Get ready to challenge everything you thought you knew about diet culture with Bite Back with Abbey Sharp, a brand-new podcast from the Frequency Podcast Network, debuting on October 22, 2024. Hosted by registered dietitian and popular content creator Abbey Sharp, this podcast is set to break down nutrition myths with humor, expertise, and hard-hitting conversations. With millions of loyal followers on social media, Abbey is a trusted voice in the wellness space, and Bite Back is her latest platform to empower listeners to leave diet culture behind for good. We chatted with Abbey to learn more. —Noa Nichol
What inspired you to create Bite Back with Abbey Sharp, and how does this podcast differ from the content you’ve shared on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok?
You can definitely expect a lot of similar themes I’ve been able to touch on throughout my social content- so things like disordered eating, mental health, body positivity, intuitive eating and specific nutrition myths – but on the podcast, I get an opportunity draw on other experts and content creators with lived experiences to have more comprehensive conversations and to dive deeper into the research. It’s nice because rather than simply responding to a specific in-the-moment trend or piece of problematic content, I’m able to really equip people with tools they can use when critically thinking about anything they read or see.
You’ve built a strong following by debunking diet myths—what do you hope listeners will take away from the first season of your podcast?
We can absolutely expect a lot of myth busting with my signature science and sass. But I’m also hoping to teach listeners an important set of skills that they can apply to every new and upcoming diet myth that makes their way into their feed. I’m also hoping people will walk away not just with interesting facts and stories, but with actionable tips and steps they can take to improve their own lives today.
In an age where misinformation about nutrition and wellness is rampant, how do you ensure your podcast cuts through the noise and offers credible, science-backed advice?
I’m very selective about the people I’m bringing on and I’m very considerate about the questions I’m asking. So you can expect to see a lot of other amazing science communicators make appearances on the podcast who share my goal of calling out pseudoscience and debunking harmful misinformation.
Can you share a sneak peek of one of the most surprising or controversial nutrition myths you tackle in the first season?
There’s really so many! But perhaps one that persists is this belief that seed oils are toxic. If you want to get the full scoop on that, you’ll have to tune in!
You’ve lined up some amazing expert guests like Kris Collins and Dr. Jonathan Stea. What was the process like selecting guests, and what unique insights do they bring to the podcast?
The thing I love so much about hosting Bite Back is that I am also often learning a lot alongside my listeners. So I generally have a topic that I’m personally interested in or that I get a lot of specific questions about from my followers, and my team and I find someone who we feel would have either expertise in the area, or rich lived experience, to add to the conversation.
As a registered dietitian, how do you balance humor and hard-hitting facts in your episodes while keeping the content accessible and enjoyable for listeners?
It’s probably the hardest part of my job but also a skill that I’ve been honing for the past 10 years +. It takes a lot of careful planning and ideation to figure out how to explain complicated science terms or concepts in language the lay person can understand. This is made even harder on podcast as opposed to video where I don’t have the luxury of adding graphics to help explain things. So I have developed a lot of metaphors to explain the more complicated processes that I think are important to understanding the claims they’re hearing and my take on them.
The wellness industry often profits off of insecurities and body image issues. How do you hope your podcast will change the conversation around diet culture and self-acceptance?
That’s the ultimate the goal here. Even though all of our episodes vary in the themes and take-aways, taken together, they all serve to chip away at how diet culture has made us see our bodies and food. Listening to Bite Back with Abbey Sharp episode by episode is going to be like peeling back the diet culture onion to its rotten core until there’s nothing left to see.
With new diets and trends popping up all the time, how do you stay on top of the latest fads to debunk on your platforms, and what’s one trend you’re currently itching to “bite back” against?
Social media is unfortunately where we see a lot of these problematic fads come up. And while I do try to limit exposure for my own mental health, it is a treasure trove of misinformation, and BS fads that I feel compelled to address. There’s so many trends I absolutely need to see end, but the one that continues to urk me is when I see “real food truthers” going off about toxins (like glyphosate) in perfectly healthy food. The detection of a toxin does not make it toxic to us. If an influencer is suggesting that your pasta, for example, is loaded with weed killer, but can’t tell you how much you’d need to consume for it to actually cause harm, it’s a huge red flag. And for the record, with most of these foods, you’d need to consume dozens of servings – about 20 lbs of the chickpea pasta that was the latest subject of the headlines. The dose always makes the poison.
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