Finding Freedom with Food with Dietician Shana Spence

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Transcript

An “All-Foods-Fit” Dietitian’s Approach to Finding Freedom with Food

with Shana Minei Spence, MS, RDN, CDN

Nicki Sizemore

Oct 01, 2024

Transcript

Hello, and welcome back to the show! I know I say this a lot, but I love today’s conversation, and I have no doubt you’re going to find it fascinating. I speak with Registered Dietician Nutritionist

Shana Minei Spence

, who describes herself as an “all foods fit” dietician. Shana works in public health and is the author of the new book, Live Nourished: Make Peace with Food, Banish Body Shame, and Reclaim Joy. She’s also the creator of the wildly popular Instagram account @TheNutritionTea, and she has a Substack newsletter by the same name. Her work has appeared in media outlets such as NPR, Good Morning America, Self magazine, and more.

Shana and I explore how we can find more peace and freedom around food through examining our conditioned beliefs around health, nutrition, diet, weight, processed foods, and more. There are so many juicy nuggets of insight in this conversation!

Shana describes the (shocking) history of the BMI tool and why it’s a faulty measurement for health, and she breaks down the concept of “healthism”—the belief that illness is an individual’s fault without taking into account the social factors and systemic inequalities that influence health. Shana also describes how she helps her clients focus on health behaviors as opposed to weight loss, and the benefits of focusing on abundance instead of restriction and control.

As Shana emphasizes, each individual is completely unique, and the way we nourish ourselves should therefore also be unique. This depends on not only our genetics and food preferences, but also on our lifestyles and the realities of our day to day schedules. We talk about processed foods, bringing nuance to a topic that is so often polarizing, as well as the importance of pleasure when it comes to feeding ourselves. Shana also shares an easy trick for bringing more satisfaction into our meals.

I think this conversation will help you feel more liberated from a food system/culture that’s insidiously controlling and often confusing. After all, we are all hardwired to nourish ourselves intuitively, even though it often doesn’t feel that way (as Shana says, without diet culture, intuitive eating would just be called eating!).

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xo, Nicki