The language of nutrition and health, with Maxine Ali

Eating Words

I’m delighted that today’s episode, the final of this series, is with Maxine Ali, someone who really understands the language of health. If you don’t already know Maxine’s work, she is a writer, journalist and linguist, with a focus on women’s health and wellness culture. She has an MSc in Medical Humanities from King’s College London, currently works in academic publishing, and is an advocate for inclusion and diversity within the health sciences. Our conversation is quite broad and we go off on a few tangents - I am definitely at the tired stage of lockdown with kids! We chat about the problems with some of the dichotomous terms that are used about children’s food, the classist connotations of terms like “junk food”, and stigmatising language around weight. We touch on lifestyle medicine, health media and the gendered approach to parenting, then go on to think about helping children challenge the narratives they experience about certain foods or bodies, and the importance of including diverse perspectives in policy formation.

Some of the things we mention are:

Edd Kimber's books: https://www.theboywhobakes.co.uk/

Change 4 Life 2019 advert, where mum does the shopping: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWE_UMno5P8

The Conscious Kid, an organisation set up to support families and educators to raise antiracist kids: https://www.theconsciouskid.org/

Happiful magazine: https://happiful.com/

Maxine's website: http://maxineali.com/

Maxine on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maxineali/

And, as ever, you can find me at: https://www.sarahdempster.co.uk/