Food Is Political: Diet Culture, Food Deserts & the Systems Keeping You From Eating Well

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In this episode of Messy Liberation, hosts Becky Mollenkamp and Taina Brown sit down with registered dietitian and nutritionist Shana Spence — known as @thenutritiontea on Instagram and Threads — to dig into the deeply political nature of food access, diet culture, and nutrition misinformation. From food deserts and SNAP cuts to GLP-1s and white supremacy's grip on body standards, this conversation connects the dots between what ends up on your plate and the systems of power that put it there (or don't).

In This Episode, We Get Into:
• What a food desert actually is, and why even dense urban areas like New York City and Atlanta have them
• How redlining, gerrymandering, and structural racism shape which communities have access to grocery stores
• The layered barriers to food access: disability, transportation, language, income, and more
• Why "just grow your own food" and other individualist advice is completely disconnected from reality
• The explosion of GLP-1 drugs (like Ozempic and Wegovy) and whether we're in pursuit of health or just thinness
• How diet culture is rooted in white supremacy and Eurocentric beauty standards
• The SNAP cuts in the "Big Beautiful Bill" and the domino effect on food insecurity and health outcomes
• Why seed oils have been debunked as harmful, and how nutrition misinformation spreads
• Lab-grown food, GMOs, and what a more just food future could actually look like
• Shana's core message: how you eat is individual, not a moral failing

Resources Mentioned:
• "Live Nourished: Make Peace with Food, Banish Body Shame and Reclaim Joy" by Shana Spence: https://amzn.to/4e1QlEf
• "Anti-Diet" by Christy Harrison: https://amzn.to/4vjQhXj
• "Fearing the Black Body" by Sabrina Strings: https://amzn.to/4vhq9MM
• "The Body Liberation Project" by Chrissy King: https://amzn.to/4dEzp7O
• Shana's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenutritiontea/
• Shana's Threads: https://www.threads.com/@thenutritiontea
• The Nutrition Tea (Shana's Substack: https://substack.com/@thenutritiontea

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