In this episode of the ANEW Insight Podcast, I sit down with registered dietitian nutritionist, certified eating disorder specialist, and intuitive eating counselor Robyn Goldberg to explore the complex intersection between diet culture, orthorexia, and body image.
Robyn’s decades of clinical experience and her work as author of The Eating Disorder Trap reveal how even “healthy” habits can morph into obsession, how shame still shapes medical care, and why genuine wellness begins with compassion—not control.
Below, I’ve distilled the most powerful insights from our conversation—along with practical tools you can start using today to rebuild body trust and free yourself from the traps of disordered eating.
From Heart Health to Healing Minds: A Journey Toward Food Freedom
Robyn’s path to becoming one of the most respected voices in the eating disorder field began with a family legacy of heart disease. What started as an interest in cardiology and sports nutrition evolved into a deeper mission: helping people repair their relationship with food and body image.
Her clinical roots at Cedars-Sinai in cardiology and gastroenterology grounded her in medical nutrition therapy, but it was her personal exposure to eating disorders among college roommates that reshaped her career trajectory. That experience opened her eyes to the invisible suffering many endure—and the cultural pressures that perpetuate it.
It’s a message that challenges the weight-centric focus of modern health care and invites a more inclusive, compassionate approach.
Inside “The Eating Disorder Trap”: Understanding How We Get Stuck
In her book The Eating Disorder Trap, Robyn uses accessible language and illustrations to explain how perfectionism, control, and misinformation fuel disordered eating.
Her goal was to create a guide for everyone—clinicians, parents, coaches, and friends—because eating disorders rarely exist in isolation. They live in our culture’s obsession with “fixing” the body, in comments about food and weight, and in the unspoken expectation that thinness equals worth.
The book’s imagery—a vortex that lightens as one ascends—symbolizes both the descent into illness and the hopeful climb out through awareness, compassion, and help.
You can explore similar themes in my book Deprogram Diet Culture and my online course at ANEW Insight, where I help readers and clients untangle the same cultural scripts that keep them trapped in the dieting mindset.
The “Clean Eating” Trap and the Rise of Orthorexia
One of the most insidious evolutions of diet culture is the moralization of food—the belief that purity equals health.
Robyn calls out the irony of the “clean eating” trend: “If you want clean food,” she jokes, “put it under the faucet.”
But beneath the humor lies a serious truth. The fixation on purity often spirals into orthorexia nervosa—an unhealthy obsession with eating “right.” Coined by Dr. Steven Bratman, orthorexia describes the point where striving for wellness leads to anxiety, isolation, and nutritional deficiency.
People suffering from orthorexia may:
- Fear eating anything “non-organic” or “non-paleo”
- Avoid social situations involving food
- Feel guilt or panic if meals fall outside rigid “health” rules
It’s not just about food—it’s about control, fear, and identity.
The antidote? Flexibility and curiosity.
As both Robyn and I discuss, mindful eating is not about rules—it’s about awareness. It’s the ability to ask, “What does my body truly need right now?” rather than, “What should I avoid?”
How Environment and Culture Shape Our Eating Mindset
Robyn jokes that avoiding orthorexia might start with “not living in Los Angeles,” but the larger truth is that environment shapes behavior. Whether it’s Hollywood’s perfectionism or social media’s filtered ideals, we are surrounded by triggers that distort body image and fuel comparison.
Having grown up in Colorado, I shared how my early relationship with food was natural and intuitive—until I moved to LA and entered an environment where external appearance often defines personal value. The shift was palpable, and it mirrors what many clients experience in their own lives.
Social media has become a global amplifier of this pressure. Algorithms reward comparison, while influencers sell “clean” or “detox” lifestyles that often hide restriction and shame.
Reclaiming peace around food means curating what you consume online as intentionally as what you eat. Unfollow accounts that breed guilt, and fill your feed with messages that celebrate authenticity, diversity, and body neutrality.
Integrating Intuitive Eating with Medical Nutrition Therapy
Robyn bridges her clinical background with the philosophy of Health at Every Size (HAES)—a framework that challenges the assumption that thin equals healthy.
Whether she’s treating diabetes, renal disease, or disordered eating, her first step is helping clients rebuild trust with their bodies. This means experimenting, noticing, and learning rather than fearing or restricting.
She teaches that true healing happens when people become curious observers of their body’s cues:
- “How do I feel after this meal?”
- “Is my body giving me signals of fullness or fatigue?”
- “Am I eating from hunger, habit, or emotion?”
These are the same foundational questions we explore in my Deprogram Diet Culture online course—a program designed to help you reject diet mentality and reawaken your body’s wisdom.
Reclaiming Joy: Food, Self-Compassion, and Vitamin J
For many clients, years of restriction or shame have replaced pleasure with fear. Robyn reframes this by introducing “Vitamin J”—joy. All bodies deserve foods that bring satisfaction, not just sustenance.
Healing means allowing chips, cookies, or gummy bears without guilt—not as rebellion, but as integration. Food can be both fuel and joy.
As Robyn explains, recovery is not linear. It’s like a waltz: two steps forward, one step back. Progress comes from curiosity, not perfectionism.
Healing the Medical Model: Changing How Professionals Talk About Weight
One of the most powerful themes in this conversation is medical misinformation. Many clients arrive at her office with lists of forbidden foods prescribed by well-meaning doctors who never studied nutrition in depth.
Together, we explore how language in medicine perpetuates stigma. Labeling patients as “obese” or prescribing weight loss without addressing emotional, behavioral, or environmental context only deepens shame—and often worsens health outcomes.
Instead, Robyn advocates for weight-neutral care—focusing on behaviors, lab values, and mental well-being rather than numbers on a scale.
As I share in Deprogram Diet Culture, true health is not defined by size but by sustainable habits and self-compassion. When we dismantle weight stigma, we create space for real healing—physical, psychological, and social.
Key Takeaways
- You can’t see an eating disorder by looking. They exist across all body types, genders, and ages.
- “Clean eating” can become a trap. Orthorexia disguises restriction as virtue.
- Curiosity is the cure. Approach food and body cues with observation, not judgment.
- Joy is nourishment too. Food pleasure is part of psychological health.
- Weight-neutral care saves lives. Health at Every Size is not anti-health—it’s pro-humanity.
Continue the Conversation
🎧 Listen to Part 1 of the ANEW Insight Podcast featuring this discussion on The Eating Disorder Trap and stay tuned for Part 2.
📘 Read my book Deprogram Diet Culture: Rethink Your Relationship with Food, Heal Your Mind, and Live a Diet-Free Life.
🎓 Explore the Deprogram Diet Culture Course to rebuild body trust, regulate your nervous system, and achieve lasting wellness—without dieting.
Here is the full transcript:
[00:00:00]
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Welcome to the ANEW Insight podcast. I am honored to have registered dietitian nutritionist, certified eating disorder specialist, and Intuitive eating counselor Robyn Goldberg with us today, Robyn, welcome.
Robyn Goldberg: Thank you so much for having me.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: I’m so excited to pick your brain. Robyn is very well known in her field, and I am very excited to have her on my podcast to discuss all things disordered eating and eating disorder.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: So that we can help some people out there who might be struggling. And remember, if you do, there’s going to be some links and some numbers you can call if you are thinking that you or a loved one might have an eating disorder. So I’m gonna read a little bit about Robyn, and then we’re gonna get into our questions.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Robyn Goldberg is a registered dietitian nutritionist, certified eating disorder specialist, [00:01:00] intuitive eating counselor and Health at Every Size or HAES practitioner. She began her career at Cedar-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles focusing on cardiology and gastroenterology before transitioning into private practice.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: For more than 20 years, she has worked with individuals struggling with medical conditions, eating disorders, disordered eating, and body image concerns. Her private practice in Beverly Hills also serves individuals with dual diagnoses, fertility issues, and those recovering from chronic dieting. That is a lot of what I see in my practice as well.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: She provides supervision to other professionals, speaks nationally at conferences and contributes to media outlets, including the New York Times, Shape and Today’s Dietitian. Robyn is also the author of the Eating Disorder Trap, A Guide for Clinicians and Loved Ones and has been featured in numerous television and podcast [00:02:00] interviews.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Robyn, welcome to my podcast.
Robyn Goldberg: Thank you. It’s exciting to be here with you.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Yes, definitely. So I always like to start off with a little bit of background so people understand what inspired you to take the route that you’re taking, what led you to doing the work that you’re doing now. And I’d also love to hear more about your book.
Robyn Goldberg: Sure. So I chose my profession based on my family history of heart disease and high cholesterol. My dad was alive at the time and growing up, always hearing about, hyperlipidemia. Everyone in my family hereditarily has it. I’ve had it since I was 12. And it was just the message, that we grew up with.
Robyn Goldberg: And I initially started out as an exercise physiology major, but couldn’t handle the cadavers in schools. So I migrated into dietetics. As I, realized I was a collegiate tennis player, that I was, that was it. My career was ending in [00:03:00] college. I was not gonna be professional.
Robyn Goldberg: So really had to kind of figure out what my career path would be moving forward. So my family history is what initially inspired me to choose the path of dietetics.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Oh, I love that. I think we do have some similarities as well. I started in the fitness industry myself and I can really relate to working on the cadavers. That was not not something that I enjoyed, something that was very educational, but certainly wasn’t a path that I wanted to go down. And dietetics just, provided the healthcare without the access to fluids and things like that.
Robyn Goldberg: For sure. I mean, it was really like, okay, if I actually think about what I’m putting in my body, perhaps my performance will be better or different and have a different outcome. And that was discussed
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Yes.
Robyn Goldberg: too. So that was, another kind of motivating factor. I.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: I love this. How did you transition then? You went from [00:04:00] Cedar-Sinai doing, some more medical nutrition therapy and transferred into private practice and started to work with eating disorders and wrote your book, and I’d love to hear a little bit more about that.
Robyn Goldberg: Sure. So I knew from the time I was in school I wanted to be in private practice, but it was told to me repeatedly, you can’t just like hang up your shingle. It’s important to be able to obtain that experience. So I gave myself a five year benchmark of really trying to become well-versed, well-rounded, and just obtain as much experience as I could.
Robyn Goldberg: As when I started out, I only wanted to be, the dietitian for the Lakers. Always wanted to work in sports nutrition, and I, it’s really awesome to see how I’ve expanded and I have many interests in area of specializations and I, had worked at the same time, actually, I was the nutrition director at an outpatient eating disorder program and IOP, and that actually that [00:05:00] interest started because three of my roommates, when I was at Sonoma State, that’s where I started playing tennis all had bulimia nervosa. So I would fall asleep at night to them purging. And that was my exposure and introduction initially. So I knew, private practice would be the long haul it was obtaining that experience. And as, as Supatra when we start out, we really wanna be able to get as much experience as we can so then we can really hone in on what our niche would be.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Yes, absolutely. So how did your work transition into your authoring your book?
Robyn Goldberg: So throughout my career, probably similarly to you, you’ll hear colleagues and friends and family say, well, when are you gonna put out a book? And I’ve always been like, I would say the publicist for, all of our colleagues promoting this book and that book. And I had decided if I was ever going to write a book, I wanted to write a book that [00:06:00] was different from the books that existed in the field. And what I mean by that is A, something that could be user friendly to all, not just clinicians, not just family members. B written in a way that. You don’t have to have a PhD. It could be, the checker at the grocery store could read.
Robyn Goldberg: And I decided, growing up, my brother was an avid comic book collector and I found, being a visual learner, seeing pictures oftentimes could describe something if one was not able to comprehend what the message would be. So I had interviewed illustrators that could embrace, all different body shapes and sizes and really be inclusive to all, as opposed to the typical stigmatizing illustrator where it’s like a large head and smaller body.
Robyn Goldberg: So I had decided I really had a variety of topics I wanted to discuss and to be able to have illustrations [00:07:00] before each subject matter that can then be a deep dive in on what that subject matter would be written in a very general, basic way.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: I love this. I, and I agree with you, that’s how I wrote my book. I wanted it to be accessible for everyone and something that was easily digestible and pretty clear cut for anybody who picks that up. So what do you hope people get out of reading your book?
Robyn Goldberg: Well, I think to be able to first understand that you can’t look at someone and determine if they have an eating disorder since eating disorders affect all ages, all genders, all body shapes and sizes as opposed to the assumption that it’s a specific individual that has an eating disorder. So I always like to say you walk into a room, anyone in that room could have an eating disorder.
Robyn Goldberg: You, you walk into a grocery store, anyone in there could have one. So that’s the first part. Also, [00:08:00] questions that would be beneficial if you are a coach, if you are a religious figure, if you are a physician, that can be beneficial to incorporate in your conversations with folks as well as body language, I think can be very telling, like really learning how to be mindful and change the body language. Because sometimes that could be very activating for people and also really to understand like what’s going on through one’s mind and medically how every body part is impacted. So there was a lot, I was really hoping to achieve.
Robyn Goldberg: And look, I feel like anyone that picks it up, it can help ’em, whether they’re a client or they have a loved one struggling or they’re a guardian.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Yes. How did you come up with the title of your book?
Robyn Goldberg: Good question. I don’t think anyone’s asked me that before. Well, the original title I’m gonna tell you, so I was working with a trademark [00:09:00] lawyer and I learned that you can’t just like pick a title. It has to be researched to see if it is available. So the original title and I’m glad I have my title was actually the Hunger Games. So. My trademark lawyer was in touch with the Hunger Games trademark lawyer. I had a whole email with the author, and as I had explained like what this was about, of course there was a no go based on like, because the book, the film. So, by looking and I’ll just grab. So on the Eating Disorder Trap.
Robyn Goldberg: So there’s a number of things I learned between metaphor of color and in it. So the background, I’m not sure if you can tell what the background actually is, Supatra, but the background is a vortex. It’s the black hole and this is showing that a person’s going down and [00:10:00] so as you are going up, the color lightens and this shows that there is hope and there is a way out trap is like you’re in serious trouble. So I, I learned probably like you, that you want to have a catchy title, not have so many words. And I had a number of titles that I was between, but this was actually it and the vortex was my husband’s brainchild because initially when I had hired the designer for the book cover, first the covers, I was like no.
Robyn Goldberg: This looks like an astrology science book in the galaxy. So it’s really cool to see how it came to life, and that’s just kind of a snapshot in how I came up with the title and the whole design.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Yes. And I think that there is a certain trap that people fall into when they’re kind of descending toward an eating disorder. And if you [00:11:00] could identify some of the traps that people might fall into, what would they be?
Robyn Goldberg: I think one of the ones that’s very common right now is this term with like clean eating. I always like to say, and I joke when I say this to clients, if you are wanting clean food, put it under the faucet. Give it a rinse. But I think, diet culture has marketed and branded and I was listening to someone yesterday and probably at least six times in like 10 minutes, he was like, well, when I’m eating clean and clean it’s, I think unfortunately people have these feelings. If they’re not eating a certain way, then they have failed and they are kind of going down this dark path. So I think that’s one of one of the areas for sure. I think also people looking quote unquote [00:12:00] normal or living in larger bodies and their providers or friends have no idea that they have disordered eating or thinking. Or they could be pretty entrenched in self obstructive behaviors, and because they like look normal, they don’t appear emaciated. And that might not be just what their body’s, geography is
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Yeah, exactly.
Robyn Goldberg: geography.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: yeah, I identify some of the same, traps that people might fall into, such as clean eating, which then leads to something I think more insidious, especially if it’s causing a lot of distress and impairment, which is orthorexia nervosa. Now, a lot of people don’t know what that is, and it’s certainly not in the DSM, although it should be, and pretty much every dietitian and clinician agrees with that.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: But how does clean eating transfer into Orthorexia. And what? Define Orthorexia [00:13:00] for our listeners.
Robyn Goldberg: Yeah. So orthorexia nervosa is the obsession to eat healthy. It’s taking health to an uber unhealthy place. The term was coined by Dr. Steven Bratman and there’s, and I look in my bookshelf ’cause I’m like, oh, the book is yellow now. That’s how old it is. Health food junkies, the obsession to eat healthy, and we’re basically it’s taking the pleasure away from eating where a person has become extremely rigid, where it has to be organic, it has to be paleo, it has all these rigid parameters, and if it does not fall within these parameters, then they’re essentially paralyzed and not able to be flexible and adaptable and eat choices that would be available if it doesn’t fall within this like healthism to the oomph degree where they literally are not able to live full and rich lives
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Yes, absolutely, and I have a few clients that have suffered from this. [00:14:00] I would be very curious on the diet.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Well, I have presentations across the board for sure and have had several, but I would be really curious from your standpoint and from the dietetic standpoint, what are some helpful and effective ways to steer yourself clear from orthorexia or, if you’re in that kind of clean eating health movement, how you can keep from going down into that spiral towards orthorexia.
Robyn Goldberg: So I’m gonna add a little humor to that because at first my initial reaction was like, don’t live in Los Angeles. Don’t be in Beverly Hills. I mean, I was listening to a client the other day, who’s going to college here, who is from the Midwest, and he told me his clean eating, his eating disorder has exacerbated since coming here as opposed to, so I was joking, but I’m being serious [00:15:00] because I think when you’re in large mainstream cities, especially we’re, we’re in the land of entertainment and Hollywood, even if you do not work in that industry, it’s like we are bombarded by it.
Robyn Goldberg: I think there is an additional pressure to eat or look or be a certain way. So I think really having horse blinders on, and I say this because when you leave this little 5 mile bubble still, it’s maybe a little different, but it’s like. Go out, into the Midwest, go. I mean it’s, I just think, and I don’t know if you’re from LA but I was born and raised in Beverly Hills, so I have like lived in it and seen the changes, but lived in other states for my dietetic internship and college, et cetera.
Robyn Goldberg: So I think it’s really eye-opening when, like when I lived in the South for my [00:16:00] dietetic internship it was very different. And I remember my father would always say to me, when I moved to Virginia for that year and a half dietetic internship, every girl that grows up in Beverly Hills should have this experience because I had a rotation in the state penitentiary.
Robyn Goldberg: I mean, I was in, there was not an Erewhon, Whole Foods was not in existence. It was Mrs. Gucci’s. It was just very like, normal and not hyped up where you feel like. You have to be put together to, to go to a grocery store
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Oh my gosh, I can totally relate. I’m not from Los Angeles, I’m from Colorado, and the emphasis growing up it really wasn’t that. I’m very lucky to grow up in Boulder and it was just a really diverse group of people and very sporty. So if anything, it was just like we were,
Robyn Goldberg: athletic and it’s like where
Dr. Supatra Tovar: yeah.
Robyn Goldberg: I should have been.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Yes, exactly. It was it was a really lovely place to grow [00:17:00] up and then wasn’t devoid of people suffering from eating disorders.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Actually the person that inspired me to do this work was somebody from my hometown who experienced bulimia nervosa like you did with your your classmates, and, I was shocked ’cause I had no idea you could have a problem with food. I just ate and then I was not hungry and I, I stopped eating and it just was natural.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: And it was very eye-opening.
Robyn Goldberg: day and thoughts basically is what
Dr. Supatra Tovar: No. But not until moving out here. That, and I, I worked in the entertainment industry. I came from that in Colorado and in Colorado it really wasn’t. Like it was out here. You just, and my emphasis wasn’t on, being as skinny as I could possibly be or anything like that.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: But moving out here, certainly everything was so centered around looks and really when you look at that kind of ideal, it was all emaciation at the time. The [00:18:00] thinness was like so extreme. Kind of what we’re back to now, which I wanna talk to you about in the second half of this podcast really wanna get into what’s happening culturally now.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: But it was, just a quagmire of, lookism and weightism, and so there’s so many reasons, but you don’t even have to live in Los Angeles. You really just have to be on social media, honestly, to start to acquire some of these more negative thought patterns, these behaviors, and all of the, horrible emotions that come from
Dr. Supatra Tovar: consuming content that is really destructive to our mental health. And that’s something I, talk about in my book and certainly that’s the work I do a lot with my clients is how to like put those horse blinders on. I think it’s so important and I think it’s so important that people understand that they can curate
Dr. Supatra Tovar: their social media feed, they can really start to like weed out the influences that are making them feel terrible and put in the more [00:19:00] inspiring content like Kevin Bacon singing to his goats. That’s like one of my favorite things on earth. But back to your, the way that you treat people. You do integrate medical nutrition therapy, intuitive eating and HAES Health at Every Size principles.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: How does this help people across all of the spectrum of eating disorders?
Robyn Goldberg: I’m glad that you asked that Supatra because since coming from I would say the University of Cedar-Sinai. I see many people with medical issues, and when I started my career is when the first edition of Intuitive Eating came out. So for example, when you’re seeing someone who’s in renal insufficiency and they’re trying to avoid dialysis, they’re not going to physically feel if they are having more protein than their kidneys will handle, as opposed to if you’re someone with [00:20:00] diabetes, you’re able to physically, especially as you’re paying attention to your body, be more aware when your glucose levels are rising due to having more grams of carbohydrate than your body’s capable of of, burning off essentially.
Robyn Goldberg: So, I teach all my clients, whether they’re, medical nutrition therapy or, disordered eating or eating disorders they all learn how to be intuitive eaters. And I say this because for many of them, they’ve had fear instilled into them by their physician of being, given a laundry list of don’t eat this. Don’t eat that. So I find a lot of my job is to repair their thoughts and have them not be fearful of food with
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Yes.
Robyn Goldberg: with reeducating them, especially when they’ve been like given a handout and they’re like, well, I was told don’t eat this. Isn’t this quote unquote bad for me? So I feel like I’m putting out a lot of fires.
Robyn Goldberg: And, giving them [00:21:00] the choice to say like, you know what, let’s experiment. Let’s see what it would feel like. When you’re having more of X, Y, and Z. Do you feel like you’re, having more loose stools? Are you having a flare up with your Crohn’s, with your colitis? So I really like to approach it from that angle with. having them go through the place of curiosity and, being able to quiet that inner critic of course takes time. But really being able to look at like, no one knows what works best for your body, but you, I don’t live in your body, your doctor doesn’t live in your body. And really being able to create a sense of kindness and self-compassion, really, because I think like when we’re critical and judgmental, where does that get us? So I really like to, celebrate the wins with whomever I’m sitting with, no matter how small or how large they are. Like, I was, discussing with a client two days ago, I see a lot of males, I’m thinking of another male. And he was, talking about how, there was not this specific binge that happened [00:22:00] and he was speaking about what he had done and I was like, look, there’s like three things you just described that were you actively trying to be in the moment and think about what you could differently.
Robyn Goldberg: And I think oftentimes, if one has this idea sort of like the orthorexia part, if they’re not doing it quote unquote perfectly or to these standards, they have failed. And as, as I always like to speak about, and there’s that, famous illustration that, speaks about how recovery’s not linear. I describe it as the waltz. You’re taking several steps forward, you’re taking several steps backwards, and you’re going to have more forwards over time. But it is definitely up and down and cyclical.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Yes. Oh my goodness. You and I are so aligned. I think that one area that people , when they struggle with disordered eating or eating disorders, is actually becoming kind of dissociated from their body. They’re not listening to their hunger cues. They’re often not listening to their fullness cues as well, [00:23:00] and they
Dr. Supatra Tovar: tend to intellectualize their, kind of health journey as opposed to embody their health journey. And when they start to reconnect with their body and actually learn how to trust their body signals. I like to say sometimes the mind can be a jerk, but the body really loves you. When they really understand all of the signals that are coming from their body.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: And that’s where their, mindfulness and intuitiveness plays a key role, they can start to become their own best expert and understand exactly what their body needs because your body’s just going to tell you that. And I think looking at that from that Health at Every Size lens, really trying to kind.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Dis, erase the old medical model of, thinness equals health because we know that’s actually not true. We do know that if you do, go past a certain point in terms of obesity, you [00:24:00] are more prone to, metabolic disorders and things like that, but that doesn’t necessarily translate for everybody.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: And I think that’s where medicine can get it wrong. And I really like what you say about, people coming in, they have their do’s and don’ts from their doctors. I find that as dietitians and me as a psychologist and dietitian, I’m kind of constantly coming across misinformation coming from the medical community, especially when it comes to weight loss and nutrition.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: So before we end this half of the podcast, how do you help clients navigate that? If they’re coming in and they’re receiving advice from their doctor, but their Dr. may actually be giving some misinformation?
Robyn Goldberg: So the first thing I always like to say, because I find this kind of has carried over just with, and other providers. So, I liked to use the term larger bodies and [00:25:00] smaller bodies because it’s offensive and stigmatizing to call someone, quote unquote obese. So it’s different if they, identify as I am, quote unquote, a fat person. But with many people having lack of confidence and trust in their bodies, they will fall down, this path or go down this path of, oh, my doctor’s right? Saying, like, I’m at this size, I, I’m not worthy and deserving to eat food that tastes delicious to me. So I really like to educate and reframe that, all bodies deserve to be able to have food that nourishes them. Also all bodies deserve to have what I call vitamin J food that gives them joy. It’s fun. Whether it’s chips or gummy bears, I think really looking at will that give me long-term sustaining energy is, the [00:26:00] way my sandwich would. No. But to be able to say and I think part of it too is if we’re quote unquote picky ears, which I know we’re gonna talk about, or if there was this, restriction or being denied or not having access to it, a younger part in their life where they were not, allowed to eat these different foods. I have many adults that have, the pallets of children because they want to eat what they want when they want and not have anyone tell ’em that they can or cannot have it, or, we don’t have access.
Robyn Goldberg: To it as well. So it’s really being able to look at like, do you feel like this is gonna allow you to focus when you’re at work? Is it giving you brain power when you’re studying for exams? Is it affecting your sleep? So I really get into just essential like existence and how you are feeling when you’re eating gummy bears and chips all day long with, caffeine as opposed to having like real food.
Robyn Goldberg: You’re having [00:27:00] sandwiches, you’re having a burrito, you’re having a bowl, you’re having a salad, et cetera, and being able to explain like what that looks like.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Absolutely. And I think, we as dietitians can also gently help to educate doctors who may not necessarily have as much nutritional education. I remember during my, my dietetics no, this was actually when I was working as a clinical dietitian. One lady who was in a coma for actually quite a while was only getting IV fluids.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: And this was on her perhaps like seventh day. And I was trying to explain to the doctor that she needed to get on some, medical nutrition therapy. And he he said to me, well, it’s okay. She can just live off her fat stores. And so I had to have a sit down moment with him and explain to him exactly why she needed nutrition.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: And I think if we can help the medical [00:28:00] community de-stigmatize the way you know that people in larger bodies are treated, we certainly can improve their health outcomes better than we can ever do by shaming them. So I’m so glad that you’re doing this work and it is so important. I can’t believe we’re out of time.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: I have so many questions for you and like I said, we were just gonna riff and we did. So you’re gonna come back for the second half of this podcast interview and you all, we are so honored to have registered dietitian nutritionist, certified eating disorder specialist, intuitive eating counselor, and HAES practitioner Robyn Goldberg.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: So come back everyone for the second half. Thanks Robyn.
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