Cookbook: Gentle Nutrition

Intuitive eating is a non-diet approach to healthy eating that focuses on unlearning diet culture’s toxic messaging so you can build a healthier relationship with food and your body and focus on health- promoting behaviors as opposed to weight loss. There is a common perception that intuitive eating approaches are also anti-nutrition, but that’s simply not the case. In this book, registered dietitian Rachael Hartley looks at the role of gentle nutrition in intuitive eating. She explores why diets don’t work—and make you eat less healthfully—why weight doesn’t equal health, and how to approach nutrition in a flexible way, with the goal of promoting well-being, not reaching for an arbitrary number on the scale.

Gentle Nutrition: A Non-Diet Approach to Healthy Eating focuses on the big picture rather than getting wrapped up in minor details that can make nutrition seem confusing or overwhelming. Hartley makes it practical by offering science-based, straightforward strategies for building healthy habits. In Gentle Nutrition, she explains how to plan satisfying meals and snacks that nourish the body throughout the day while honoring the need to find pleasure in food. The book includes more than 50 nutritious and delicious recipes for breakfasts, main dishes, snacks, and desserts.

There are many people who don’t want to diet, but do want to better understand how to take care of their bodies with food. This approachable guide brings to light how nutrition fits into the context of intuitive eating. When we leave diet culture behind and remove the assumption that weight equals health, we can focus on truly honoring our health and well-being.

Rachael Hartley, RD, LD, is a Columbia, SC-based nutrition therapist, certified intuitive eating counselor and nationally-recognized food and nutrition expert who is passionate about helping others rediscover the joy of eating and foster a healthier relationship with food. She is the founder of Rachael Hartley Nutrition, a weight-inclusive practice where she specializes in disordered eating and healing from chronic dieting, IBS and other digestive disorders, and women’s health.

She also runs the popular blog The Joy of Eating, where she shares practical intuitive eating advice and non-diet recipes, and is featured regularly in national media outlets. In 2021, Rachael released her first book, Gentle Nutrition: A Non-Diet Approach to Healthy Eating, which explores the role of nutrition in intuitive eating. Rachael presents regularly about intuitive eating and non-diet nutrition to professional audiences and the general public.