4. Diet culture in elementary schools with Gwen Kostal

How does diet culture come up in elementary schools?  In this episode Gwen and I discuss the various ways diet culture sneaks into the schools for our children. The impact teachers and support staff have on their student’s relationship with food is significant. It is always most supportive to work collaboratively with the school and your child when tackling these dilemmas. Gwen shares how diet culture has recently shown up in her home with her son. She discusses how she handled the situation in partnership with her son. Along with how she empowered him in making a choice that best served him in that moment. We also dive into the most common ways diet culture comes up in elementary schools. Which is usually through: well-meaning comments both in and out of the classroom lunch box policing and policies in the curriculum We also talk about short- and long-term harms of diet culture on our kids such as: the development of an eating disorders missing the root cause behind the eating behaviour such as anxiety marginalizing food-insecure or rural families eroding the adult-child feeding relationship She then shares some tangible tips for parents to manage these conversations effectively moving forward. Using a compassionate perspective to discuss an incident or concern you may have. Connect with Gwen Kostal and her business Dietitians4Teachers on Instagram or her website. Her business Dietitians 4 Teachers works directly with teachers and school support staff to gently reframe the narrative for schools. Do you have a question that you would like answered on an episode? Send me an email [email protected] or DM on my podcast Instagram handle here.