19/08/2026
A big thank you to the team at La Trobe University Masters of Dietetics for having me as a guest to explore diet culture and weight bias with their students. Such an engaged, thoughtful group, willing to reflect, question and sit with some challenging ideas.
Why does this topic matter for every future Dietitian? Because none of us enters the profession untouched by diet culture. Long before we learn about nutrition science, we have absorbed messages about food, bodies, weight, health, discipline and what it means to “look healthy”. These messages come from families, schools, healthcare, sport, social media and the broader culture around us.
Dietetic training doesn’t automatically make these messages disappear (and for some, further entrenches them) and this is why learning about weight bias isn’t simply about knowing definitions. It requires us to turn towards ourselves with curiosity and ask what we have learned about bodies, where those ideas came from, and which beliefs we may have carried into Dietetics without really noticing.
This isn’t about getting everything “right”, or becoming completely free of bias. It’s about developing the capacity to notice, investigate and interrupt the assumptions that can influence our language, recommendations and relationships with clients.
This matters wherever Dietitians work because our clients live in bodies and eat within families, cultures, communities and systems. They bring histories of healthcare, dieting, stigma, belonging and exclusion into the room with them.
Understanding diet culture and weight bias helps future Dietitians become more thoughtful, curious, responsive and safe practitioners. And who doesn't love a very high horse and a bit of cursing with wonderful future colleagues?