Gentle nutrition is about nourishing your body in a way that feels good—without rigid food rules, guilt, or restriction. It’s the final principle of intuitive eating and invites you to consider how food choices can support your well-being, while still honoring pleasure, accessibility, and satisfaction. Rather than focusing on “perfect” eating, gentle nutrition is flexible and realistic.
Gentle Nutrition
Understanding Health Beyond Weight
When we talk about health, it’s important to remember that weight is not a reliable indicator of overall well-being. Just as telling someone facing financial hardship to “make more money” oversimplifies a complex situation, advising weight loss as a blanket solution for managing chronic health conditions overlooks the full picture. Bodies are diverse, and health is influenced by a wide range of social, genetic, and environmental factors—not just body size.
At Sööma, we take an inclusive, weight-neutral approach that focuses on sustainable habits, nourishment, and personalized care—because everyone deserves respectful, effective support for their health, regardless of their size.
What Is Gentle Nutrition?
Here are a few examples of what gentle nutrition might look like in practice:
- Choosing whole grain pasta for added fiber—but enjoying white pasta when that’s what sounds best.
- Adding a handful of spinach to your smoothie—not because you “should,” but because it feels good.
- Prioritizing regular meals and snacks to keep your energy steady—even if they don’t look “perfectly balanced.”
- Including a variety of colorful vegetables throughout the week—but not stressing if some meals are simpler.
Gentle nutrition is about progress, not perfection—and learning to care for your body with kindness and curiosity.
We are committed to supporting you with a weight-inclusive, intuitive eating approach grounded in collaboration and respect.
Sööma's Philosophy on Gentle Nutrition
A Weight-Inclusive, Anti-Diet Approach
At Sööma, our registered dietitians do not prescribe restrictive food plans or tell you what you should and shouldn’t eat. Healing your relationship with food is a complex and personal journey—and it involves much more than following external rules.
Through a compassionate, anti-diet lens, we explore how diet culture has disrupted your ability to trust your body and respond to its natural hunger and fullness cues. Your dietitian will work with you as a guide, helping you reconnect with your body’s needs so food and weight no longer control your life.
Health at Every Size® (HAES®) Informed Care
We do not subscribe to BMI, “ideal body weight,” or the belief that body size causes poor health. At Sööma, we believe that every body has a biologically appropriate weight it will settle at when nourished consistently and with care.
Health exists in a wide range of body sizes. There are healthy people in larger bodies and unhealthy people in smaller bodies—just as the reverse is true. The Health at Every Size® philosophy shifts the focus away from weight and toward sustainable, behavior-based changes that support overall well-being, regardless of body size.
Intuitive Eating: A Return to Body Trust
When you hear the term intuitive eating, it may sound like simply “eating normally”—and that’s exactly the point. For those not conditioned by diet culture, eating in response to internal cues may feel natural. But when you’ve spent years being told to control, restrict, or manipulate your food intake, intuition can become clouded.
Originally developed by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, intuitive eating is a non-diet, evidence-based approach that includes 10 guiding principles.
At Sööma, our dietitians use these principles in a flexible, personalized way to support your journey toward food freedom.
Our goal is to help you become an intuitive eater—not by following rules, but by learning to respond to your physical and emotional needs without shame or judgment. Intuitive eating is not a diet; it’s a way of being.
Gentle nutrition for chronic health conditions
Food plays a role in supporting physical health—but the way we relate to food matters just as much. If you’ve been diagnosed with a medical condition such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes, or high cholesterol, you may have been told that weight loss is the key to better health. At Sööma, we challenge that assumption.
Blaming weight oversimplifies the issue—much like telling someone struggling financially to “just make more money.” Our approach focuses instead on gentle nutrition, the tenth principle of intuitive eating. This principle emphasizes nourishment and well-being without rigid rules or shame.
We’ll support you in making sustainable, enjoyable food choices that work with your body—not against it. You can’t skip to gentle nutrition without first healing your relationship with food. That’s why we take the time to rebuild trust in your body before addressing nutrition strategies for your condition.
Sööma is committed to weight-inclusive, trauma-informed care that respects your lived experience.
Why your weight is not the problem
When we talk about health, it’s essential to consider both physical and mental well-being. In today’s culture, individuals living in larger bodies often face weight stigma—including constant pressure to shrink their bodies, restrict their food intake, and pursue weight loss at any cost. These pressures can lead to anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem, and may disconnect people from their natural cues of hunger, fullness, and satisfaction.
In response to this emotional burden, many individuals turn to food for comfort—sometimes called emotional eating—as a way to cope with stress, shame, or the unrealistic expectations placed on them. At the same time, fear of judgment often discourages people in larger bodies from engaging in joyful or accessible movement, contributing to further physical and emotional disconnection.
What’s more, chronic energy restriction can increase the risk of binge eating or feeling “out of control” around food. This is not a personal failure—it’s your body’s natural response to deprivation.
If you have a genetic predisposition to chronic conditions such as high cholesterol, hypertension, or diabetes, these stressors—not your body size—can contribute to worsening health outcomes. In fact, focusing on weight loss often intensifies the very issues it’s meant to resolve, creating a cycle of restriction, guilt, and rebound eating.
If you've been told that weight loss is the answer, we're here to offer another path—one rooted in compassion, evidence, and long-term well-being.
You deserve care that honors your body, not one that wages war against it.