Episode 25 - Exposing medical weight bias with Ragen Chastain

In this episode, Nicola and Florence meet Ragen Chastain. Ragen is a HAES Speaker, Writer, Dancer, Marathoner, ACE Certified Health Coach and Functional Fitness Specialist, in Training to be an Iron-Distance Triathlete, Activist, and the brains behind The WeightAndHealthcare Newsletter on Substack.Ragen starts by telling us about her story with dieting, overexercising, and losing her periods. Having a research and statistics masters, Ragen researched the internet for the best way to lose weight. She was shocked to realise there was not a single study documenting valuable evidence as to weight loss being somehow effective or sustainable. From there, she started looking into links between body weight and health, and became a well-regarded expert on Health at Every Size (HAES), especially in medical circles.During this interview, Ragen exposes how to detect and address weight bias in the doctor’s office; what to answer when others comment on your food or body as they are working on recovery and how to tackle internalised fatphobia in each of us while making the world more inclusive.In this episode, Ragen mentions books on understanding the racist roots of the BMI:Sabrina Strings, Fearing the black body available hereDe'shaun Harrison, The belly of the beast available hereMake sure to subscribe to Ragen's incredible work - Weight and Healthcare Newsletter: https://weightandhealthcare.substack.com/- HAEShealthsheets.com allowing you to check whether your doctor is suffering from weight bias in the treatment they recommend: https://haeshealthsheets.com/- Ragen's super funny blog and resourceful website: https://danceswithfat.org/To find support in your HA recovery:Get the "No Period. Now What?" book at noperiod.info/book.To join the NPNW Support group, please visit noperiod.info/supportTo make an appointment with Dr Rinaldi and get individual support to get your period back or improve your fertility, please go to noperiod.info/appointmentsTo make an appointment with Florence Gillet and get help with the body and mind changes happening in recovery please visit www.beyondbodyimage.comYou can find us on social mediaNo Period, Now What? on InstagramBeyond Body Image on FacebookBeyond Body Image on InstagramAmenorrhee_fr  (HA recovery 100% in French) on InstagramEmail us  via [email protected] you enjoyed this podcast and found it helpful, please drop us a rating and a review to help more people find it. Editing by Steven WorlowOriginal Music by the Andy Shulman Band "Lost & Found" available on Spotify.