Eating Words

I’m delighted that today’s episode, the final of this series, is with Maxine Ali, someone who really understands the language of health. If you don’t already know Maxine’s work, she is a writer, journalist and linguist, with a focus on women’s health and wellness culture. She has an MSc in Medical Humanities from King’s College London, currently works in academic publishing, and is an advocate for inclusion and diversity within the health sciences.  Our conversation is quite broad and we go off on a few tangents - I am definitely at the tired stage of lockdown with kids! We chat about the problems with some of the dichotomous terms that are used about children’s food, the classist connotations of terms like “junk food”, and stigmatising language around weight. We touch on lifestyle medicine, health media and the gendered approach to parenting, then go on to think about helping children challenge the narratives they experience about certain foods or bodies, and the importance of including diverse perspectives in policy formation.

Some of the things we mention are:

Edd Kimber's books: https://www.theboywhobakes.co.uk/

Change 4 Life 2019 advert, where mum does the shopping: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWE_UMno5P8

The Conscious Kid, an organisation set up to support families and educators to raise antiracist kids: https://www.theconsciouskid.org/

Happiful magazine: https://happiful.com/

Maxine's website: http://maxineali.com/

Maxine on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maxineali/

And, as ever, you can find me at: https://www.sarahdempster.co.uk/

Dr Michelle Webster is a Lecturer in Sociology at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her research sits at the intersection between the sociology of food, childhood and the family as well as medical sociology. In this episode, we chat about:

Michelle then shares some suggestions that I definitely agree with on a range of policy changes that could help support people to have positive relationships with food. 

Links to some of the things Michelle mentions in the interview:

Michelle's profile at Royal Holloway: https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/michelle-webster(efe2572c-e402-4f8c-94a4-20c5aec00487).html

Webster, M., & Gabe, J. (2016). Diet and identity: being a good parent in the face of contradictions presented by the ketogenic diet. Sociology of health & illness, 38(1), 123–136. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.12330 available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4989473/

Charlotte Faircloth & Ellie Lee's work at Centre for Parenting Culture Studies: https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/parentingculturestudies/resources/cpcs-books/#parenting-culture-studies 

Oli Williams' Equity is the Answer exhibition: http://www.actwithlove.co.uk/equity.html 

You can find me at: sarahdempster.co.uk 

Dr Erin Williams is a Reproductive Biologist and one of the co-founders of Feed, a small independent organisation that wants compassionate, unbiased, science-based infant feeding information to be provided to all families. Feed is different because they don’t prioritise one feeding method over another. They encourage acceptance that parents are the experts in making the right choices for their own families.

Anyone who has ever fed a baby has their own story - it can be an intense, overwhelming, emotional experience. Erin and I talk about the judgment and pressure that can be felt around infant feeding, the language that's used in relation to formula and breastfeeding and the impact that this can have on parents, why parenting conversations can be so polarised (especially on social media), the influence of the formula industry, and what we can do to be more supportive of all families infant feeding decisions.

This conversation is not intended to provide any advice, just to explore where we’re at and what Feed are doing to try to make a difference and to ensure that all families feel supported.

Links: 

Feed website: https://feeduk.org/

Fallon, V., Harrold, J.A. & Chishom, A. (2019) The impact of the UK Baby Friendly Initiative on maternal and infant health outcomes: A mixed‐methods systematic review. https://doi.org/10.1111/mcn.12778

You can find me at: www.sarahdempster.co.uk 

Laura Thomas, PhD, is a Registered Nutritionist with a PGDip in Eating Disorders. She specializes in weight inclusive, person-centred care and has a special interest in how we can support healthy relationships to food in adults and kids. 

In this episode, we chat about Laura’s pregnancy, some of the weird things we say to pregnant people, how eating habits change during pregnancy and how pressure can show up around nutrition as soon as we start thinking about having a baby. 

We share our thoughts on why feeding little ones is such an emotive topic, why it’s NOT your fault if your kid suddenly stops eating certain foods, and why in nutrition we need to be careful with the messages that we share with parents around food. 

Laura shares her insights from working clinically with parents, including some of the longer-term repercussions of an intense focus on diet in childhood, why using food to soothe can be part of your coping toolkit, the importance of self-compassion, and how Ellyn Satter’s Division of Responsibility in feeding can help parents raise intuitive eaters. 

We end the conversation by talking about Laura’s work to develop practice within the nutrition field, why it’s so important to have clinical supervision if you’re a nutrition practitioner who works with individuals, why we don’t see ourselves as ‘experts’ and what Laura thinks we should be pushing for change on within the nutrition field. 

Links 

Don’t salt my game episode on raising kids with healthy relationships to food

London Centre for Intuitive Eating - raising intuitive eaters course

London Centre for Intuitive Eating - professional courses

Laura's Bub Appetit Instagram

Laura’s Instagram

Ellyn Satter Institute - Division of Responsibility in Feeding

And find me at: www.sarahdempster.co.uk

Catherine Lippe is a Registered Nutritionist who is really experienced in supporting nurseries, parents and carers around children's early eating behaviours. This episode is aimed at parents and carers who, like both of us, are currently trying to juggle working, educating and feeding children under the restrictions of physical distancing. Catherine shares her tips on coping with constant snack demands and we chat through simple, low-pressure ways to manage mealtimes, fussy eating and weaning, and being kind to yourself when none of it goes to plan. We also discuss what positive food education can look like at home and what parents and carers can do to help children maintain positive relationships with food and their bodies. (Spoiler: it's not all on you). 

During our conversation I spoke about resources that might be helpful for learning about food at home. I'll follow this up with a blog post but in the meantime here are a few websites that might be helpful:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/topics/food

https://www.tasteeducation.com/tasted-fun-and-games-for-families-at-home/

https://www.rhs.org.uk/education-learning/gardening-children-schools/family-activities

Catherine also has lots of suggestions for meals and snacks on her instagram account @lippenutrition and you can find her 'weaning in lockdown' blog post, as well as her contact details, on her website.

You can also find me at: www.sarahdempster.co.uk