Gentle Nutrition: Eat Healthy Without Diet Rules
From a young age, all of us have been lied to about diets and nutrition. Most of us believe, without question, that if you just find the right foods and the right diet, your body and your life will magically transform into something better. This leads many of us, me included, down a path of trying wackier and more extreme diets —cleaner, less processed, few carbs, no fat, carnivore, cabbage soup. The details might change, but the societal pressure to get it right doesn’t.
It is no surprise when clients come to me for nutritional support, they’ve often struggled with food for years. A lifelong pursuit trying to find that “right” diet to make them thin, rich, healthy, and (fill in your magical thinking outcome here). Many are nervous about another go-around with “nutrition.” They are afraid that I will, like the rest, offer them another unrealistic meal plan or require them to track calories or macros with strict limits. I am happy to report that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Despite what we have been taught, there is another way, a better way, to think about food without restriction, elimination, guilt, or shame: Gentle Nutrition.
But before we leap into what makes gentle nutrition different, let's zoom out and talk about some nutrition basics.
What is Nutrition?
Nutrition is the intake of nutrients, including both macronutrients and micronutrients, from the foods you eat. Macronutrients are things your body needs in larger amounts (hence, the macro). This includes proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. Micronutrients are things your body needs in small amounts (micro amounts, if you will), like vitamins and minerals.
Nutrition is also the study of how the body uses those nutrients and the intersection of food, health, and disease.
Nutrition is complicated and nuanced.
Gentle nutrition makes eating easier.
Why is Nutrition Important?
The body uses nutrients to grow, repair, and maintain life; without nutrients, you wouldn’t be alive.
Try thinking of your body as a factory made up of several specialized areas that ultimately come together to make one thing: You.
The nutrients are the raw materials your factory needs to make that happen. If any of the nutrients are in short supply, the factory of your body will have to prioritize the materials to be used for the most essential functions first to maintain life.
Each nutrient (macro and micro) has more than one role in the body.
How Your Body Uses Nutrients
Nutrients that your body must get from food are considered essential nutrients. They are essential for life because the body cannot make them from other things. A diet without these essential nutrients negatively impacts the body’s ability to function effectively.
Protein
You might think of protein first as a source of energy, but its importance goes far beyond its caloric content. There are 20 amino acids, the building blocks of protein, found in the human body. Of those nine are considered essential, meaning they need to be consumed.
Protein is used to create, maintain, and repair tissues like your muscles, organs, skin, nails, and hair. It also has a role in the production of neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine. Protein is needed for enzymes that facilitate reactions in the body, like digestion and metabolism. It is also essential for hormones like insulin, which regulate energy and metabolism. The immune system also relies on protein to defend the body against infections. Without protein, the body would not be able to transport things like oxygen through the blood.
Protein breaks down slower in the digestive tract than carbohydrates, which can contribute to satiation and help stabilize blood sugar levels for more steady energy.
Fat
Like protein, fat can be used as an energy source but also has many other roles in the body. Again, similar to protein, there are essential fatty acids that you must get from eating food because the body is unable to produce them.
Fat is needed to help absorb other nutrients like fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. Each cell in the body is surrounded by a membrane made of fat that gives them both structure and fluidity. Cell membranes are important for proper cellular communication and function. Hormones, like those responsible for reproduction, sleep, and the stress response, require fat for synthesis. Your brain is 60% fat.
In terms of eating, fat makes food taste good. It can carry fat-soluble flavor and aroma compounds, and it contributes to the texture of foods, including crispness and tenderness. Fat tends to slow the rate of digestion, which contributes to feeling full and satisfied for a longer time after eating.
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are made up of sugars, mostly glucose, which is the body’s preferred source of energy and the main fuel source for the brain, supporting cognitive function and concentration.
Carbohydrates also have a role in cellular processes like the immune system and metabolic regulation. Fiber, an indigestible form of carbohydrate, supports digestive health, blood sugar levels, and heart health. Carbs also support muscle function and endurance activities.
If the body does not get enough carbohydrates from the diet, it will breakdown lean muscle tissue to meet energy needs. Eating enough carbohydrates spares protein, so it is available for more essential functions like those described above.
Despite current diet trends that suggest reducing or eliminating carbs, carbohydrate foods contribute to satiety, the feeling of being full and satisfied after eating. Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is a chemical produced by the brain that triggers the desire to eat carbohydrate-rich foods. NPY is highest in the morning after an overnight fast or other extended periods without food (or without enough food). When you consume carbohydrates, the body increases the production of serotonin, which turns off the production of NPY. Serotonin is your feel-good hormone, which is why, in times of stress or high emotions, you might find yourself reaching for high-carbohydrate comfort foods.
Micronutrients: Vitamins and Minerals
Vitamins are organic compounds, meaning they contain carbon, and minerals are inorganic compounds, meaning they don't contain carbon. The body needs these in smaller amounts than macronutrients, but they are still vital to how the body functions. They are required as enzymes, co-enzymes, or cofactors in many essential processes in the body, including:
Metabolism
Cell growth and repair
Immune system support
Nervous system function
Blood clotting
Electrolyte balance
Bone health
Vision
Production of neurotransmitters
Production of hormones
Muscle contraction and relaxation
Oxygen transport
Production of collagen
Antioxidants
Free radicals are molecules that can cause oxidative stress, which may contribute to diseases and aging. They can be produced during regular metabolic reactions in the body and from damaging external sources like UV light and pollution. Antioxidants can pair up with the free radicals and stop the oxidative damage.
Some vitamins, like vitamin C and E, have antioxidant properties. The body also produces powerful antioxidants like glutathione, which require the intake of nutrients like protein, vitamins, and minerals. Colorful plant foods like fruits and vegetables contain phytochemicals or phytonutrients like flavonoids, carotenoids, and polyphenols with antioxidant properties. This is why you often hear the advice, "Eat the Rainbow."
Phew, are you feeling overwhelmed?
The cool thing is that your body knows the details, so you don’t have to.
What Happens When Dieting Disrupts Nutrition?
Clearly, nutrition is important. Without nutrients, you would cease to exist. But focusing on diet in the modern world is not without risks.
These days, most nutritional advice is packaged in weight loss or wellness diets. The goal of this advice is not really about the science of nutrition; it is about changing the size and shape of your body to better meet what society deems desirable.
When people believe there is a “right” and “wrong” way to eat, it can lead to disordered eating.
Disordered eating behaviors and beliefs could include:
Skipping meals or fasting
Anxiety about food and eating
Restricting certain foods
Eliminating entire food groups
Not eating enough calories to meet your body’s baseline nutrient needs
Centering external food rules while ignoring your body’s signals of hunger or fullness
Having rigid rules about food or exercise
Feeling guilt or shame about food or eating
Preoccupation with food, weight, or body image
Feeling out of control around food
Eating in secret
Binge eating
Using compensatory behaviors after eating “bad” foods, like excessive exercise or laxatives
Being obsessed with eating only “healthy” foods is orthorexia, which is disordered eating.
It is not uncommon to see orthorexia or other disordered eating behaviors among nutrition, fitness, and wellness professionals, including dietitians, nutritionists, personal trainers, doctors, health coaches, and alternative medicine practitioners. It is important to use caution and a critical mind when taking diet and health advice from anyone.
What is Gentle Nutrition?
Gentle nutrition is different from dieting.
The term gentle nutrition comes from the last principle of intuitive eating. It is a non-diet, evidence-based approach to nutrition that supports overall health. With gentle nutrition, your body is the boss. When you make peace with food and drop restrictive food rules, you naturally find your balance, even in a world full of Twinkies and potato chips. I was highly skeptical of this claim, and you might be too (most clients are). However, if you truly give yourself the time and space to practice Intuitive Eating, it will start to click into place.
Gentle nutrition is about improving and maintaining health, not shrinking your body. Making dietary and lifestyle changes to support health is not the same as shrinking your body. Diets that focus on shrinking the size of your body often erode mental, physical, and/or emotional health in the pursuit of thinness.
The combination of all the principles of intuitive eating ladder up to gentle nutrition. Gentle nutrition means achieving your authentic health by integrating inner attunement to your body’s signals with legitimate external health guidelines.
What is a Gentle Nutrition Approach?
Gentle nutrition is all about eating foods that support your body. This includes a mix of nutrient-dense foods, those that offer a lot of nutrient-bang for the bite, and those that are less nutritionally packed but provide pleasure, joy, connection, or comfort. Food plays many roles in our lives, and nutrition is only one of them. Healthy doesn’t always mean the most nutrient-dense.
When looking to increase nutrient density in your diet, think of what you can add. Most people are lacking in things like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fiber-rich foods like beans. Could you add black beans to taco night? How about adding a side of fruit to your typical breakfast? Is there a whole-grain cracker that you like that would pair with your afternoon cheese snack? Maybe you could try stirring some roughly chopped baby spinach into your favorite pasta dish?
4 Parts of Gentle Nutrition
1. Enough
It is important to eat enough food to support your body. This amount of food might be more than what past diets have suggested you “should” need. The more you tune into your hunger and fullness cues, the more confident you will be in your body telling when it has had enough and when it needs more.
Not eating enough food can contribute to digestive issues, increased anxiety, and fatigue, among other things.
2. Balance
Balance in gentle nutrition is all about eating a mix of macronutrients at most meals and snacks. A combination of protein, fat, and carbohydrates is generally more satisfying and more sustaining. It helps to stabilize blood sugar, which can regulate energy levels and mood.
3. Variety
Variety means striving to eat different kinds of foods within each macronutrient group. Variety doesn’t have to be in one meal or one day. You can get variety by purchasing different fruits and vegetables each time you shop. Maybe you get broccoli and oranges one week and green beans and strawberries the next. Mix up your protein sources throughout the week. Try different blends of herbs and spices. Maybe this week breakfast is egg sandwiches, and next week it is oatmeal.
4. Moderation
Moderation is not being overly focused on a single food, nutrient, or amount of food. I also think of moderation as eating at more regularly spaced times rather than a single large meal. Moderating your total food intake more evenly throughout the day can dramatically reduce binge eating and emotional eating episodes.
Why is Gentle Nutrition the Last Principle of Intuitive Eating?
There is a good reason that gentle nutrition is the last principle of intuitive eating. If you haven’t dismantled the food police, rejected diet culture, made peace with food, embraced your right-now body, found satisfaction in eating, and tuned into internal cues of hunger and fullness, then external nutrition advice runs the risk of turning into another diet.
Are You Ready for Gentle Nutrition?
Since I don’t know you and your history of food and dieting, I can’t say for sure if you are ready to jump into gentle nutrition. If this is the first time you are reading about gentle nutrition or you are new to the idea of intuitive eating, I am pretty confident in saying you are not yet ready for gentle nutrition.
As frustrating as it might be, it takes time to unlearn old habits, learn to listen to and trust your body, and critically evaluate external diet and food messages.
Working with a nutritionist who specializes in gentle nutrition makes the transition from thinking of food as a way to manipulate the size of your body to having a holistically healthy relationship with food less daunting.
It varies from person to person, but a good rule of thumb is to give yourself several months of practicing the other aspects of intuitive eating before consciously layering in gentle nutrition.
In that time, you will likely have glimpses of gentle nutrition. You will start to notice how food makes you feel, including how you feel around food when you are at different levels of hunger and eat to different levels of fullness. When you tune into these sensations, you might start to make different choices based on how you want to feel at that time.
I know that rejecting diets, becoming an intuitive eater, and incorporating gentle nutrition can feel overwhelming, but I am here to help. Learn more about working together one-on-one, or check out my 12-week Intuitive Eating for Skeptics Program for support.
The information provided is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to be medical advice or to diagnosis, treat, cure or prevent any disease. This information does not replace a one-on-one relationship with a physician or healthcare professional. Dietary changes and/or the taking of nutritional supplements may have differing effects on individuals.
To learn more about how working with a nutritionist could help you, schedule a free 15-minute call.