Questioning Societal Beauty Standards With The Power of Curiosity and Body Respect with Abbey Roberts

Happy Satiated Saturday! 

This week's podcast episode got me reflecting on harm reduction. Harm reduction is a public health strategy designed to reduce the negative consequences associated with various human behaviors, particularly high-risk activities. It prioritizes minimizing harm rather than solely focusing on eliminating the behavior.  Harm reduction accepts that certain behaviors are part of the world and aims to minimize their harmful effects rather than judging those who engage in them. 

So this got me thinking about dieting as a risky behavior. Studies show that dieting can precede the onset of eating disorders in about 35-75% of cases. Yet, dieting can feel protective in that it may support you in feeling like you can control your body's appearance, fit into society, and facilitate a sense of safety. 

A harm reduction stance on this would be to normalize that dieting is a part of the world, that you get to choose whether you diet or not to control your body's appearance, and would explore how to minimize the harmful effects of dieting. 

In this week's Satiated Podcast episode, I talk with Abbey Roberts, Master's level Registered Dietitian and Exercise Physiologist, about the importance of curiosity and harm reduction when navigating diet culture and body image healing, the harmful effects of social media on body image, challenging beauty standards, diversifying the body shapes you're exposed to, and so much more. 

You can also read the transcript to this week’s episode here: https://www.stephaniemara.com/blog/questioning-societal-beauty-standards

As a reminder, I'm hosting the very first Befriending Your Body Image Challenges with Somatic Eating® Practices Workshop on Saturday, July 13th at 12:30 pm ET.  To learn more and sign up, click ​HERE​: https://satiated.mykajabi.com/offers/EkFBjX2Q

With Compassion and Empathy, 
Stephanie Mara Fox

Keep in touch with Abbey here: 

Website: ⁠https://www.abbeyroberts-rd.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fork.diet.culture/

Contact: abbey@abbeyroberts-rd.com