54 min
The Aesthetics of Wellness: Christine Byrne on Wellness, Diet Culture, and the Pervasiveness of Health Influencers Social Deconstruction with Pamela Zabala
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- Society & Culture
In this episode I talk to journalist and anti-diet dietitian Christine Byrne. We sat down to talk about and try to define “wellness,” which we determined is a very broad concept that isn’t always defined well. Christine shares how she thinks about wellness in her work and we unpack some of the harmful messages that health influencers share on TikTok and other social media platforms. We also talk about our society’s obsession with measuring and tracking steps, calories, size, etc., and how these practices can be detrimental.
About the Guest
Christine Byrne, MPH, RD, LDN, is a non-diet registered dietitian, recipe developer, and food journalist. She has over a decade of media experience, and splits time between content creation and her eating disorder private practice. Christine has bylined over 1,000 articles and written over 500 recipes for national media outlets like Self Magazine, Food Network, BuzzFeed, EatingWell, HuffPost, Outside, and Women's Health. Her expertise has been featured in dozens of articles, and she has appeared on Good Morning America, Meredith, and NY1.
Although she never promotes dieting or weight loss, Christine is passionate about being a part of the larger conversation on food, health, and inclusivity. Her mission is to show people that food can (and should!) be joyful and stress-free, and that all bodies are good bodies. If you want to learn more about Christine and her work, you can visit her website www.christinejbyrne.com or follow her on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.
If you loved this episode, listen to Episode 4: A Little Extra? That's just my Personality! Meghan on body positivity and creating community.
Extra Reading and Resources
@your.Latina.nutritionist and @black.nutritionist are anti-diet dietitians and nutritionists who focus on helping BIPOC people embrace their culture as they improve their relationship with food.
Belly of the Beast, Da’Shaun L. Harrison https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/670607/belly-of-the-beast-by-dashaun-harrison/
Bad, Fat Black Girl, Sesali Bowen https://www.harpercollins.com/blogs/authors/sesali-bowen
“There is a Difference Between Body Positivity, Body Acceptance, and Fat Acceptance. Here’s Why…”, Michelle V. Scott https://medium.com/@michellevscott/there-is-a-difference-between-body-positivity-body-acceptance-and-fat-acceptance-heres-why-184d6cad90a2
“How the wellness industry is using “clean eating” to sell us diet culture,” Emma Strenner, Vogue (2019) https://www.vogue.in/wellness/content/wellness-industry-is-using-clean-eating-to-sell-us-diet-culture
The False Promise of Wellness Culture, Daniela Blei, JStor (2017) https://daily.jstor.org/the-false-promises-of-wellness-culture/
Wellness Culture Won’t Save Us. It’s Only Making us More Sick, Sadhbh O’Sullivan, Refinery29 (2021) https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/wellness-industry-issues-perfectionism
Make sure you subscribe, follow rate and review so that you can receive new episode notifications as soon as they're released. You can also follow social deconstruction on Instagram and Twitter and find more information as well as episodes and show notes on the website: www.socialdeconstruction.com
In this episode I talk to journalist and anti-diet dietitian Christine Byrne. We sat down to talk about and try to define “wellness,” which we determined is a very broad concept that isn’t always defined well. Christine shares how she thinks about wellness in her work and we unpack some of the harmful messages that health influencers share on TikTok and other social media platforms. We also talk about our society’s obsession with measuring and tracking steps, calories, size, etc., and how these practices can be detrimental.
About the Guest
Christine Byrne, MPH, RD, LDN, is a non-diet registered dietitian, recipe developer, and food journalist. She has over a decade of media experience, and splits time between content creation and her eating disorder private practice. Christine has bylined over 1,000 articles and written over 500 recipes for national media outlets like Self Magazine, Food Network, BuzzFeed, EatingWell, HuffPost, Outside, and Women's Health. Her expertise has been featured in dozens of articles, and she has appeared on Good Morning America, Meredith, and NY1.
Although she never promotes dieting or weight loss, Christine is passionate about being a part of the larger conversation on food, health, and inclusivity. Her mission is to show people that food can (and should!) be joyful and stress-free, and that all bodies are good bodies. If you want to learn more about Christine and her work, you can visit her website www.christinejbyrne.com or follow her on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.
If you loved this episode, listen to Episode 4: A Little Extra? That's just my Personality! Meghan on body positivity and creating community.
Extra Reading and Resources
@your.Latina.nutritionist and @black.nutritionist are anti-diet dietitians and nutritionists who focus on helping BIPOC people embrace their culture as they improve their relationship with food.
Belly of the Beast, Da’Shaun L. Harrison https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/670607/belly-of-the-beast-by-dashaun-harrison/
Bad, Fat Black Girl, Sesali Bowen https://www.harpercollins.com/blogs/authors/sesali-bowen
“There is a Difference Between Body Positivity, Body Acceptance, and Fat Acceptance. Here’s Why…”, Michelle V. Scott https://medium.com/@michellevscott/there-is-a-difference-between-body-positivity-body-acceptance-and-fat-acceptance-heres-why-184d6cad90a2
“How the wellness industry is using “clean eating” to sell us diet culture,” Emma Strenner, Vogue (2019) https://www.vogue.in/wellness/content/wellness-industry-is-using-clean-eating-to-sell-us-diet-culture
The False Promise of Wellness Culture, Daniela Blei, JStor (2017) https://daily.jstor.org/the-false-promises-of-wellness-culture/
Wellness Culture Won’t Save Us. It’s Only Making us More Sick, Sadhbh O’Sullivan, Refinery29 (2021) https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/wellness-industry-issues-perfectionism
Make sure you subscribe, follow rate and review so that you can receive new episode notifications as soon as they're released. You can also follow social deconstruction on Instagram and Twitter and find more information as well as episodes and show notes on the website: www.socialdeconstruction.com
54 min