Updated on 2/27/2025
This March, we are recognizing National Nutrition Month at Center for Discovery. Celebrated annually this time of year, National Nutrition Month is a time to bring attention to the importance of nourishing our bodies. When we talk about nourishment, it means putting food into the body that promotes good health, growth and even enjoyment. If you’re wondering how to observe this important month, read on to see three ways to do it.
1. Recognize Different Dietary Philosophies
This Nutrition Month, learn and celebrate different dietary philosophies that fight against diet-culture. One is by using Intuitive Eating principles, a philosophy that is incorporated at Center for Discovery within its CARE-CFD Model dietary program.
Intuitive Eating
When you quiet the noise and opinions surrounding food and nutrition, your body’s innate wisdom can guide you toward what it needs for nourishment. The foundation of Intuitive Eating is to honor the body’s signals of hunger and fullness, challenging the cycle of chronic food rules. This Nutrition Month, consider the 10 Principals of Intuitive Eating and your unconditional permission to eat what you desire:
- Reject diet mentality.
- Honor your hunger.
- Make peace with food.
- Challenge the “food police.”
- Feel your fullness.
- Discover the satisfaction factor.
- Cope with emotions without using food.
- Respect the body.
- Exercise: Feel the difference.
- Honor your health—gentle nutrition.
2. Make Time for All Meals
If you skip meals or put off eating when you are hungry, you are lowering your ability to move through the day feeling like your best self and over time, can increase your likelihood of developing nutritional deficiencies. Such deficiencies can lead to other conditions such as anxiety and depression. This Nutrition Month, connect the idea of a philosophy like Intuitive Eating and make time to eat all meals of the day. Enjoy breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, and eat what sounds good to you. You can also think of how the food is providing you with nourishment as you tackle the day.
3. Celebrate Community
Now, let’s connect to the idea of making time for every meal by considering having a meal with a friend, family member or group this month. Carving out this time to recognize the way that food nourishes your body can create community with others and positively impact our mental health. Whether it’s connecting over dinner, grabbing a treat together or going out for breakfast, food brings people together. Pause, enjoy time with someone, share about your day and fill your body with nutrients over a shared meal. Celebrate the way food creates community, is an important part of different cultures, and how it links you and those you care about.
This Nutrition Month, we hope you find the positive in nourishing the body. But if you or someone you know is struggling with food and could possibly be dealing with an eating disorder, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at Center for Discovery or take a quick, anonymous eating disorder quiz. We have various levels of care (residential treatment, partial hospitalization (PHP), intensive outpatient (IOP); virtual programming; a unique dietary program; and free support groups that can help you wherever you are in your journey to recovery.