The Dad Edge Podcast

← The Dad Edge Podcast7. Sept. · 1 Std. 03 Min.

What Your Kids Learn From Watching You Eat featuring Abbey Sharp

What Your Kids Learn From Watching You Eat featuring Abbey Sharp7. Sept.1 Std. 03 Min.

Abbey Sharp has built an audience of over 2.5 million people calling out nutrition misinformation as a registered dietitian, and in this conversation she and Larry cut through some of the biggest confusion facing dads right now: the seed oil panic, the rise of "looks maxing" and muscularity-focused disordered eating in men, and how to feed a house full of picky kids without turning dinner into a nightly battle. Larry gets unusually candid about his own relationship with fitness and body image, and Abbey offers a grounded, non-restrictive framework for approaching food that she built out of her own recovery from an eating disorder.

The conversation also covers modeling healthy body image for kids, a practical division-of-responsibility approach to family meals, and Abbey's honest take on GLP-1 medications. If you've ever felt confused by conflicting nutrition advice online, or wondered whether your own relationship with fitness has quietly become more about fear than health, this episode offers real, evidence-based clarity.

Timeline Summary

[1:02] The seed oil debate: what the actual research says versus the online panic

[6:15] Ranking cooking oils by nutrient profile, and why canola oil gets undeserved hate

[16:09] Introducing Abbey Sharp: registered dietitian, author, and "the internet's no BS dietitian"

[17:45] Diet culture's impact on men, reframed as "optimization" and "looks maxing"

[19:02] How male-focused disordered eating often centers on muscularity rather than thinness

[21:42] Explaining "looks maxing" and its darker corners online

[23:23] Larry shares his own history: childhood bullying, a significant weight loss at 17, and fear of regaining it

[27:23] Finding balance: caring for your body without making it a referendum on your worth

[29:31] Why kids absorb body image messaging from watching their parents, long before anyone tells them directly