of the Week

Does making peace with food and giving up restrictions require me to give up the Jewish dietary traditions of kashrut/keeping kosher?—EKG

We Discuss: 

  • Christy’s perspective on this topic as someone who has never personally experienced kosher traditions despite having some Jewish heritage, but who has learned from observant clients and colleagues

  • Clarification on Christy’s answer to the listener question from Food Psych podcast episode #196

  • The definition of “restriction” in the context of intuitive eating

  • How religious dietary traditions could be tied up in diet culture thinking

  • Eating disorders in the Orthodox Jewish community

  • Consulting with a rabbi regarding certain exemptions during eating-disorder recovery or other medical conditions (hetter)

  • Recommended resources

  • Why intuitive eating is not about removing all structure

Resources Mentioned: 

 
Christy HarrisonLGBTQ, queer, non-binary, dysphoria, pleasure, Crohn’s, autoimmune, eating disorders, trauma, embodiment, self-regulation, coping, The Wellness Diet, diet culture, inflammation, gluten, dairy, healthism, compassion, curiosity, anti-diet, S720