A Conversation with Melissa Joy Dobbins

Writing and reaching and talking with so many people as we do, we have the privilege to meet some really talented individuals. We recently met up with one such person, Melissa Joy Dobbins, in Budapest, of all places. Dobbins is a talented dietitian who has created one of the most successful podcasts about nutrition and health that you can find. She’s a diabetes educator, communicator, storyteller, and curious, critical thinker. But above all, she’s a caring person with a personal interest in obesity. So our conversation in Budapest became a 45-minute interview on her Sound Bites podcast.

We covered quite a bit of ground.

One-Size-Fits-All Thinking

Food nourishes us in so many ways that one single approach to it will never satisfy our human needs. Likewise, obesity is complex and comes in many forms. But rigid ideas about what’s right sometimes lead people with competing dogmas to engage in fierce battles over their ideas. If you need examples, look at how academics are fighting about meat. Or the fierceness of Health At Every Size® advocates. On these and other subjects, diversity of thinking needs respect.

The Role of Weight in Obesity Care

For years, the assumption has been that obesity treatment is all about weight loss. And for someone who feels burdened by an excess of weight, there’s nothing wrong with that. But most everyone who has ever struggled with weight knows that weight loss is a short-term proposition. Obesity care is for the long term because obesity is a complex chronic disease. Good obesity care provides much more than weight loss. It’s all about better health for a lifetime.

Body Positivity

When body positivity meets a concern about obesity, things get real confusing real fast. Some people find it impossible to hold thoughts about these two things in their brain at the same time. But that’s a false dichotomy. The truth is that positive feelings about one’s body are essential for taking care of it. And if your body has a tendency to to store fat in unhealthy ways, taking care of it means dealing with obesity.

Give a Listen

We hope you’ll take the time to listen to this episode (#142) of Melissa Joy Dobbins’ Sound Bites Podcast. You can listen on the web here or you can download it wherever you get your podcasts. And while you’re on her website, check out the other podcasts in her series. She covers an amazing breadth and depth of topics.

Melissa Joy Dobbins, photograph © SoundBitesRD

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March 9, 2020