Diet culture has a profound impact on our beliefs about nutrition and health. It can impact our behaviours and may lead to disordered eating which can have far reaching impacts on our bodies ability to digest food and further lead to uncomfortable digestive symptoms. This week I interview Jessica Begg, RD on how emotional eating and binge eating influences our digestive symptoms. Jessica Begg is both a Registered Dietitian as well as a Registered Clinical Counsellor. Jessica’s double qualifications make her uniquely suited to helping clients address the psychological issues that underpin their challenges with eating. She has been working in the area of disordered eating and within eating disorders treatment programs since 2006. Jessica works from a trauma-informed, emotion-focused, weight-inclusive and weight-neutral, anti-diet or non-diet approach. Jessica’s approach allows her clients to live their lives to the full by unshackling their beliefs about diet culture. She is currently living in Vancouver where she practices clinical nutrition counselling. We talk about: How Jessica became involved in working with patients with eating disorders The prevalence of digestive symptoms in eating disorders and what symptoms people usually complain of Why manipulating the diet, being the knee jerk approach that registered dietitians MIGHT use, may not be appropriate (Especially registered dietitians without eating disorder experience) The importance of screening for eating disorder behaviours How emotional and binge eating influences digestive symptoms Important things to consider/do to reduce emotional and binge eating How restrictive diets for digestive disorders might trigger binge eating /emotional eating, and the problems with that Connect with Jessica on her website at shiftnutrition.com or on Instagram or on her Facebook or on Twitter here as well!