This PRIDE month, we’re reflecting on the vital importance of providing nutrition care that truly sees, understands, and affirms the whole person. For LGBTQIA+ individuals, accessing healthcare that respects their identity isn’t just preferred—it’s essential for achieving meaningful health outcomes.
As nutrition professionals, we have both an opportunity and a responsibility to create spaces where every client feels safe, understood, and supported in their journey toward health and healing.
Beyond One-Size-Fits-All: Why Traditional Approaches Fall Short
Traditional nutrition counseling often operates from assumptions that don’t reflect the diverse realities of LGBTQIA+ individuals. Standard approaches may focus heavily on conventional body ideals, use gendered language around food and body goals, or fail to account for the complex relationship many LGBTQIA+ people have with their bodies.
For transgender and gender-diverse individuals especially, the relationship with their body is often deeply intertwined with their gender identity. A cisgender person’s body concerns might center around health, appearance, or performance, while a transgender person may also be navigating gender dysphoria, the effects of hormone therapy, or preparing for gender-affirming surgeries. These experiences require a fundamentally different approach—one that recognizes how gender identity intersects with nutrition, body image, and overall wellbeing.
Similarly, many LGBTQIA+ individuals have experienced discrimination or insensitive treatment in healthcare settings, leading to delayed care, medical mistrust, or avoiding treatment altogether. When we rely on standardized protocols without considering these unique experiences, we risk perpetuating harm and missing opportunities to provide truly effective care.
Creating Affirming Spaces: Practical Steps for Inclusive Nutrition Care
Building an affirming practice starts with intentional changes, both big and small. Here are key strategies we’ve found essential in creating genuinely inclusive care:
Language matters immensely. Using inclusive language means moving beyond assumptions about relationships, bodies, and experiences. Instead of asking about “boyfriend or husband,” we ask about “partner or significant other.” Rather than defaulting to “women often struggle with…” we might say “many people experience…” This shift in language signals safety and inclusivity from the very first interaction.
Intake forms and assessments should reflect diverse experiences. Standard forms often include only binary gender options or ask invasive questions that aren’t relevant to nutrition care. We’ve redesigned our intake process to include preferred pronouns, chosen names, and open-ended questions about how someone’s identity intersects with their relationship to food and their body.
Understanding the unique intersection of gender dysphoria and body image is crucial. For many transgender individuals, body dissatisfaction isn’t simply about wanting to look different—it’s about the distress that comes from their body not aligning with their gender identity. This requires us to approach body image work with particular sensitivity and skill.
Creating physical spaces that feel welcoming includes thoughtful details. Gender-inclusive restrooms, diverse representation in waiting room materials, and intake forms that don’t assume cisgender, heterosexual experiences all contribute to an environment where LGBTQIA+ clients feel seen and welcomed.
Training and ongoing education for all staff ensures consistent, affirming care. This includes understanding basic LGBTQIA+ terminology, recognizing the impact of minority stress on health outcomes, and knowing when and how to refer to other affirming providers when needs fall outside our scope of practice.
Navigating Gender Dysphoria and Body Image: A Specialized Intersection
The relationship between gender dysphoria and body image presents unique considerations that require specialized understanding. Gender dysphoria—the distress that may occur when someone’s gender identity doesn’t align with their assigned sex at birth—can significantly impact how someone relates to food, eating, and their body.
Some transgender individuals might restrict eating in an attempt to suppress secondary sex characteristics, while others might use food or weight changes to help their body align more closely with their gender identity. Still others might avoid eating in social situations due to discomfort with gendered expectations around food and eating behaviors.
When working with clients experiencing gender dysphoria, it’s essential to understand that their relationship with their body exists within the context of their gender identity. Traditional body acceptance approaches may not be appropriate or helpful when someone’s distress stems from gender incongruence rather than societal beauty standards.
This is where truly individualized care becomes paramount. We work collaboratively with each client to understand their unique experience, goals, and challenges. For some, this might mean supporting them through the physical changes that come with hormone therapy. For others, it might involve helping them develop a more neutral relationship with their body while they navigate their gender journey.
We also recognize that healing happens in community. Connecting clients with affirming mental health providers, support groups, and other healthcare professionals who understand LGBTQIA+ experiences is often an essential part of comprehensive care.
The Heart of Affirming Care: True Individualization
At its core, gender-affirming nutrition care is about meeting each person exactly where they are. It’s about listening more than we speak, asking thoughtful questions rather than making assumptions, and recognizing that each person is the expert on their own experience.
This means our treatment plans look different for each client—not just in terms of nutritional recommendations, but in how we approach sensitive topics, what goals we prioritize, and how we measure success. For one client, progress might look like developing a more peaceful relationship with food during their gender transition. For another, it might mean finding ways to nourish their body that feel aligned with their identity.
This individualized approach extends to understanding how various identities intersect. An LGBTQIA+ person of color, for instance, may face additional layers of discrimination and unique cultural considerations around food and body image. Someone who is both transgender and dealing with an eating disorder requires care that addresses both experiences simultaneously, not separately.
Moving Forward with Intention
As we celebrate PRIDE month, we’re reminded that affirming care isn’t just about displaying rainbow flags in our offices—it’s about fundamentally examining our practices, our assumptions, and our commitment to serving all individuals with dignity and respect.
This work is ongoing. It requires us to stay curious, continue learning, and remain open to feedback from the communities we serve. It means recognizing when we need additional training or when a client might benefit from working with a provider who has more specialized experience.
Most importantly, it means holding space for each person’s unique journey toward health and healing, recognizing that true wellness encompasses not just physical health, but the profound wellbeing that comes from being seen, understood, and affirmed for who you are.
Every person deserves nutrition care that honors their full identity and supports their individual path to healing. This PRIDE month and beyond, we’re committed to providing exactly that kind of care—because when we truly see and affirm our clients, remarkable healing becomes possible.
The providers here at Rooted Path Nutrition and Eating Disorders are all weight and gender inclusive, non-diet and trained in the principles of Health at Every Size.
Reach out today – we’d love to support you on your health journey.