Boston’s NPR news station WBUR, will launch a new podcast, Food, We Need To Talk, on Monday, December 23. In this 10-part podcast, host Juna Gjata undertakes a journey toward redefining her relationship with food. She’s guided by noted Harvard Medical School lifestyle medicine expert Dr. Eddie Phillips, using solid science, clinical knowledge, and common sense.
“Doomed if you diet, doomed if you don’t.” That’s how 24-year-old host Gjata describes the dilemma that she and millions of Americans face: most diets backfire but eating freely in this food environment is not likely to be healthy either.
The season will be comprised of the following 10 episodes:
• Doomed If You Diet, Doomed If You Don’t – Gjata and Phillips lay out the central challenge, and the goal of getting beyond a focus on weight. Guests: Sal DiStefano of the Mindpump podcast and James Hill, PhD.
• Good Food, Bad Food – Gjata and Phillips begin to move past the idea that some foods are “good” and others “bad.” Guests: Michelle Gallant, MS, RD, LDN, Mindpump’s Sal DiStefano and Rachele Pojednic, PhD explore how to stop thinking of food as a moral quandary.
• Cheesecake is Crack – Is food addictive? Guests: New York Times best-selling author Michael Pollan and Paul J. Kenny, PhD explore the addictive power of hyperpalatable foods, how they change your food preferences and how they make you less attracted to natural foods.
• What the Hell Are we Supposed to Eat? – What should people actually eat? Guests Walter C. Willett, MD,PhD, Michael Pollan and Rani Polak, MD, Chef, MBA cover the basics of what to eat and the importance of cooking.
• How Can I Become a Fat-Burning Machine? – What is the difference between cardio and resistance training? Guests Sal DiStefano, Wayne Wescott, PhD, and Clinical Exercise Physiologist Jackie Shahar explore building muscle and speeding up your metabolism.
• Am I Destined to be This Size? – Do people who are overweight have actual neurobiological differences that predispose them? Guests are doctors Bradford Lowell,MD, PhD, Dana Small, PhD, and Ruth Loos, PhD who explore whether we have control.
• Stress, Stress, Stress and Your Waistline – Guests Mark Potenza, MD, PhD and John Denninger, MD, PhD explore the impact of stress on eating, and how to cope with it.
• Disordered eating or eating disorder? – Guests Kristin Javaras,PhD, Jennifer Thomas, PhD and Laura Holsen, PhD explore the often-disordered relationship with food that can develop, especially for women.
• Snake Oil – Guests Pieter Cohen,MD, Tim Caulfield and Layne Norton, PhD discuss skinny teas, juice cleanses and waist trainers, and debunk the gigantic health supplement industry, including pre-workout supplements and fat-burners.
• Measures of Success – There are much better ways to measure progress than the scale. Guests Nicole Bajdek, Dr. Sarah Camhi, Sal DiStefano and Mark Berman, MD discuss how to gauge success, and Gjata shares her biggest lessons.
New episodes will be available every Monday.
