There are an endless number of reasons why you might want to change your body — that holiday weight, your dating profile, medical issues, your new bathing suit — but the real culprit is usually diet culture.

Psychologist and trans-health educator Sand Chang joins us to talk about the complex experience of body acceptance for trans folks, the intersections of trans advocacy and Health at Every Size work, the growing body of research around trans folks and eating disorders, the shape-shifting nature of fatphobia and diet culture, and so much more!

A new generation of practitioners says the profession pays inadequate attention to different kinds of diets, body types and lives.

Unhealthy workout habits and viewpoints are more common than you think. These questions will help you examine your own behavior.

On this episode of Students of Mind Jayde talks to Dr. Sand Chang and Aisha Nash for the second episode of the body image series. In the discussion Jayde and Guests talk about diet culture and its relationship to systems of oppression, experiences of disordered eating in the LGBTQ+ community, yoga as a form of body liberation, and more!

What if you could trust in getting the health care you need in ways that felt good and helped you thrive? What if the health system honoured and valued queer and trans people's lives, bodies, and expertise? What if LGBTQ+ communities led and organized our own health care as a form of mutual aid? What if every aspect of our health care was rooted in a commitment to our healing, pleasure, and liberation? Chapter in Zena Sharman’s anthology The Care We Dream Of: Liberatory and Transformative Approaches to LGBTQ+ Health.

According to Sand Chang, a clinical psychologist who works with trans individuals and identifies as nonbinary, transgender men face comparisons to both cisgender men and other transgender men. Therefore, trans men have two ideal body types against which they can gauge their own idea of a successful transition.

It can be hard, at times impossible, to separate out the different pressures we face living day to day in our trans and non-binary bodies. When it comes to existing in relative comfort, it’s not just about aesthetics. It’s about safety, access, all the things we are not talking about. And we need to talk about eating disorders in the trans community because they are killing us.

I envision a future, maybe not one that I will ever witness myself, in which bodily autonomy and body liberation exist for all people…What is the world you envision and want to fight for?