Changing Diet Culture
Jo Sebastian, the nutritionist-dietitian from TikTok, sheds light on Filipino diet culture.
Words Marian Luisa Palo
Photography Santi Albalate
Nutritionist-dietitian Jo Sebastian
Filipinos are natural food enthusiasts. Food is ingrained in our culture and always at the center of every event that is witness to many bondings. In a way, food is our love language. Ironically, with how we nitpick what we and other people eat, food is also the root of many health battles.
It’s not uncommon to hear comments such as “cut down on food” because we “eat too much,” or to “stop being fussy” when we eat too little or are too picky. It’s no wonder that we have honed this toxic diet culture that is the underlying cause for extreme body consciousness and many unhealthy eating habits.
Jo Sebastian seeks to create a safe space and change our perspective on food, and our health, in general.
The 26-year-old registered nutritionist-dietitian and content creator Jo Sebastian focuses on health and nutrition and how it relates to our lifestyle and culture. You may have seen her pass your For You page and liked her approach to diet culture.
Prior to her “How I Order Mang Inasal” video on TikTok – which trended during the summer of 2023 and gave emphasis on adding more nutrients rather than restricting (she added broccoli with her chicken and rice!) – Jo Sebastian has actually been active in social media since 2015, specifically on YouTube.
“I started to make content on YouTube. It was mostly the lifestyle era, so the make-up, OOTDs, things like that. And then, I also started shifting content into fitness when I started getting into fitness again,” she said regarding her previous forays in content creation.
Jo was hesitant about using TikTok when it first launched in 2020, but later found it to be a good avenue to reach more people, “I realized, okay, it’s actually fun and easy to do because, compared to YouTube, super long-form siya.” She now has a podcast on Spotify called “The Donut Box Podcast,” which tackles more introspective health topics.
Before her social media breakthrough, Jo used to be a ballet dancer in her younger years, which is a big reason for why she found herself pursuing this field of work. “I went to an arts school and I guess the word, in a way, is the environment is kind of toxic. [It’s] very stressful, and then there’s a lot of rules around your body. It was even part of our grades na iwe-weigh in ka every month, and then part ‘yun ng grades mo. So, it really took a negative impact on my relationship with food and my body.”
Because of exposure to such an environment, Jo became keen on looking up information on how to lose or gain weight. Going through the learning process the hard way, she took it upon herself to share what she learned to fellow dancers and ballerinas who were also going through the same struggles.
Jo wears RIOTaso set and bag. Photography by Santi Albalate
Jo wears RIOTaso set and bag. Photography by Santi Albalate
This experience became a push for her to pursue being a nutritionist-dietitian. With perseverance, she gained her ‘RND’ in 2019 subsequently after graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Community Nutrition at the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman.
Content creation came later, which first started as a creative outlet aside from dancing, “I was kind of like, okay, I need a way to express myself that isn’t dancing because I was not comfortable dancing anymore for a big chunk of time. So I need a new outlet.”
With her familiarity with how tough it is to deal with toxic diet culture, Jo’s become that reliable RND and content creator who does not forget to bring empathy and compassion into her work, contrary to the conventional ‘cut down on food’ mindset. Since then, she’s helped her followers find validation in the way they approach and understand the relationship between food and their body.
Outside of TikTok and social media, Jo still does private practice as a nutritionist-dietitian. She is excited to release more nutrition-focused content: “There are maybe a few programs and more focused nutrition content that I will be putting out in the future.”
