How Do I Practice Gentle Nutrition?

Hey everyone! Vanessa here today. We'll talk this week about the concept of Gentle Nutrition. If you were the type of student who read your semester's syllabi ahead of time (and then color-coded your binder), then you already might be wondering what that means.

Well long story short, it's pretty similar to how we talk about nutrition here at EatWell: You get to define what it looks like for you in a way that makes sense for your life. There's no shame involved, because all foods are emotionally and morally equivalent. And it's about the big picture and overall patterns of behavior, not one meal or one social setting.

One way to look at Gentle Nutrition is to focus on addition, not subtraction. Most diet advice focuses on restriction - taking things away. But with adding in, we focus instead on increasing the occurrence of nutrient-dense foods. So for example, if you go out to lunch most days, is there a way you could pack a quick and easy lunch with some veggies 2 times a week? If you drink a lot of sugar sweetened beverages, is there a way you could incorporate more low sugar beverages, like iced herbal teas or lemon-infused carbonated water (check out our Favorite Thing this week)? If you normally get take out after a busy shift at work, could you keep some easy healthier options on hand at home? Those shifts in the pattern of your eating make much more of a difference!

You may not yet be ready for gentle nutrition. If diet mentality is deeply engrained, or if you're not able to hear hunger and/or fullness cues, it's helpful to focus on healing your relationship with food first. But if you're ready, we'll talk about more this week.