Shoulders Down
When you live in the diet mindset, you spend much of your time living in your head- constantly tallying, dwelling, and stressing over your food and lifestyle choices. When you become an intuitive eater, you learn to drop into your body and start living shoulders down. The territory below your shoulders contains your innate wisdom and power. Shoulders Down is a podcast designed to teach you how to harness your intuition to govern not just how you eat but also how you live. Shoulders Down Podcast is hosted by Anti-Diet Dietitian and Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, Leah Kern, who works with clients to heal their relationships with food in her private practice, Leah Kern Nutrition. Disclaimer: All content in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. The information and education provided is not intended or implied to supplement or replace professional medical treatment, advice, and/or diagnosis.
Shoulders Down
🌾The Ultra Processed Panic: Re-Domesticating Women, Pressure to Cook ‘From Scratch,’ & The Rise of Tradwifedom with Laura Thomas, PhD
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Is the backlash against ultra-processed foods really about health… or is it about control? In this episode of Shoulders Down, Leah and Laura Thomas, PhD, explore the growing moral panic around ultra-processed foods — and what’s really driving the conversation.
Laura explains why much of the research linking ultra-processed foods (UPFs) to poor health outcomes is observational, and how these headlines often oversimplify complex public health data. The conversation goes beyond nutrition science to examine how food narratives are shaped by gender roles, class privilege, and today’s political climate.
Together, Leah and Laura explore the connection between trad wife culture, GLP-1 use, beauty standards, and what Laura calls “body fascism” — unpacking the bigger cultural forces driving today’s conversations about food and bodies.
You’ll hear about:
- What ultra-processed foods (UPFs) actually are — and why the definition is murky
- Social determinants of health and the invisible labor of “food work”
- How the push to “cook from scratch” can reinforce gender roles and class privilege
- Trad wife culture, the rise of GLP-1s, and the body politics of it all
- Why this cultural moment is bigger than diet culture
Mentioned in this episode:
- Lessons from the Fatosphere by Kate Harding & Marianne Kirby
- Fearing the Black Body by Sabrina Strings
More From Laura Thomas:
- Newsletter: https://canihaveanothersnack.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurathomasphd
- Laura Thomas’ books:
More From Leah:
- 📚Download your free Intuitive Eating Starter Pack
- Apply to The Embodied Method, my 1:1 coaching program
- Join my self-paced course, The Return
- Subscribe to Leah's Youtube Channel
- Subscribe to my personal Substack
- Follow me on Instagram for more intuitive eating content @leahkern.rd
- Visit my website to learn more about my coaching offerings
- Subscribe to my weekly newsletter to get a nugget of intuitive eating inspiration delivered straight from my heart to your inbox each week.
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