Food Psych #255: Diet Culture, Dysfunctional Relationships, and Decolonizing the Body with Health At Every Size Social Worker Noel Ramirez

Introduction & Guest Bio:

Anti-diet social worker Noel Ramirez joins us to discuss the parallels between disordered eating and dysfunctional relationships, the intersection of eating disorders and substance abuse, creating a sense of home in our bodies, how diet culture shows up in queer male culture, and so much more. Plus, in Ask Food Psych, Christy answers a listener question about whether there’s truly such a thing as “diet-related illness.”

Dr. Noel Ramirez is a Philly-based licensed clinical social worker and public health professional. Informed by Immigrant-Filipino parents who love through a sense of home, a chosen Queer family who resist subjugation, and a public health community that seeks to honor social and environmental context, his approach is relational, inter-subjective and grounded in love, honor and respect. Dr. Ramirez received his graduate training in social work from the University of Pennsylvania and his graduate public health training from Drexel University. He recently completed his Doctorate in Behavioral Health from Arizona State University and focused his academic work in developing programing in patient-centered medical homes, integrated-health, recovery oriented primary care and body-positive behavioral interventions. He is a licensed anger management treatment professional, compassion fatigue educational professional, and has a certificate in Clinical Social Work supervision. Currently, Dr. Ramirez teaches a wide range of graduate courses that invite an intersectional approach to social work practice at Columbia University and West Chester University. He is also a project director for medicated assisted recovery initiatives across a network of federally qualified health centers and is a behavioral health consultant for patients in primary care. He is deeply honored to be doing this work and to be in community with caring and compassionate colleagues and social workers. Find him online at NoelBRamirez.com.

We Discuss:

The many roles that food played for Noel, his family, and his community growing up
How growing up in the US affected his relationship with food and body, compared with others in the Filipino community
The lack of representation of diverse queer bodies, particularly in television
How fatphobic narratives in the queer community contributed to his disordered eating
How his negative relationship with food and body intensified in college and beyond, despite being in gender studies and starting to find community
The politic of the unapologetic, embodiment, and their roles in Noel’s recovery
The parallels between disordered eating and dysfunctional relationships
Decolonizing and reclaiming a sense of home in our bodies
Diet culture in primary care, and how Noel is bringing Health At Every Size® and body positivity to his work in the field
Making HAES® more accessible to marginalized communities
The intersection of eating disorders and substance abuse
Noel’s experiences with the abstinence model for eating-disorder recovery
His initial reactions to Intuitive Eating, and how he eventually embraced body positivity and HAES
The challenges of dating for gay and bisexual men
Love, honor, and respect as guiding values
Redefining masculinity
The importance of community, belonging, and connection in fighting oppression