Food Psych Podcast with Christy Harrison · Christy Harrison, MPH, RD, CEDS

#336: Dispelling Diet-Culture Myths About Blood Sugar and Diabetes with Wendy Lopez and Jessica Jones

·41 min·2 clips

Jess says diabetes advice is oversimplified when it turns into “cut out all carbohydrates and sugars.”

Christy Harrison opens the conversation by placing it in Food Psych's anti-diet frame. She notes that the show avoids diet-culture details like weight and calorie numbers. Jessica Jones and Wendy Lopez join her as dietitians and diabetes educators. The discussion starts with the idea that diabetes care should not default to weight loss as the main goal. From there, it moves into a wider critique of how wellness culture talks about remission and reversal. Christy asks about the popular claim that people give themselves diabetes through sugar consumption. Wendy and Jessica push back on that story. They point out that people can eat plenty of sugar and never develop diabetes. Christy also raises the possibility of reverse causation, suggesting that emerging insulin resistance may increase sugar cravings rather than the other way around. The guests treat that idea as plausible and worth taking seriously. They keep coming back to the limits of blame. Jessica notes that once a provider reaches for root-cause language without care, patients can hear it as proof that they did something wrong. Wendy adds that a lot of health is genetic and outside our control. The conversation sits with that tension instead of smoothing it over. It keeps circling back to individualized care. The guests stress that interventions should reflect what someone prefers and what they have access to. They reject one-size-fits-all online advice as a substitute for real support. The episode also makes room for the emotional side of diagnosis. Christy recalls an early listener review praising a dietitian for making it clear that diabetes was not the patient's fault. That example matters here because it shows how much relief can come from dropping shame. Christy keeps widening the lens from individual experience to culture. The result is a discussion that feels practical, skeptical, and careful without turning cold. It leaves diabetes in the realm of care, not punishment.

As heard by us

A sharp reset on diabetes, sugar fear, and blame.

Christy Harrison uses the conversation to push back on the familiar moral story around diabetes and sugar. Jessica Jones and Wendy Lopez bring the grounded perspective of two dietitians and diabetes educators, and they keep the focus on what people with diabetes actually need:…

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Want a calmer, smarter way to think about diabetes and blood sugar?

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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