Food Psych #224: Diabetes, Diet Culture, and Intuitive Eating for Blood-Sugar Stability with Lauren Newman

Photographer: Khali MacIntyre

Fellow anti-diet dietitian Lauren Newman joins us to discuss how to manage diabetes without weight loss and restriction, why the restrict-binge cycle and weight cycling are especially harmful to blood-sugar regulation, why carbohydrates are necessary for health, how to take the focus away from nutritional minutiae and numbers, and so much more. 

Lauren Newman, RD, LD is a registered dietitian in Houston, TX passionate about helping individuals with diabetes make peace with food and their bodies. Lauren practices from a Health At Every Size® and weight inclusive approach to help clients connect with their body’s needs, and learn to respond without rigidity, restriction, or shame. Find her online at LaurenNewmanRD.com.

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We Discuss:

  • The normalization of dieting in Lauren’s childhood

  • Her experiences with disordered eating growing up

  • Identifying as “the healthy one,” and why that can be problematic

  • How disordered eating influenced Lauren and Christy in their decision to become dietitians

  • Lauren’s observations of fatphobia in eating-disorder treatment

  • Her initial misconceptions of intuitive eating

  • How she overcame her skepticism around intuitive eating and Health At Every Size

  • Why she is passionate about helping people with diabetes

  • Why the diabetes field is so weight-centric

  • Integrating HAES and intuitive eating into diabetes care

  • The restrict-binge cycle, and how it can be particularly harmful for people with diabetes

  • Insulin resistance, and its role in diabetes

  • Why you can’t “cure” diabetes with a diet

  • Why carbohydrates are necessary for health, even in people with diabetes

  • Diabetes myths and misconceptions 

  • Healthism, and how it can be detrimental to diabetes management

  • How a healthcare professional’s privilege can affect the care that they provide

  • Helping people overcome food fears in diabetes management

  • How supposed “treatments” and “cures” can make people feel worse

  • How diet-culture messaging can hinder diabetes management

  • The effects of starvation (for any reason) on the body

  • Weight gain as a symptom, not a cause, of type 2 diabetes

  • Managing diabetes without weight loss and restriction

  • Why gentle nutrition is the last principle of intuitive eating, even with diabetes

  • Diabetes burnout, and its connection to disordered eating

  • The importance of flexibility in carbohydrate counting for insulin dosing

  • Taking the focus away from nutrition and movement in diabetes management

Resources Mentioned

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

 
Christy HarrisonDiabetes, dieting, disordered eating, eating disorders, eating-disorder recovery, recovery, eating-disorder treatment, fatphobia, intuitive eating, Health At Every Size, HAES, restrict-binge cycle, weight cycling, insulin resistance, carbohydrates, myths, misconceptions, healthism, privilege, diet culture, starvation, weight gain, chronic disease, gentle nutrition, flexibility, diabetes burnout, anti-diet, S720