What is Gentle Nutrition?
Gentle nutrition is the tenth (10th) principle of intuitive eating, though it doesn’t have to be only associated with intuitive eating. It is a way of eating that takes both your wants and needs for food into consideration. With gentle nutrition, we are focusing on the satisfaction of eating. Have you ever felt guilty for eating something? If you have, take it as a sign that your relationship with food needs some improvement. Gentle nutrition can be a great first step towards healing this relationship, and luckily for you, we’ll take a dive into gentle nutrition today.
Mindful Eating vs Balanced Eating vs Intuitive Eating – What’s the Difference?
In general, these terms come down to about the same things. However, you must be wary of dieting tricks. All of these terms will never mean restriction. If a plan has you cutting out certain foods or food groups entirely, this is a good sign that it’s not actually promoting gentle nutrition. Gentle nutrition will focus on moderation, balance, and feeding your body and mind.
As mentioned earlier, gentle nutrition is part of intuitive eating and comes in at the 10th principle: honor your body with gentle nutrition. What exactly does this mean? There are two main items this takes into consideration: what does my body want and what does my body need. Listening to your body’s hunger and satiety signals as well as to how certain foods make you feel is the key to principle 10. Working through the first nine (9) principles of intuitive eating with the help of a certified intuitive eating counselor can help you better and fully understand gentle nutrition.
How Do I Decide What and How Much to Eat?
Listening to your body is key! Let’s look at a few of the basics:
Hunger and satiety (fullness): often viewed on a scale of 1 to 10, the level of hunger and fullness we feel should dictate how much we eat. It is important to know that chronic dieting and some syndromes can cause these hunger and fullness cues to not work properly. Working with a dietitian can help you try to bring these cues back to a reliable level. If you never feel hunger signals or only feel them once or twice a day, it’s a good sign that your body isn’t trusting you to eat when it needs you to.
There are a few other things to take into consideration when making these decisions:
- Cravings tend to occur more when we restrict more. It’s common for individuals to feel that cravings will take over when they start something like intuitive eating, however proper nutrition is where we can stop this. Talk to your dietitian to learn more!
- Looking at what you have planned for the day is important as well. If your schedule isn’t your norm, then your eating habits are likely going to be different. By planning ahead and scheduling times to stop and eat, you’re getting ahead of the game to be successful or the day. Another example of this is if you’re getting ready for a gym session or a run, but know you haven’t eaten recently. You know you’ll likely feel better (and perform better!) if you go ahead and eat something now even if you aren’t fully hungry.
Can I Lose Weight if I Eat Intuitively?
It’s important to understand that the goal of gentle nutrition and intuitive eating is not to lose weight. Some people will lose weight, others will gain, and some will maintain their weight when they first start eating intuitively. Gentle nutrition focuses on adding items to your meals and snacks, not restricting. Our aim is to take the guilt out of eating choices. Eating is something we all must do in order to live and thrive, so it should never be something to feel guilty about! Focus on eating a wide variety of foods. Each food has its own unique nutritional profile, making all foods fit into a satisfying and nutritionally balanced day of eating.
We each have our own “weight set point”- the weight at which our body is happy at without depriving it of essential nutrition. This is determined by our genetics and just like those genetics, is unique to each and every one of us! Also, like genetics, this is something we cannot change.
How Do I Decide My Intuitive Eating Goals?
When looking at health, it’s important to note that one day, one meal, or one snack does not make or break your health status. When looking at goals, consider where you are currently and what you feel would be easiest to add in. Again, the key is to focus on addition, not restriction. This will look different for everyone. Maybe it’s adding a snack in between lunch and dinner where you always find yourself hungry. Maybe it’s adding fruit to your breakfast or vegetables to your lunch. If you’re not sure how to set these goals or what to look at first, contact our dietitians for a personalized recommendations!
What if I Have a Specific Health Condition?
Many conditions such as diabetes, food allergies, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc., require adjustments to nutritional intake. If you remember from above, gentle nutrition takes your food wants and needs into consideration. These adjustments from conditions are where additional nutritional needs come in. Many, if not all of these conditions can be improved by working with a dietitian. Rest assured; these conditions can also be improved when taking gentle nutrition into consideration. If you struggle with your relationship with food as the result of a condition or struggled before the condition, be sure to talk to your dietitian about both concerns.
Can I be an Intuitive Eater if I Struggle with Emotional Eating?
Emotional eating can be a struggle for many different reasons and should be addressed by the entire care team: your doctor, dietitian, behavioral health, and any other specialty needed. It’s recommended to have your care team work together to provide you with the best care possible. If you currently see one of our dietitians and also see a primary care doctor, behavioral health (counselor, therapist, etc), or another provider, speak to your dietitian about the communication between your care team.
Sustainability and Long-Term Benefits
Fad diets are notorious for being a short-term solution. Think of the magazine covers that boast “lose 10 pounds in 10 days!” or “no exercise diet plan!”. Maybe you’ve even tried them before and you did lose weight fast, but then couldn’t maintain them for more than a few weeks. The weight came back, maybe even more. Many so-called “diet plans” are very extreme and go against actual nutritional needs. They’re a form of restriction, often to the extreme extent, and can lead to weight cycling or “yo-yoing” (weight going up and down and up and down). Weight cycling is very hard on the body and can lead to disordered eating. Long-term, these can have dire health consequences.
Whether you’ve just started dieting or have been doing it your entire life, it’s never too late to switch gears. I hope you’ve learned more about gentle nutrition today, and maybe even learned more about your relationship with food. I am sure you also still have more questions. We have a team of dietitians ready to help you accomplish your goals in a sustainable and realistic way. Head over to our contact page or give us a call for your free discovery call today! You can also check out the blog section of our website for more posts about intuitive eating, including an assessment form to see how intuitively your relationship with food really is.
