19: The Getting Real with Hilary Show with Hilary Burns - Episode 1919: The Getting Real with Hilary Show with Hilary Burns - Episode 19
UK Health Radio Podcast
Hilary Burns talks with Dr Lauren Hartman about adolescent eating disorders, diet culture and weight stigma, focusing on prevention and practical nutrition. The conversation highlights body diversity, the impact of restriction on the brain, and a hopeful shift towards love and real health for young people.
44:55•19 Sept 2026
Food, Fat and Adolescence: Getting Real with Dr Lauren Hartman
Episode Overview
- Eating disorders can have serious medical consequences, with mortality comparable to childhood leukaemia.
- Weight and health are not the same thing; rapid weight loss can be dangerous at any body size.
- Simple nutrition for adolescents is about meals that are adequate, balanced and consistent, including plenty of carbohydrates.
- Family attitudes and comments about weight strongly shape how young people feel about their bodies and food.
- Young people deserve a new message focused on real health, body acceptance and love rather than shame.
“Young people do deserve to have real health and to not feel stigma based on their body.”
Curious about how others manage food, body image, and mental health all at once? This episode of UK Health Radio’s *Getting Real with Hilary* brings paediatrician and adolescent specialist Dr Lauren Hartman into the spotlight to talk frankly about eating disorders, diet culture and why prevention matters so much.
You’ll hear Lauren describe growing up in an ’80s household packed with fat‑free diet foods, scales and unspoken food rules, and how those messages affected her sister and cousin, both of whom struggled with eating disorders. She shares how seeing her cousin’s adolescence “devastated” by years of treatment pushed her towards adolescent medicine, where she now focuses on that critical 10–26 age window.
The conversation tackles weight stigma head‑on, including Virgie Tovar’s line that “weight discrimination is like the last standing socially acceptable form of discrimination,” and Lauren’s concern that healthcare often leads the way in harmful weight‑based treatment. She explains the Minnesota starvation study to show how simple restriction can flip the brain into obsessive, disordered thinking, even in people who never set out to have an eating disorder.
For parents, teens and anyone tangled up in diet rules, Lauren offers a simple framework from dietician Wendy Sterling: food needs to be adequate, balanced and consistent, with adolescents needing regular meals and plenty of carbohydrates to fuel their brains. She stresses that bodies are meant to be diverse, that rapid weight loss can be medically dangerous at any size, and that young people deserve “more freedom around food” instead of shame and secrecy.
The episode ends on a hopeful note, with Lauren insisting that the next generation can inherit something better: real health, less stigma, and a lot more love. If you’re questioning diet culture or worried about a young person, this conversation might be the pause and perspective you need.
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