[This episode is part of the Weight-Neutral Health Care In Aotearoa NZ Series]

This week I'm talking with Dr. Meg Vardy, founding chair of JourneyED, about why taking weight off the table is central to eating disorder peer support, and what it actually means to rebuild trust with your own body. In this episode:

• What peer support actually is, how it's different from clinical treatment and recovery coaching, and why "fixing" or diagnosing isn't the job
• Why a weight-neutral approach to peer support matters, and how eating disorders that don't fit the "underweight" stereotype get missed
• The U-shaped relationship between weight and health, why BMI doesn't hold up, and how framing obesity as a disease creates its own harm
• Why moralising food and bodies (even well-meaning tools like Health Star Ratings) keeps people stuck

On rebuilding trust with your body: "My body is for me, my body is safe, and my body is home." Meg's words on what it's taken to get there — and why it's still very much an ongoing practice, not a switch you flip.

About Meg Vardy: Meg grew up in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) and now lives in Ōtepoti (Dunedin) with her whānau. She has a background as an academic researcher, including time in London researching psilocybin-assisted treatment for anorexia (recently published). Meg has lived experience of anorexia and is the founding chair of JourneyED, Aotearoa New Zealand's eating disorder peer support organisation.

Connect with JourneyED: Website [link]

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Unshrinking by Kate Manne: https://www.katemanne.net/unshrinking.html
• Mrs D is not on a Diet: https://www.unitybooks.co.nz/products/mrs-d-is-not-on-a-diet
• Bite Back by Genevieve Mora: https://www.penguin.co.nz/books/bite-back-9781776950447
• Body Confident by Emma Wright: https://www.harpercollins.co.nz/9781775542421/body-confident/

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