Food Psych #229: Emotional Eating, the Effects of Starvation, and Bringing Intuitive Eating to Latinx Communities with Carolina Guízar

Photographer: Khali MacIntyre

Fellow anti-diet dietitian and certified intuitive eating counselor Carolina Guízar joins us to discuss why we need to stop vilifying emotional eating, the mental effects of starvation, why fighting diet culture is a form of social justice, the nuances of bringing intuitive eating to Latinx communities, and so much more. Plus, Christy answers a listener question about whether certain foods cause acne. 

Carolina Guízar is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and certified intuitive eating counselor with a private practice in New York City. She works with individuals who are recovering from diet culture and want to cultivate a more peaceful relationship with food and their bodies. She also specializes in Irritable Bowel Syndrome and brings a non-diet approach to her work with this population.

The daughter of Mexican immigrants, Carolina understands the difficulties that many in the Latinx community face. Carolina set out to spread the message of Health at Every Size and intuitive eating to Latinx communities via her Instagram account @la_eathority with the aim of alleviating the suffering brought on by food preoccupation and body dissatisfaction. She hopes to shed light on the oppressive qualities of diet culture, and its harmful impact on Latinx communities in the United States. Find her online at Eathority.com.

This episode is brought to you by the Be Nourished Body Trust Summit, a free online conference featuring over 20 speakers on how to divest from diet culture, reclaim your body, and explore body trust as a liberatory practice. The summit will be held on March 11-17, 2020. For more information and to register, visit christyharrison.com/benourished.

This episode is also brought to you by Rebel Eaters Club, a new body-liberation podcast from Virgie Tovar. Listen on your favorite podcast app, or visit RebelEatersClub.com.

We Discuss:

  • Carolina’s experience living in a multigenerational Mexican American household as a child

  • When she first started perceiving larger bodies as “bad”

  • How she internalized fatphobia growing up

  • How her positive relationship with food as a child protected her from developing an eating disorder later on

  • Her experience moving to a predominantly white community at age 5

  • The feeling of being othered

  • The pursuit of thinness as part of the desire to belong

  • Language, and its role in assimilation and survival

  • The role of scarcity in binge eating

  • The factors that led Carolina to start dieting

  • Anxiety, and how she turned to food to cope

  • Why we need to stop vilifying emotional eating

  • The mental effects of starvation

  • The 2016 election, and how it changed Carolina’s work as a dietitian

  • How she was introduced to intuitive eating

  • Carolina and Melissa Carmona’s intuitive eating course for Latinx folks

  • The nuances of bringing intuitive eating to Latinx communities

  • Why fighting against diet culture is a form of social justice

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

Do certain foods cause acne? How might worrying about nutrition and skin health be an example of the Wellness Diet? Why do some people experience having less acne when they are dieting? What is the primary cause of acne? What are some strategies to manage acne that don’t involve changing your eating? Why is it important to make peace with our skin? What are some of the similarities and differences between acne stigma and weight stigma?

 
Christy HarrisonLatinx, POC, fatphobia, marginalization, oppression, othering, belonging, assimilation, scarcity, binge eating, anxiety, emotional eating, starvation, politics, intuitive eating, diet culture, social justice, anti-diet, S720