Food and Body, Part One
This week on the podcast, Dr. Dan Allender hosts two guests, Matt Tiemeyer, LMHC, and Diane Summers, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD to begin a three-part conversation about the war many of us wage against food and our bodies. Food is something that we engage with on a daily basis and yet can be the cause of much overwhelm and chaos.
In this strange space we find ourselves, food and how we nourish our bodies can become a way of gaining control, particularly for those with stories of harm. Throughout their conversation, you’ll hear how Matt and Diane entered the world of eating disorder recovery, the impact of our trauma stories on our relationship with food, and the insidious influence of diet culture.
“As we engage food, often certain kinds of food, we see them labeled in some contexts as sinful, decadent, indulgent. We have a hard time acknowledging that the desire we have around food, in particular, is innocent.” Matt Tiemeyer
“Diet culture is really the nearly 70 billion dollar industry that is preying on all of us and promoting this sense of inadequacy that we must strive for another body.” Diane Summers
“It’s no accident that evil wants to get under our skin, and the place to engage it is our own bodies. There is no easier place to infect us with shame than to do so around our bodies.” Matt Tiemeyer
“In many ways, we have become ashamed of desire, pleasure, and joy, and have been taught that those experiences are going to lead us astray, that we literally cannot trust our bodies. we were given taste buds for a reason—to experience pleasure with food.” Diane Summers
“We are at war with food, with desire, and with our own shame at the intersection between desire and food and sexuality.” Dr. Dan Allender
Resources
If you are interested in going deeper with the resources mentioned in this podcast:
- Matt Tiemeyer practices at Blue Harbor Counseling
- Diane Summers practices at Hope Nutrition Therapy Center
- Read an interview with Matt, Diane, and their friend Kate about Redeeming Food & Body