Registered dietitian Aaron Flores joins us to discuss why Andrew Huberman and other biohacking wellness bros have such massive appeal, and how their rhetoric can lead to disordered eating and body-image distress. In a deeper dive for paid subscribers, we get into how to talk to partners or loved ones who’ve come under the sway of bro-wellness culture—and how to set boundaries when their diet/fitness talk challenges our recovery from disordered eating. We also get vulnerable about mortality, grief, and why it’s so hard to confront aging and death head-on, and Christy shares an unexpected response to a past interview on the pod.

To hear the full episode including the deep dive, upgrade to paid at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. 

More from Christy:

• Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, is available wherever books are sold! Order it here, or ask for it in your favorite local bookstore. 
• If you're looking to make peace with food and break free from diet and wellness culture, check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course.
• Subscribe on Substack for full interviews and more! Support the podcast by becoming a paid subscriber, and unlock great perks like extended interviews, subscriber-only Q&As and essays, monthly office hours to ask your questions, commenting privileges, and a place to connect with other listeners.

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Christy answers an audience question about whether you need an anti-inflammatory diet, or other dietary changes, for migraines. 

The full version of this episode is for paid subscribers. Listen to the first part here, and sign up for a paid subscription to hear the whole thing!

Get full show notes and references on Substack.

More from Christy: 

Books: 

• Anti-Diet
• The Wellness Trap
• The Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook

Courses:

• Intuitive Eating Fundamentals
• Intro to Intuitive Eating

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Nutritionist Abbie Attwood joins us to discuss how dealing with multiple autoimmune chronic illnesses led her down a path of dubious diagnoses and disordered eating, and how she ultimately found healing. We get into how disordered eating can trigger and aggravate chronic conditions, why she believed she had “adrenal fatigue” and “leaky gut,” and the role of obsession and OCD in orthorexia. We also talk about why it’s so easy to have your identity get wrapped up in disordered eating and chronic illness, how wellness culture preys on grief over physical limitations, the importance of self-compassion and how Abbie and Christy practice it, the prevalence of heightened sensitivity in IBS and other chronic conditions, how wellness-culture rabbit holes can lead to worsening symptoms, and the process of coming back to conventional medicine after a foray into the alt-med world. This episode was originally published in February 2025.

We’ve removed the paywall, and this episode is now available for free thanks to our sponsors! For more free content, please don’t skip the ads :) 

Abbie Attwood (she/her) is an anti-diet, weight-inclusive provider with a masters in clinical nutrition. She is the owner of Abbie Attwood Wellness, providing both individual and group virtual nutrition therapy and body image coaching. She is also the host of the Full Plate Podcast and writes the accompanying newsletter.

Abbie has lived experience with an eating disorder, which happened at the intersection of competitive running, OCD, and several chronic illnesses—all of which have made her especially passionate about working with those who don’t always see themselves in the traditional picture of disordered eating.

She works with clients around the globe, supporting them in healing from disordered eating, chronic dieting, body shame, and compulsive exercising to move into a kind and respectful relationship with their body. Abbie’s approach centers on self-compassion, social justice, and body liberation.

She splits time between Maine and the Bay Area with her husband and their two quirky rescue pups. She’s a lover of breakfast, books, the ocean, and all the ice cream. Learn more about her work at abbieattwoodwellness.com.

If you like this conversation, subscribe to hear lots more like it! 

Support the podcast by becoming a paid subscriber, and unlock great perks like extended interviews, subscriber-only Q&As, full access to our archives, commenting privileges and subscriber threads where you can connect with other listeners, and more. Learn more and sign up at rethinkingwellness.substack.com.

Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, is available wherever books are sold! Order it here, or ask for it in your favorite local bookstore.

If you're looking to make peace with food and break free from diet and wellness culture, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Christy answers an audience question about the diets you *don’t* need to try in (peri)menopause—and ways to get your loved ones to stop talking about them.

The full version of this episode is for paid subscribers. Listen to the first question here, and sign up for a paid subscription to hear the rest!

Get full show notes and references here.

Ask a question of your own for a chance to have it answered in a future episode!

Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, is available wherever books are sold. Order it here, or ask for it in your favorite local bookstore. 

If you're looking to make peace with food and break free from diet and wellness culture, check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Author and pediatric surgeon Dana Suskind joins us to discuss her new book, Human Raised: Nurturing Connection, Curiosity & Lifelong Learning in the Age of AI. We get into why true caring is what makes us unique from machines, how human parenting instills critical thinking and empathy, the role of governments and regulators in dealing with AI harms, her HOPE framework for raising kids in the age of AI, and more. 

For paid subscribers, we do a deeper dive into the importance of “good enough” parenting—and how it compares to the gentle parenting and intensive parenting approaches. We also discuss Christy’s response as an eating-disorders specialist to the comparison between AI and ultra-processed foods.   

To hear the full episode including the deeper dive, upgrade to paid at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. 

More from Christy:

• Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, is available wherever books are sold! Order it here, or ask for it in your favorite local bookstore. 
• If you're looking to make peace with food and break free from diet and wellness culture, check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course.
• Subscribe on Substack for full interviews and more! Support the podcast by becoming a paid subscriber, and unlock great perks like extended interviews, subscriber-only Q&As, full access to our archives, commenting privileges, and a place to connect with other listeners.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Christy discusses what she’s been going through with IVF and how it’s affected her body image, plus 5 things she’s trying to keep in mind as she navigates a changing body amid the pressures of diet and wellness culture. This episode originally aired in June 2025. Check out the written version on our website for updates.

This episode is for paid subscribers. Listen to a free preview here, and sign up for a paid subscription to hear the full episode!

Get full show notes and references here.

Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, is available wherever books are sold! Order it online or ask for it in your favorite local bookstore. 

If you're looking to make peace with food and break free from diet and wellness culture, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Christy discusses how to make sure a “healthy” dietary change doesn’t spiral into disordered eating—and how to know your desire to change your eating is driven by health and not diet culture.  

The full version of this episode is for paid subscribers. Listen to the first half here, and sign up for a paid subscription to hear the whole thing!

Get full show notes and references on Substack.

More from Christy: 

Books: 

• Anti-Diet
• The Wellness Trap
• The Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook

Courses:

• Intuitive Eating Fundamentals
• Intro to Intuitive Eating

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Religious-ethics scholar Liz Bucar, author of Beyond Wellness, joins us to discuss the religious roots of wellness practices, why bringing religion back into “spiritual” wellness spaces might be the key to promoting true well-being (even for non-religious people), and how the very human need for control shows up in diet and wellness culture. 

For paid subscribers, we do a deeper dive into how religion has contributed to Americans’ troubled relationship with food and how religious foodways can also help us heal from diet culture, with some detours into the longevity movement, GLP-1s and the thin ideal, and more.   

Liz Bucar is a religious ethicist and professor of religion at Northeastern University, as well as a certified intenSati and Kripalu yoga instructor and the author of the new book Beyond Wellness. Her popular writing has appeared in The Atlantic, the Los Angeles Times, Teen Vogue, and The Wall Street Journal, and she is the author of four books, including the award-winning Stealing My Religion and Pious Fashion. She lives in Brookline, Massachusetts. For more about how religion shapes us all, even if we don't believe, subscribe to Liz’s newsletter at LizBucar.com. 

To hear the full episode including the deep dive, upgrade to paid at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. 

More from Christy:

• Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, is available wherever books are sold! Order it here, or ask for it in your favorite local bookstore. 
• If you're looking to make peace with food and break free from diet and wellness culture, check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course.
• Subscribe on Substack for full interviews and more! Support the podcast by becoming a paid subscriber, and unlock great perks like extended interviews, subscriber-only Q&As, full access to our archives, commenting privileges, and a place to connect with other listeners.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Christy shares some exciting announcements about the podcast! 

Upgrade to paid for access to all our content: 

• Subscriber-only Q&As and essays answering your burning questions about wellness/diet culture, with critical and rigorous reporting on the science (something you’ll never get from ChatGPT, which we don’t use for research or writing)
• Extended interviews with our guests, including all the juicy bits
• Monthly office hours on Substack Live
• Access to our full archive, including posts about gut health, seed oils, supplements, weight-loss drugs, perimenopause, autoimmune diets, thyroid health, and lots more
• Commenting privileges and a place to connect with other subscribers
• Other cool perks, like special access to occasional livestreams, workshops, and courses

Here are the dates of the first three office hours:

• Wed, Aug 19 at 1pm ET (Download the Substack app and then click here)
• Thu, Sep 24 at 1pm ET (Download the Substack app and then click here)
• Thu, Oct 22 at 1pm ET (Download the Substack app and then click here)

Free ad-supported episodes: please email us if you hear any advertisements that are out of alignment with our brand (e.g. diet programs, GLP-1 meds, supplements, etc.)

Ask a question of your own for a chance to have it answered in a future episode!

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Christy answers an audience question about whether artificial food colorings and other additives really have any impact on ADHD. This episode was originally published in November 2024.

Get full show notes and references on Substack, and upgrade to a paid subscription for lots more like this!

Ask a question of your own for a chance to have it answered in a future episode.

Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, is available wherever books are sold. Order it here, or ask for it in your favorite local bookstore.

If you're looking to make peace with food and break free from diet and wellness culture, check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy