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When Alishia McCullough first started unpacking her own relationship with food and body image, she confronted a pattern that stretched far beyond her personal experience. As a Black licensed clinical mental health therapist watching her clients struggle with racism, diet culture, and disordered eating, she kept bumping into the same question: How do you heal your relationship with your body when society has spent centuries trying to control it?
She hopes folks will find answers in her new book, “Reclaiming The Black Body, Nourishing the Home Within.” In it, McCullogh breaks down how America’s long history of anti-Black racism shows up not just in our politics, but on our plates as well.
In an exclusive hourlong conversation with Word In Black’s health data reporter Anissa Durham, McCullogh, founder of Black and Embodied Counseling and Consulting, discusses the book and the impact racism continues to have on how Black folks view food, eating, and diet culture.
In the discussion, McCullough shares why she decided to center Black women and femmes in her book and focus on how racism has impacted eating disorders in the Black community. She also addresses adultification bias, how the belief that fatness equals being unhealthy has become harmful to Black women and femmes, and the legacy of anti-Blackness in health care.
The thought-provoking interview challenges common ideas within the Black community around weight and culture. McCullough’s book will be published on Jan. 14 and will be available wherever books are sold.
