Willing To Be Wrong

The fact that many medical students are still not being taught about weight stigma or the social determinants of health is a MASSIVE problem. A MASSIVE ONE. There really is no excuse for it.

Show Notes

Teddy Okechukwu is a final-year medical student in the UK who creates content online in relation to her studies and mental health. When I first came across her a couple of years ago she was one of the very few UK medical students actually using social media identifiably. She was thrust into the public eye a couple of months ago after winning a massive jackpot on Michael McIntyre’s The Wheel (feel free to click the link if you want to know how much!), but that’s more just some fun trivia for you rather than relevant to this episode 😉.

When I was at medical school I had absolutely zero appreciation as to what weight stigma was. and even less understanding of just how complex the relationship between weight and health was. The weight-centric teaching I received made it seem incredibly black and white, and I wanted to speak to someone about whether much has changed in the last decade, especially in the context of the increased prominence of these conversations online recently.

Teddy can be found on social media @teddybearmedic.

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My debut book, Food Isn't Medicine: Challenge Nutribollocks & Escape The Diet Trap, is now available for pre-order online (Amazon, Book Depository, and elsewhere). Do come and join me on social media @drjoshuawolrich.

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What is Willing To Be Wrong?

Fancy being wrong about something? That's a rhetorical question, of course, you don't... no one does. The thing is, once the initial discomfort has passed, it's truly the best way way to grow as a human being.

Welcome to Willing To Be Wrong, a podcast with the intention of doing just that. My name is Dr Joshua Wolrich and I'm an NHS surgical doctor, nutrition MSc student, author and accidental influencer. Like all healthcare professionals, I was taught by a system that practises medicine in a weight-normative manner, where a focus on body weight is used to try and define health and wellbeing. After internalising the weight stigma I'd been subject to for years, I left medical school believing that I couldn't be a good doctor if I were fat, prompting further disordered eating and a damaged relationship with food.

After a difficult couple of years of being challenged on my beliefs by people far cleverer than me, I now believe that healthcare has to become weight-inclusive if we're ever going to change the massive problem of weight stigma and the both direct and indirect harm it does to patients. Join me as I talk to guests about a wide range of topics from the complex nature of weight and health (and why neither should be treated as a personal responsibility), to nutribollocks such as 'celery juice detoxifies your liver' and why it's utter bullshit. The guests aren't all experts (as that wouldn't be fun) and the questions are rarely pre-prepared, but true conversations tend not to be.

My debut book, Food Isn't Medicine: Challenge Nutribollocks & Escape The Diet Trap, is now available for pre-order online on Amazon, Book Depository, and elsewhere. For more information, you can find me on social media @drjoshuawolrich.