Compassionate Eating

A thought-provoking guide to breaking free from the obsession with 'eating healthy' and embracing balanced nourishment

How much time do you spend each day thinking about what you eat? Planning meals, buying ingredients, preparing food for the entire week… And if we add the need to ensure everything is organic, gluten-, sugar-, refined oil-, or lactose-free, within a specific calorie limit, or even aligned with intermittent fasting— our time spent managing our diet becomes overwhelming. But does this really mean we are taking care of our health?

In the age of information overload, we are constantly exposed to new studies on diets, nutritional values, and toxins in our food, while social media is filled with athletic, healthy influencers promoting new dietary trends—most of them
centered on self-control, willpower, and a sense of morality. As a result, an increasing number of people develop an excessive fixation on "eating right," leading to rigid dietary restrictions, guilt, and anxiety around food choices—a phenomenon known as orthorexia. With so many external voices telling us what to do, we often forget to listen to the most important one: our own body.

In these pages, Mireia Hurtado invites us to reflect on the complexity of self-care in today’s world and the need to find a balance between external expectations and our internal needs. Through a lens of compassion and mindful eating, she teaches us how to cultivate a more flexible, intuitive approach to self care—one that is based on our personal needs rather than rigid rules or passing trends.