Have you ever wondered why binge eating can suddenly begin or return in your 30s, 40s, or 50s, even if you thought you had moved past it?

In this episode of Dr. Marianne-Land: An Eating Disorder Recovery Podcast, Dr. Marianne Miller explores why binge eating often emerges or resurfaces during midlife and why this experience is far more common than most people realize. She unpacks the combustive mix of hormonal changes, long-term dieting, stress, trauma, cultural pressures about aging, and neurodivergence that collide during this stage of life.

You will learn why midlife binge eating is not about willpower or lack of discipline but about unmet needs in the body and nervous system. Dr. Marianne also offers practical steps for interrupting the binge-restrict cycle, cultivating nervous system regulation, and reclaiming a compassionate relationship with food.

If you are feeling shame about binge eating in midlife or are wondering why it has become harder to manage now than it was in earlier years, this episode will help you understand what is happening and what recovery can look like.

This episode discusses binge eating, dieting, weight stigma, hormonal changes, and the effects of midlife stressors on eating behaviors. It also includes references to trauma and emotional regulation challenges. Please take care of yourself while listening and pause if you notice discomfort or distress.

Why binge eating often begins or resurfaces in your 30s, 40s, and 50s

The connection between chronic dieting, hormonal changes, and binge eating urges

How midlife stress, caregiving, and identity shifts influence eating patterns

The role of trauma and emotional regulation in binge eating behaviors

How neurodivergence and sensory sensitivities affect midlife eating cycles

Why diet culture and medical weight stigma intensify binge-restrict patterns

What sustainable, non-diet recovery can look like at this stage of life

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Have you ever wondered why recovery feels unsafe if you are autistic, or why masking can look like restriction? In this episode, Dr. Marianne examines the overlooked intersection of autism and anorexia. She explains how autistic masking, the survival strategy of hiding or suppressing traits to “fit in,” can overlap with food restriction and why recovery often feels unsafe in treatment spaces that center neurotypical experiences.

Dr. Marianne explores how sensory sensitivities, alexithymia, executive functioning challenges, and monotropism can shape eating patterns for autistic individuals and how traditional recovery models fail to accommodate these realities. She also addresses intersectionality in recovery, highlighting that unmasking is riskier for BIPOC, disabled, fat, queer, and trans individuals whose overlapping identities increase the dangers of being fully visible in systems that marginalize them.

She emphasizes why neurodivergent-affirming, sensory-attuned, and intersectional recovery spaces are essential. Recovery cannot be one-size-fits-all when it must account for layered oppression, systemic barriers, and the complex ways autistic traits interact with anorexia.

Dr. Marianne also discusses the overlap between anorexia and ARFID (Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder), particularly among autistic people, and explains why understanding this overlap is crucial for effective and sustainable healing.

If recovery has felt unsafe, Dr. Marianne wants listeners to know it is not because they have failed. It is because treatment often fails to recognize autism, honor intersecting identities, and adapt care to meet those realities. She believes every person deserves support that not only accommodates differences but celebrates them as integral to the healing process.

🎧 Listen now to learn:

Why autistic masking can mimic restrictive eating behaviors

How anorexia presents differently in autistic individuals

Why recovery often feels unsafe for autistic people in standard treatment settings

The importance of intersectionality in unmasking and eating disorder recovery

How anorexia and ARFID can overlap, especially in autistic populations

Approaches to sensory-safe, neurodivergent-affirming, and identity-inclusive recovery

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For those who connect with this discussion and suspect ARFID may be part of their experience, or for clinicians seeking to better understand this overlap, Dr. Marianne offers her ARFID and Selective Eating Course. This self-paced program provides neurodivergent-affirming strategies and tools to address ARFID, including its intersection with anorexia, in both teens and adults.

Dr. Marianne Miller is joined by Chelsea Levy, RDN (@chelsealevynutrition), a certified intuitive eating counselor, registered dietitian nutritionist, and fat-positive healthcare provider based in New York City. Chelsea shares her powerful journey from "diet rock bottom" to embracing intuitive eating and becoming a leading advocate for weight-inclusive and fat-positive care in eating disorder treatment and chronic illness support.

Chelsea opens up about her career shift from the art and production world to dietetics, how she discovered intuitive eating, and why she now rejects the weight-centric medical model. Together, Marianne and Chelsea discuss the harms of weight stigma in healthcare, why fat-positive spaces are essential for healing, and how weight-inclusive care improves outcomes for eating disorder recovery, diabetes management, PCOS, and more.

Content Caution: This episode discusses eating disorders, chronic dieting, medical weight stigma, and anti-fat bias.

Listeners will learn:

Why intuitive eating is transformative for eating disorder recovery

How weight stigma in healthcare creates harm and barriers to treatment

The difference between weight-inclusive care and fat-positive care

How Chelsea integrates gender-affirming, fat-affirming, and evidence-based approaches in her practice

What it means to dismantle anti-fat bias in medical and therapeutic spaces

Chelsea also shares how validating clients’ grief around body image and holding space for autonomy are essential parts of her approach. This conversation is a must-listen for anyone seeking liberation from diet culture, professionals wanting to integrate fat-positive care into their work, and anyone navigating recovery in a world steeped in anti-fat bias.

Check Out Other Episodes About Intuitive Eating & Fat Positivity:

🌟 Connect with Chelsea Levy, RDN:

Website: @chelsealevynutrition

🎧 Tune in now to hear Chelsea’s story and learn how intuitive eating and fat-positive care can reshape recovery and health!

This episode discusses childhood trauma, eating disorders, and body shame. Please listen with care and take breaks if needed.

Eating disorders are not about willpower or personal failure. They are survival responses rooted in trauma, body shame, and environments where safety or acceptance were missing.

In this episode of Dr. Marianne-Land: An Eating Disorder Recovery Podcast, I explore how childhood trauma and eating disorders are connected, and why understanding this link is essential for true healing. We’ll talk about how early emotional invalidation, conditional love, medical or religious trauma, anti-fat bias, racism, ableism, and other forms of oppression shape our nervous systems and our relationships with food and our bodies.

How Childhood Trauma Shapes Eating Disorders

Why Eating Disorders Are Survival Strategies

The Role of Shame and Oppression

A Trauma-Informed Approach to Recovery

The connection between childhood trauma and eating disorders

Why eating disorders are survival mechanisms, not failures

How shame and body image distress perpetuate disordered eating

The impact of oppression, fatphobia, and ableism on body shame

How trauma-informed eating disorder therapy supports healing

If you’re ready for support, I offer trauma-informed, neurodivergent-affirming eating disorder therapy in California, Texas, and Washington, D.C. Learn more and schedule a consultation at www.drmariannemiller.com.

For too long, eating disorders have been falsely framed as illnesses that only affect white, thin, affluent girls. This narrow stereotype erases countless people’s experiences and blocks them from diagnosis and treatment.

In this episode of Dr. Marianne-Land: An Eating Disorder Recovery Podcast, Dr. Marianne Miller dismantles this damaging myth and explores the liberation truth: eating disorders affect every race, gender, body size, religion, and ability. Yet bias in healthcare, anti-fat bias, racism, ableism, cissexism, and cultural stigma keep many people unseen and untreated.

This episode includes discussion of eating disorders, misdiagnosis, systemic bias, and marginalized identities. Please take care while listening and pause if you need to.

How eating disorders impact BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, fat, neurodivergent, disabled, and faith-based communities

Why biased diagnostic criteria exclude those who don’t fit the stereotype

How systemic oppression drives misdiagnosis and denial of care

Why ARFID is often overlooked in neurodivergent adults, fat bodies, and marginalized identities

What a liberation-focused, inclusive, and neurodivergent-affirming approach to care looks like

If you have ever felt unseen in eating disorder spaces or dismissed because you didn’t “look sick enough,” this episode validates your experience and calls for a more equitable path to recovery.

If ARFID is part of your story—or someone you love—I created a self-paced ARFID and Selective Eating Coursedesigned for adults with ARFID, parents, and professionals. It’s neurodivergent-affirming, trauma-informed, and sensory-attuned.

Check it out here: www.drmariannemiller.com/arfid

ARFID is not just a childhood diagnosis. In this episode of Dr. Marianne-Land: An Eating Disorder Recovery Podcast, I am joined by registered dietitian Caroline (Callie) Holbrook, RD, to discuss what Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder looks like in adults and how to navigate food and nutrition in ways that feel safe and supportive.

Callie shares her expertise in working with adults with ARFID, highlighting how it often intersects with neurodivergence, sensory sensitivities, and the pressures of adult life such as relationships, work events, travel, and meal planning. We also talk about how shame develops around food, the impact of wellness culture, and why rigid nutritional rules can make ARFID even harder to manage.

This episode includes discussions of eating disorders, food-related anxiety, shame, and nutrition planning. Please take care while listening and step away if needed.

How ARFID presents differently in adults compared to children

The role of shame and social pressures in adult ARFID

Strategies for building safe foods lists and reducing overwhelm

Why processed foods can be a helpful and low-stress option

Collaborative, neurodivergent-affirming approaches to nutrition

Addressing sensory sensitivities, executive functioning challenges, and interoception

Why progress may mean building energy intake and problem-solving around meals instead of immediately trying new foods

This episode emphasizes flexibility, autonomy, and creating supportive environments for eating, including practical tips such as adjusting lighting, using sound regulation tools, and using distractions during meals.

Adults with ARFID often feel misunderstood and pressured to eat in ways that do not align with their needs. This episode validates adult ARFID experiences and offers real-life strategies to navigate food safely and respectfully.

Callie is a Registered Dietitian based in San Diego, California. Originally from Alabama, she relocated across the country four years ago. Callie has extensive experience working in various levels of eating disorder treatment, including residential, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, and outpatient care.

She has long been passionate about the field of eating disorders and has valued every step of her professional journey. Callie recently opened her own private practice in San Diego, specializing in eating disorders, ARFID/selective eating, and Intuitive Eating. She also provides nutrition counseling for individuals seeking a weight-neutral approach to diabetes care.

Connect with Caroline Holbrook, RD: www.holbrookrd.com

Email Caroline: www.drmariannemiller.com

If you want in-depth tools for understanding and supporting ARFID in yourself or someone you love, check out my ARFID and Selective Eating Course. This self-paced course covers ARFID research, sensory sensitivities, neurodivergence, and practical strategies for everyday life.

👉 Enroll here: https://www.drmariannemiller.com/arfid

Eating disorders are not just about food. They often begin as survival strategies...ways to manage overwhelming emotions, cope with trauma, or create a sense of control in a world that feels unpredictable. In this powerful episode of Dr. Marianne-Land: An Eating Disorder Recovery Podcast, I sit down with Amy Ornelas, RD (@amyornelasrd), an eating disorder dietitian and somatic therapist, to explore what recovery really looks like beyond behaviors.

We discuss how eating disorders often develop as protective mechanisms, why nervous system healing is essential for deeper emotional work, and how somatic therapy helps bridge the gap between body and mind. Amy shares her professional expertise, her personal journey of recovery, and how her own healing has deepened her ability to guide others.

Content concerns: This episode discusses eating disorders, trauma, and recovery.

This episode also dives into:

How eating disorders can be rooted in trauma, sensitivity, or neurodivergence

Why recovery happens in layers, not in a straight line

The role of nervous system regulation and somatic therapy in healing

The importance of safe therapeutic relationships in uncovering deeper wounds

Why lasting recovery is about more than “just eating”

Amy and I also discuss our own experiences with vulnerability, relationships, and how healing from eating disorders often involves re-learning safety, connection, and authenticity over time.

If you’ve ever felt frustrated by the idea of a “quick fix” in recovery or wondered why healing feels so complex, this episode will validate your experience and help you see recovery as a layered, lifelong journey of coming home to yourself.

Contact Amy via Instagram @amyornelasrd

Check out her website https://www.i-heart-nutrition.com/

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In this essential solo episode, Dr. Marianne challenges the narrow and harmful narrative that eating disorders primarily affect girls and women. She explores how toxic masculinity shapes, and often hides, disordered eating and body shame in boys and men. Backed by recent research, this episode unpacks how muscle dysmorphia, bingeing, and restriction are frequently dismissed as “normal” male behaviors, even when they reflect deep emotional pain. Dr. Marianne offers a liberation-focused framework for understanding the unique barriers boys and men face in getting help, and how we can dismantle the systems that reinforce silence, shame, and suffering.

CONTENT CAUTION:This episode includes discussion of eating disorder behaviors, muscle dysmorphia, trauma, and toxic masculinity. Please take care while listening.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE:

How toxic masculinity discourages emotional expression and reinforces disordered eating

Why boys and men with eating disorders are often undiagnosed or misdiagnosed

What muscle dysmorphia is and how it manifests in teen boys and adult men

How social media trends like “looksmaxxing” fuel body obsession and psychological distress

The role of trauma, emotional suppression, and performance culture in male ED experiences

How clinicians, caregivers, and educators can support male-identified folks through a liberationist lens

What affirming, emotionally honest healing can look like outside of gendered expectations

LISTEN TO OTHER EPISODES ABOUT MEN, MUSCULARITY, & EATING DISORDERS:

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What happens when someone is both neurodivergent and fat in a world that punishes difference? In this solo episode, Dr. Marianne unpacks how fatphobia and ableism intersect to create barriers in medical care, mental health treatment, and everyday life for people with ADHD, autism, PDA, and other forms of neurodivergence.

She explores why fat liberation and neurodivergent rights must go hand-in-hand, and how body justice is essential—not optional—in eating disorder recovery, therapy, and community care. From sensory needs and executive functioning to the pressure to mask and shrink, this episode offers a powerful call to unlearn bias and build liberatory spaces where all bodies and minds are treated with dignity.

Whether you're a fat neurodivergent person, a therapist, or someone committed to anti-oppressive care, this conversation is for you.

CONTENT CAUTIONS: In this episode, Dr. Marianne discusses anti-fat bias, ableism, disordered eating, masking, and systemic oppression in medical and mental health settings. Please care for yourself as needed.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE:

Why fat liberation is essential to neurodivergent-affirming care

How anti-fat bias and ableism reinforce each other in ADHD and autism communities

What executive dysfunction, sensory needs, and masking have to do with food and body shame

Why fat neurodivergent people are underdiagnosed and often dismissed by providers

What therapists and support people can do to stop reinforcing stigma

How to practice body autonomy and community care outside of diet culture and compliance

🎧 LISTEN TO OTHER EPISODES ON FAT LIBERATION & NEURODIVERSITY

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Learn more at: https://www.drmariannemiller.com

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In this raw and emotionally charged solo episode, Dr. Marianne unpacks why thinness continues to be equated with goodness in mainstream culture. Drawing on the New York Times opinion piece The Unrepentant Return of Christian Diet Culture by Jessica Grose, Dr. Marianne explores how weight loss is still moralized through religious teachings, wellness trends, and political rhetoric.

This episode critically examines the resurgence of Christian diet culture, the backlash against weight-loss medications like Ozempic, and the deeper implications of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) campaign led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Dr. Marianne reveals how these systems are not just about health, but about control, obedience, and purity. She discusses how thinness is still framed as a sign of self-discipline and spiritual worth, while fatness is treated as failure or sin.

Using a liberationist lens, Dr. Marianne also highlights the historical roots of fatphobia in white supremacy, referencing Dr. Sabrina Strings’ groundbreaking book Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia. This episode challenges listeners to question how religion, politics, and public health are deeply entangled in oppressive narratives about bodies and morality.

For neurodivergent people, those raised in religiously rigid environments, and anyone recovering from body shame, this conversation offers both validation and a call to resistance. You may want to listen in short segments, especially if you’re prone to sensory overload or religious trauma responses.

CONTENT CAUTION:

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE:

How Christian diet culture can moralize thinness and spiritualizes weight loss

Why Ozempic and similar medications are being rejected by some conservative groups

The political motives and fatphobic messaging behind MAHA

How alt-right Christian nationalism reinforces thinness as virtue

The white supremacist roots of fatphobia, based on Dr. Sabrina Strings’ research

Why these systems disproportionately harm fat, neurodivergent, disabled, and BIPOC individuals

What it means to reclaim body autonomy in a culture that demands control

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