EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Content may be slightly edited for clarity.
Bey
Hello, and welcome to So Curious!, presented by the Franklin Institute.
Angelica
In this season, Human 2.0, we will be talking to scientists and non-scientists about technology, innovation and human experience. We are your hosts. I’m Angelica Pasquini.
Bey
And I’m The Bul Bey. You can call me Bey.
Angelica
On today’s episode, we’re going to be talking to dietitian Rabiya Bower, and Philadelphia farmer Christa Barfield.
Angelica
Wellness.
Bey
Yeah. Well, well, well.
Angelica
I mean, what a topic! Well, to be well. What do you think it means to be well?
Bey
You know, it’s always interesting talking about this because it’s like, by whose perspective? My perspective of wellness is really more of your internal disposition. You know, are you waking up raging? But then, that doesn’t seem well to me. And maybe you could look at, you know, what your appetites, what your appetite is, what your habits and rituals and things like that. But what’s wellness to you?
Angelica
Yeah, it’s a feeling.
Bey
Yeah.
Angelica
I think it’s like, you know, when you’re not well, and then that’s when you start seeking wellness.
Bey
I mean, sometimes you can, like, see a rash on your hand and be like, that’s not well.
Right.
Angelica
Exactly. And then I think it’s funny to say doing well or doing not well. You know, it’s like, well, but I think that wellness generally is a mental and physical and spiritual alignment. You know? And, you know, when you feel it and you know when you don’t, but I think it’s really important to remember that you’re not going to always feel well. And that that’s not the goal of life –
Bey
Right.
Angelica
Because sometimes this pursuit of wellness is a little like, all right, take it easy, in my opinion, because in times that I felt unwell, either spiritually, mentally or physically, I’ve learned a lot.
Bey
Absolutely. Sometimes it’s hard to accept that there are going to be moments when you don’t feel the best, and that is also a part of the human experience. And then the human experience is just a funny thing because when you pull back the veil, the hood, whatever analogy you want to use, there’s actual science there. Eat this, try that. You know, maybe look at less of these colors, cause don’t colors change your mindset –
Angelica
Yeah.
Bey
and how you might feel physically. There’s a ton of stuff. And is there actual science there?
Angelica
Yeah. I mean, that’s such a good question. And I think a lot of it comes down to what we fuel our body with.
Bey
Right.
Angelica
Even not only food wise, but also messaging.
Bey
Yeah.
Angelica
But when it comes to the brass tacks of the science, we are animals, and what we put into our bodies is going to affect everything.
Bey
Yeah. You know, I’ve heard someone say a long time ago, again in the fitness space where I’ve been lately, like, food isn’t fun, food is fuel.
Angelica
Oh, gosh.
Bey
And I was like, this guy’s a little wacky. But there is actual, you know, truth to that statement. Food is fuel and you are what you eat. We’ve heard these things before, right? And it’s important to at least be mindful of whatever you’re taking in. Whether it be a solid, a liquid, and sometimes, you know, visuals.
Angelica
Yeah. And also, people have really varying opinions on this when it comes to things like what to eat and what’s good for you. Quote, unquote good.
Bey
And how a body should look and move.
Angelica
Right, exactly. I think it’s time we talk to someone who knows quite a bit about wellness and how this impacts a community.
Bey
Our first guest, Christa Barfield, is a healthcare professional turned farmer and lifelong Philadelphia resident. It was important for her to take back her life, health and happiness, not only for herself. She connects with the land, plant life, and social issues that heavily impact Black and Brown communities. Her original two ventures are Viva Leaf Tea Company and Farmer Jones.
Christa
So my name is Christa Barfield. I am from Philadelphia, G Town in the house.
Angelica
Hi, and welcome, Christa. Can you introduce yourself?
Christa
I’m a farmer, healthcare worker turned farmer almost four years ago. Now, in January 2018, is when I changed my life and started to look at wellness a lot different and started to really just hone in on myself. And that’s what led me to where I am now. Farming food, feeding people, helping people to understand the importance of equity and education, inequality in outdoor spaces, and specifically, the power of growing food and manipulating soil.
Angelica
Amazing. And so you said you had a health care profession past?
Christa
I worked in healthcare for ten years. My degree is in healthcare administration. So I always knew I was going to be in healthcare. I was raised by a clinician. My mother, she was a nurse my entire life. And then she about four years ago, got her doctorate of nursing practice, and now she’s a doctor. And so healthcare has always been a major part and joy of mine. Got to my college and went into their bio program, and within a semester, I knew that I was not going to be a doctor.
Bey
Sometimes that realization hits you hard. It’s beautiful, though.
Christa
Yeah. Like, I knew that wasn’t it. But I still love science. I always had this major passion for it. Never did I ever touch dirt and think that how plants work would excite me as much as it does now.
Bey
What fundamental change in your attitude do you think took place along your journey from working in the healthcare field to advocating for urban agriculture and getting more people outside and interacting with their food?
Christa
Working in that field for ten years, I eventually just got burnt out. And that just, you know, speaks to why wellness has now led me here. And for me, at that point 4 years ago was the lack of wellness. I wasn’t in tune with myself. I wasn’t paying attention to my needs. And so therefore, it led me to a breaking point where, you know, I walked into work one day, read an email, and I was like, okay, this is it for me. So I decided to resign from that job. And within the next day, literally one day of my last day of work, I was on a plane to Martinique, French Caribbean, by myself, never been out of the country before, so first stamp on my passport, and I was alone. It was just this amazing experience that I had no expectation, what was going to hit me next.
Angelica
Wow.
Bey
You just left?
Christa
Yes, I was outta there.
Angelica
How old were you when you left?
Christa
30. 30. Yeah.
Angelica
I think that’s really cool for people to hear because a lot, our society is so obsessed with people in their early 20s making these huge life decisions and then following it until they die, so –
Christa
Yes.
Angelica
what I like about this story is like you can turn the page at 30 and start something entirely new.
Christa
Yeah.
Bey
I’m curious to hear more about your story and also how you think getting back to soil and dirt changed your behavior.
Christa
You know, it’s this powerful thing that plants do. They do what they want. They are Mother Nature. They do what they need to do for themselves in order for them to grow. And yes, your environment, and their environment, does impact that because they have certain needs as well. And so when I look at it from a human standpoint and from our own wellness, I was in an environment where I was always a yes person. I was always making sure that everyone else was okay and never was I taking care of myself. I wasn’t in a space where my surroundings took care of me. I had to rely heavily on myself, and I wasn’t being fed by anything or anyone around me. And so therefore, I was literally dying.
Angelica
This analogy of the human and the plant is powerful.
Christa
And so that’s what I mean by that is, I realize now having this relationship with plants, I realized what I wasn’t receiving. And because I wasn’t receiving what I needed, I also realized what I wasn’t giving.
Angelica
I’m just curious about the receiving aspect that you’re talking about. Would you have any advice on if someone’s uncomfortable receiving or hasn’t really received before, like how to even do that?
Christa
Yeah. Honestly, you have to just sit in and listen to yourself, listen to your own needs, and be comfortable in saying no.
Bey
You know, I, like you, I’m a lifelong Philadelphia, so I’m really excited to get to ask you this. Your company name is Farmer Jawn.
Christa
Yeah.
Bey
Can you talk a little bit about the inherent connection to Philadelphia, why urban agriculture here is so important to you? And also, you got to explain jawn.
Christa
Yes, yes. I love my city. That’s just first and foremost, I feel so much passion and connection to being from here because it literally created who I am. I was able to take all the amazing parts of Philadelphia, but also learn from the not so great. And it has definitely taught me what we need as a society and help me to answer questions about how we get what we need. Being from Philly, I feel like we have a lot going on in our city right now. There’s a lot of hurt, there’s a lot of pain and trauma. And I want to figure out ways that can affect change on that. And I do believe that urban agriculture is that because it fills so many needs and one being obviously providing food, but not just food, it’s organic and nutrient dense foods and then just needs, you know, needs for basic things that we need, like our clothing, our homes and, you know, things that we eat and drink, our consumption. It’s amazing the power when people know that what they need is so close. When you actually dig in and think about that, every need that you have comes from a plant. So how powerful would it be if you were actually growing and you knew how to grow, if you just had the basic knowledge of it, or if you knew a farmer that could help you and you could go to to get the things that you need?
Bey
I love it, I love it. And really quick for the general audience – what is a jawn?
Christa
A jawn – person, place or thing. I mean, in Philly, it just means anything or whatever, right? So when I came up with that name, Farmer Jawn, it really meant to me that anybody can farm. Knowing where your food comes from is so dope. It’s such an opportunity and a privilege to know where your food comes from. It really is. Farmer Jawn is an agricultural enterprise that focuses on the reintroduction of farming into the lifestyles of urban people.
Angelica
And urban agriculture is something you’re super passionate about. Can you break down more specifically for someone who does not know what that is?
Christa
Urban agriculture is farming within city limits, is what I consider urban agriculture to be. So in and around the city.
Angelica
Your farm is in Philly.
Christa
We’re a multi-farm company, and so we have one in Roxborough that we’ve had for almost full four years. And we also just was able to get this land up in Elkins Park, which is really dope – it’s five acres of land on 42 acres of land. And this just really amazing estate up there that we’re going to get to be a part of.
Bey
Now, I’ve been lucky enough to see you speak in other settings. You’ve talked about reimagining the corner store. Can you talk about that a little bit? What does that look like?
Christa
Everybody knows what a corner store is. It’s essentially a convenience spot. And convenience connects directly, unfortunately, in America, to things that are unhealthy. Think about fast food chains. And because it is so close to people’s homes, because it’s typically the closest store that has, quote, unquote, groceries in it, it’s the easiest and the fastest. You know, it tends to be more unhealthy because you’re having options of boxed items that are processed. You’re having canned items that are full of sodium, not a lot of fresh options, if any at all, in these spaces. So reimagining the corner stores, this project that I’m calling the “grow-dega”. And that really focuses on not only providing a space where people can have optics of what a farm looks like on a nano level, but also it allows them to get some prepared food items and will also be able to accept EBT, which is also really important for communities where these corner stores are located.
Bey
You’re saying things will be grown at the actual location?
Christa
Yup. So think about a 2000 square foot lot that’s completely empty. You put a shipping container on it that serves as a stationary food truck. And then right next to that, you have a space where you have food growing, literally right there. So people can see and understand that. Yes, you, too, deserve agriculture. You, too, deserve a farm in your community, not just the green space. You can see that where food is growing, and you can understand better where food comes from because you’re looking at it.
Angelica
The first thought I had because I’m a New York girl, I’m like someone’s just going to take the food that’s growing.
Christa
So I will tell you that ours will, we will have a fence because we just have to but it’ll have open hours because it’s a business.
Angelica
Yeah, it’s a business.
Christa
So it’s open hours, and it’s not like you can’t come in, you know what I mean?
Angelica
Yeah.
Christa
It’s not like you have to spend money here to be able to be a part. It’s not like that at all. So it’s going to be a very welcoming environment. But the other part of it is that it’s a commercial space. There’s transactions happening here, and transactions also offer welcome-ness. They just do. People feel more welcome in spaces where they spend their hard-earned dollar. And so we give them a safe space to do that in an environment that they know is also giving back, and it’s full of purpose.
Angelica
Yeah, absolutely.
Bey
What is your biggest hope? Not just with reimagining the corner store, but also with Farmer Jawn, overall?
Christa
I want us to not only just serve as a Black-owned farm, a Black-owned organic farm, very specifically, being the first one that will exist in our region, but definitely I want to just be a bright light for folks and to be this, you know, it just comes down to when I think about all the hurt and pain that our city is going through, and then I don’t watch the news for a reason. But you do hear things, and I know things are happening and going on, and I truly believe that there are needs that are not being met in our community. And I think that my hope for Farmer Jawn is that people find hope in it and see that we can create agricultural jobs for you. And there’s things that you can be doing to get you away from whatever is ailing you or causing you to feel like you’re in need.
Bey
Right. Can you go into a little bit more detail about that hurt, that pain and the things that might be going on, and maybe speak to it from, I don’t know, scientific space, in terms of behavior. Why is the behavior that way? And here does health and wellness fit into that?
Christa
I think it’s the mental health. It comes back to mental health and how we as especially as Americans, don’t do a good job of taking care of ourselves and slowing down to think about what we need and how we can do better for ourselves. And then if you also attach to that from a Black and Brown standpoint, all of the criticism and racism and prejudices that are against us and constantly around us and constantly, you know, right in our faces because of media and social media, we’re just overly exposed and overstimulated in a way, right? And so we’re battling. We’re in a constant battle. And the city is feeling that right now with all the violence that we’re experiencing right now. And I just believe that having hope in something that was once harmful to us could very well be the answer. And when I say that, I mean farming.
Bey
Thank you so much for coming.
Angelica
That was amazing.
Bey
I really appreciate you sharing your story, sharing your experiences and, yeah. Thank you so much.
Christa
Yes. Thank you. Thank you.
Angelica
Thank you.
Angelica
Believe it or not, I think it’s reflection time.
Bey
Christa was awesome.
Angelica
I just really appreciated how true to herself she was throughout her entire experience that she shared.
Bey
Absolutely. I think there’s an honesty that’s driving her story and her curiosity because she was a nerd, as she said, she was like, I love the blood and the guts and the health space. But I think sticking with that curiosity and not specifically blood and guts and all that stuff, but health and wellness drove her to all these different experiences. And I love that evolution of curiosity.
Angelica
Yeah. And in talking about reinventing the Bodega –
Bey
Let’s go.
Angelica
I love that.
Bey
Me too.
Angelica
And I think that’s so Human 2.0, because it’s like, let’s take this and make it better and just make it as accessible as it already is. We’re just going to swap out what’s in there for something healthier and better for you. Yeah.
Bey
The whole focus is just to get a little better.
Angelica
Hi, this is Angelica Pasquini from So Curious. Sign up for our newsletter to find out when the latest episodes are available, get access to bonus content and be the first to know when we host live events. Visit beyond.fi.edu to sign up, now. No, literally, go do it right now.
Angelica
Okay, now that we talked to a literal farmer, I think it’s time to talk to a dietitian. Our last guest is Rabiya Bower. Rabiya is a coordinator of the Master’s Program in Nutrition and Dietetic Practice Program at Thomas Jefferson University. Bower is particularly passionate about diversity, inclusion, equality and social justice. As a non-diet dietitian, she is a champion of intuitive and mindful eating and truly believes that all foods fit.
Rabiya
My name is Rabiya Bower and I’m a registered dietitian/nutritionist and right now, I’m working at Thomas Jefferson University in our MS Nutrition and Dietetic Practice Program.
Bey
Body positivity. What does that mean? Can you give us a clear picture of that?
Rabiya
So body positivity was really born out of the fat acceptance movement and this idea that all bodies are good bodies. So that’s a very, very simplified version of a dense topic. But this idea, again, that regardless of the shape and size of your body, it’s something to be proud of and something to be celebrated. If you think about society right now, there’s a very specific body type that is celebrated and upheld as the standard. And body positivity is trying to change that.
Bey
And is this a global movement, so to speak?
Rabiya
I think it’s probably focused on what I would call, like the Global West. So places like the United States, Australia would be included in that just because of the population there, parts of Europe, but I see it coming up in places like South Asia. It’s definitely gaining traction and popularity.
Angelica
I’m curious about why this is a passion of yours and a little bit about your story.
Rabiya
So my dietetic story – at age nine, I was diagnosed with insulin dependent diabetes, the first in my family. So I’ve been dealing with that for the past 25 years, and will continue to do so until there is a cure. And part of that treatment was meeting with registered dieticians. And I grew up in central Pennsylvania where there were no dietitians that understood the food that I was eating at home. So I’m South Asian, my family’s from India a long, long time ago. So that really kind of propelled me to working in food, went to school to become a registered dietitian, realized at a certain point, the education is very prescriptive. It’s kind of taught in a really specific way. And part of that is nutrition is a newer science, part of that is who is getting involved in the field. And it can be really restrictive if you focus on weight loss as the only goal. And then there’s two dietitians who started, they worked in eating disorder clinics, and they started this movement, this program, I guess is a better word, called intuitive eating. They have ten different pillars or guidance for honoring your hunger, loving your body, gentle nutrition is one of the last kind of tenants of intuitive eating.
Bey
I love the language. I love it.
Rabiya
Very purposeful. And when I read the book, it just clicked with me and I was like, why am I doing this to myself? Why am I restricting Oreos when I love them? Because I do, I love Oreos.
Angelica
Yeah, they’re good.
Bey
How does language play into, I guess, how we interact with food and how we see ourselves and whether we see ourselves as healthier, good and right?
Rabiya
Yeah, that’s such a good question. So have you ever heard anyone say, oh, I ate something, I’m such a bad person.
Angelica
Yeah.
Rabiya
And even in school, right. Kids are getting taught this binary of good and bad food, healthy food versus junk food, and you are what you eat. And if you put junk in your body, are you junk? And I don’t believe that.
Angelica
That messaging is so simple and it works so well. Psychologically, it’s very subliminal. When you’re talking about the body positivity movement, you can tell me what you think about this, but I feel like it’s a reaction to that subliminal messaging, like it was born out of a need to, like, feel autonomy again. What do you think about that, like the movement itself? Is it a reaction to our society’s messaging?
Rabiya
I think it’s a reaction, but I think its intention is to be a celebration, right? So again, this idea that regardless of the shape and size of your body, it deserves to be celebrated. And society doesn’t tell us that. We got told a very specific standard of a beautiful body in society. I think, you know, part of it is moving away from that restriction of what food is good and what food is bad. But part of body positivity and part of intuitive eating is also that what you eat doesn’t always affect your body shape and size. So, a lot of times when you hear about body positivity and intuitive eating, you also hear about the movement called health at every size, which is this idea that the shape and size of your body does not determine your health status.
Angelica
And what I like that you’re hitting on is that it’s not a moral issue, food.
Rabiya
Right.
Angelica
It’s not right and wrong. And I think because this is a science podcast and we’re talking about the innovation of human health and technology, I’m curious, what are some of the biological aspects, the true blue aspects of wellness, not just what it looks like from the outside, in your experience as a dietitian, what is wellness?
Rabiya
I mean, it’s very holistic, right? You can’t break it down and say this part of me is healthy and this part of me is not. You’re all the same person. Food is part of that. Your attitudes towards food is part of that. Your attitudes to movement and physical activity and finding joy in movement. I know a lot of people who exercise to punish themselves, and that’s so sad to me.
Bey
Yeah. I want to ask, you know, the popularized, quote, unquote, picture of health is changing with efforts of inclusion. What does inclusivity in the health and wellness space looks like?
Rabiya
So I think you have to kind of break it down and go back to the start of nutritionn, right? So nutrition in this country was really born between the World Wars when we started paying attention to our soldiers that were malnourished. And if they’re malnourished, they can’t go fight a war and win, right?
Angelica
Right.
Bey
Nutrition was birthed out of that?
Rabiya
I mean, there was obviously people interested in it, but that’s when it really took hold, and that’s when you start seeing the term nutritionist and dietitian a lot more. And this idea that we were basing nutrition on a straight white male, because that’s who was in the army at the time, well, I’m not a straight white male, so maybe those standards that were based on a straight white male don’t apply to me. Even if you think about BMI, which is the body mass index, which is something currently being used to diagnose diseases, and it’s used in your insurance and it determines your health.
Bey
And it’s a hot topic.
Rabiya
It’s a hot topic.
Bey
Controversial.
Rabiya
Very. I will go, I have been on camera, on film, saying BMI is trash –
Bey
Ooh.
Rabiya
And it is trash, again, based on European males. And like, that’s not what society is. It’s not just European males. Even if you go to pharmacy, right, like dosages for medicine are based on men, and women tend to be a little bit smaller than men. Not always. But maybe those doses aren’t right, but the research isn’t there because nobody’s done it.
Angelica
Wow. So what are some of the biological effects of public discourse on health? How do conversations surrounding health directly impact our psychological health?
Rabiya
So again, the world is built for straight white males, and I’m not one, and, like, no shade, whatever. I’m married to a straight white male, but like the world is built for him, not for people like me. And there’s more and more of us that are not straight white males that are taking up space, and we exist, and we deserve to have our needs met. Whether that’s looking at health standards, whether that’s looking at do seatbelts fit our bodies properly, does the dosage on a Tylenol bottle makes sense for us. So just realizing that the information we have, the information we’re working on, there needs to be room for nuance. It’s not one size fits all.
Angelica
Your studies have focused on diversity, equality and inclusion and justice within eating. So what are some of the most important reasons to continue examining diversity and inclusion in medicine, especially when it comes to our food?
Rabiya
So I think there are two issues here, right? So despite being America, America being, like wealthy country, there’s still so many people who don’t have access to healthy food or even access to food at all. So how are you going to talk to them about good nutrition if they don’t even have food to sustain their body? So that’s part of it. And then the other half of it, and I talk about this a lot professionally, is in this country, we have this, like, standard of healthy food, which is typically like brown rice, grilled chicken, steamed broccoli. And there’s nothing wrong with eating that, but it’s really boring. And that’s not what my family grew up eating. And there are so many other beautiful cultures in this country, and all cultures have foods that are really nutrient dense. And all cultures have foods that are not so nutrient dense, right? You can find some sort of fried pastry filled with meat in almost every culture.
Bey
Yeah.
Rabiya
Maybe not the most nutrient dense, right?
Bey
But hand it over.
Rabiya
But, yeah, I’ll eat it. This idea that this white American palate or this white American food is the healthiest is just not correct. And part of that stems from who’s creating these health guidelines, right? So the dietary guidelines for Americans, the USDA MyPlate. I never saw my own culture’s foods reflected on MyPlate because nobody from my culture was helping build these standards.
Angelica
And what is MyPlate?
Rabiya
MyPlate is the USDA’s guidance for choosing healthy food. So you can go to ChooseMyPlate.gov, and that is the USDA’s guidance on healthy eating, and it has your food groups like, do you remember the pyramid?
Angelica
Yeah, I was going to ask about the pyramid. What do you think about that?
Rabiya
The pyramid’s gone.
Bey
Nice.
Angelica
Oh, it is?
Rabiya
It’s gone. We switched to MyPlate.
Angelica
Okay.
Rabiya
Yes.
Angelica
Got it.
Rabiya
And I like that because nobody eats off of a pyramid. You actually eat off of a plate, right?
Bey
Wow. Pretty novel. Pretty novel.
Angelica
I don’t know anyone eating off a pyramid.
Rabiya
I don’t either. So MyPlate, you know, half the plate is fruits and vegetables, a quarter of it is grains, a quarter of it is lean protein, and you have some room for dairy. But again, my food, the dal, the lentil dishes I grew up eating, the curried cabbage that I grew up eating -I never saw it upheld on MyPlate. And it wasn’t until I became a nutrition expert that I learned, yeah, these foods fit. I just need to kind of think about it and learn about that. And, you know, when you’re growing up and you’re being taught the healthiest food is brown rice, steamed broccoli, and grilled chicken, maybe you start removing yourself from that culture. I know so many people who say, oh, it’s my cheat day, I’m going to eat Mexican. There’s nothing inherently unhealthy about Mexican food. There are some really healthy options, really nutrient-dense options. But that’s not what we’re taught.
Bey
Body positivity is a really hot topic buzzword. And we see celebrities throwing it around. How can you bring that into a more medical space?
Rabiya
So recently, I had some leg pain related to my diabetes. And my endocrinologist, who is a diabetes specialist, was like, oh, you know, you gained weight, and I said, yeah, you and I had talked about how gaining weight was a healthy option for me. I needed to gain weight. And she’s blaming this leg pain on my weight gain. I did a little research, even though I’m not, you know, a diabetes doctor. And there’s this disease that I think I have that causes leg pain. So it has nothing to do with my weight. And I know it has nothing to do with my weight because it started before I gained the weight. So if you have, you know, a patient who is complaining about pain and the doctor says, lose weight. There’s not actually science behind that that says that’s going to help.
Bey
Right.
Rabiya
Right? If you need to have your appendix taken out, your weight, losing weight is not going to fix anything. You need your appendix taken out. So we see a lot of fat phobia and fat bias in the medical field. It’s well-documented that people in larger bodies, you know, we have this research that shows they have higher rates of mortality, and for a lot of times, people thought, oh, it’s because they’re in larger bodies. But what we also know is that people in larger bodies are less likely to seek health care because of this fat bias and this fat phobia. So if you’re less likely to seek health care, maybe you have worse health outcomes. Right?
Bey
Oh, wow.
Angelica
Like, they’re each influencing each other.
Rabiya
Right.
Angelica
The shame and the propaganda, and then it goes into a cycle.
Bey
A self-fulfilling prophecy.
Angelica
Totally, totally.
Rabiya
It’s very cyclical.
Angelica
To wrap it up, I’m curious if someone is trying to assess their own nutrition needs and be honest with themselves and cut out the noise, what kind of questions can they be asking?
Rabiya
So I think it’s hard because there is so much noise. So really, I think your best bet is to go to a registered dietitian/nutritionist. Lots of insurance covers trips to see us and, like, just find one that’s really honest, one that’s going to listen to what you need without judgment. Find one who is weight inclusive. Find one who is body positive and just see, like, there’s always room for improvement, right? Even in my own diet, there’s room for improvement, and I, I know all the things. So just getting, you know, time with a professional can be really helpful.
Angelica
And what are the terms someone can look for, like, on the website to make sure that the person is inclusive?
Rabiya
So terms like body positive, weight inclusive or weight neutral, HAES-aligned. So HAES is H-A-E-S, standing for health at every size, intuitive dietitian. And like, if you go on Instagram, there’s a bazillion of us.
Bey
And we’re really, really grateful to learn from you in this conversation. Thank you for coming. Thanks for sharing.
Rabiya
Yeah, thank you for having me.
Bey
Okay, Ang. You know what time it is. Let’s reflect. That was a very, very enlightening and comforting conversation to have because I know body positivity is a buzzword and it exists a lot in like celebrity space.
Angelica
Yeah.
Bey
And sometimes that can take away the legitimacy of the thought process behind the the language, and so bringing it into the medical space was just enlightening, you know?
Angelica
Yeah.
Bey
Everything is based on weight, you know?
Angelica
It’s true. And it’s cool to hear a real dietitian who studied this inside and out, you know, adopting the ideas of the body positivity movement, of intuitive eating, you know. These are buzzwords and they are often presented to us through a filter on Instagram. And this was just a real dietitian breaking it down in a real way.
Angelica
Well, this concludes the episode of So Curious. I hope you’re all feeling well. Stay tuned for next week’s episode and if you dig this podcast hit the subscribe button and tune in every Monday for more content. Today’s podcast is part of the Franklin Institute. The Franklin Institute is a science museum located in Philadelphia. The Franklin Institute’s mission is to inspire a passion for learning about science and technology. For more information on everything about The Franklin Institute, visit fi.edu. This podcast is produced by Radio Kismet. Radio Kismet is Philadelphia’s premier podcast network for businesses looking to develop their own branded podcast content. Check them out at radiokismet.com. There’s a lot of people who make this podcast happen. Thanks to the producers Joy Montefusco and Jayatri Das, our managing producer, Emily Charish, our operations head, Christopher Plant, our associate producer, Liliana Green, our audio team, Christian Cedarlund, Goldie Bingley, Lauren DeLuca, and Brad Florent, our development producer, Opeola Bukola, our science writer Kira Villette and our graphic designer, Emma Sager.
Angelica
See you next week.
