Food Psych #249: Healthism, Fatphobia, and Redefining Well-Being with Confidence Coach Victoria Welsby, and How the Anti-Diet and Intuitive Eating Frameworks Address Health with Dietitian Vincci Tsui

Photographer: Khali MacIntyre

Introduction & Guest Bio:

SEASON 7 FINALE! Fat activist, author, speaker, and podcaster Victoria Welsby returns to the podcast to discuss the intersection of fatphobia and healthism, why all weight-loss advice is a form of weight stigma, the moralization of different health conditions, the role of thin allies in fat activism, and so much more. Plus, in our new “Ask Food Psych” segment, co-host Vincci Tsui answers a listener question on how the anti-diet and intuitive eating frameworks address health. 

Victoria Welsby is a world-leading expert on body image and confidence, TEDx speaker and best-selling author. She went from being homeless, abused with self-esteem that was achingly low into the courageous fat activist and change maker she is today. Victoria helps people fall in love with themselves and is dedicated to shifting the way society views fat bodies. Find her online at FierceFatty.com.

Vincci Tsui, RD

Vincci Tsui (she/her) is a former bariatric dietitian turned certified intuitive eating counselor and Health At Every Size® advocate. She is the author of The Mindful Eating Workbook: Simple Practices for Nurturing a Positive Relationship with Food, and is the Community and Content Associate for Food Psych Programs Inc.

Vincci is passionate about helping people find freedom in their relationship with food and with their body, so that they can confidently step away from diet culture and live life on their own terms. She believes that health and happiness have little—if anything—to do with weight. Ultimately, Vincci is on a mission to make dignity, respect, happiness, and health accessible to all bodies. Find her online at VincciTsui.com.


We Discuss:

  • What Victoria has been up to since her first appearance on Food Psych®

  • Her experiences of interpersonal and intrapersonal fatphobia while participating in a documentary on fatness

  • Why pathologizing fat bodies is harmful

  • The insidiousness of diet culture

  • Why many fatphobic people don’t realize that they are fatphobic

  • How weight loss advice, even when shared in a compassionate way, is a form of weight stigma

  • Weight stigma as a form of violence

  • Changing our family members’ weight-stigmatizing beliefs

  • Navigating anger in the face of diet culture and injustice

  • Setting boundaries as a form of self-care

  • The intersection between fatphobia and healthism

  • Redefining health

  • The moralization of different health conditions

  • Why concern trolls don’t really care about your health

  • How weight stigma influences health

  • The role of thin allies in fat activism, and the importance of listening to marginalized voices

  • Identifying and questioning our own implicit biases

  • Finding voices and experiences that you resonate with


Resources Mentioned

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Ask Food Psych

Listener Question:

“What does the anti-diet approach have to say about health, particularly to people who have done nothing to improve their health?”—Lee

We Discuss: 

  • Relationship between lifestyle behaviors and health outcomes

  • Social determinants of health

  • Intuitive eating and health

  • Gentle nutrition

Resources Mentioned: 

 
Christy HarrisonFatphobia, weight stigma, diet culture, violence, anger, social justice, boundaries, healthism, health, moralizing, fat activism, allyship, marginalization, bias, implicit bias, weight bias, lifestyle, social determinants of health, SDOH, intuitive eating, gentle nutrition, anti-diet, S720