Gentle Nutrition: A Non-Diet Approach to Healthy Eating

I love, love, love this book! The food/eating philosophies are so validating, healthy and helpful. Gentle Nutrition teaches us to eat in a long term sustainable way x no dieting and no bad foods. Also, I’ve made two recipes so far and found booth delicious and easy to make!

Gentle Nutrition by Rachael Hartley is such a wonderful book for anyone trying to honor their body and practice self care completely divorced from the toxic influence of diet culture.On my IE journey, I've read the classic book by Evelyn Tribole & Elyse Resch (including the 4th edition) as well as Body Respect, Health at Every Size, and the fantastic Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison (among other writings). All have been so important in helping to identify diet culture in both society and in my thoughts and to delegitimize its tenets.However, I've felt there's been a gap in the literature and that gap has been beautifully filled with Gentle Nutrition. I love how it re-frames nutrition broadly and making it more about self care, nourishing your body, and emphasizes satisfaction.The accompanying recipes (which are totally amazing, BTW–I have 4 kids ages 4-9 and most recipes are big hits with them) give the opportunity to put the principles of GN into practice.Love love love this book. The illustrations and images are gorgeous and the content is amazing. Highly recommend.

The message of this book makes perfect sense. The author comes off as gentle and compassionate, which is so wonderful with a topic that can be as complicated as eating in our complex world. The book is also beautifully done. Graphics are lovely. It’s organized so well. A true pleasure to read. I am beginning my journey out of dieting and disordered eating and this book is a great supplement to other books and podcasts that I am delving into.

Gentle Nutrition is an excellent book for those who are interested in learning about intuitive eating. Rachael Hartley successfully breaks down intuitive eating into easily digestible pieces. I actually read this book with my cousin (she lives across the country from me - we would read a chapter a week & then talk about it via FaceTime) and we learned a LOT! It is a very different way of approaching food and learning how to listen to your body for hunger & fullness cues, differentiate between hunger and stress/boredom/depression and discovering (or rediscovering) the joy of eating. The graphics used in the book are very helpful and thoughtfully utilized. I actually work in public health with chronic disease prevention and am looking forward to introducing this book to my coworkers via a book club format. This is a great read. Oh! ... and the recipes are fantastic.

I preordered this book after following Rachael on IG for some time. I learned so much from the first half! I use the health determinants chart all the time with (psychotherapy) clients. My hubby and I decided to start cooking through the recipes in the new year and we are both LOVING the meals! We both love food so much. I am an immigrant and I travel a fair bit so I have a really wide palate. One of my greatest struggles in embracing intuitive eating has been the concept of satisfaction. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wandered around the kitchen, trying to figure out how to achieve it. Rachael’s recipes have helped me make great progress with this because I’ve noticed her unique blend of flavors and textures really hit the spot! I’m realizing I need crunch and savory combos. “Full” is no longer pleasant - “satisfied” is what I need most. Not only did she teach me that but she’s helping me figure out how to achieve it!