Scrolling through mouthwatering food photos on Instagram can honestly be downright arousing. After all, it's called food porn for a reason, right? But with so many foodies filling the social media stratosphere to the brim, it can be hard to decide who to follow (so that your entire feed isn't clogged with an aggressive amount of kale salads and matcha pancake stacks). Not to worry, friends: Within all of the culinary chaos, there are a few foodies to follow on Instagram who are truly diamonds in the rough. Trust me, these ladies are as real as it gets.
First of all, as lighthearted and uncontroversial as said "food porn" on Instagram can be, it's important to acknowledge that you should never base your dietary needs off of what someone else is eating. Unfortunately, there are many people on social media providing uninformed and unprofessional advice regarding nutrition (read: without actual degrees in the field), which is extremely irresponsible, to say the least. That's why, when choosing which foodies to follow, it's worth it to do a bit of research on the influencer beforehand to make sure your feed is filled with everything from sound dietary advice to a variety of mind-, body-, and soul-nourishing recipes.
The women behind these seven foodie Instagrams often serve up a heaping dose of knowledge, mixed with a dash of aesthetically pleasing, mouthwatering content. Some are registered dietitians, and others are passionate foodies, but all of them are doing their damn thing as influential women on social media and teaching you to find the joy in food, one post at a time.
If you're sick of wellness influencers who only post pictures of their smoothie bowls and matcha lattes and call it "balance," head on over to Robyn Nohling's Instagram, where the content truly is about blissful, realistic balance. Nohling describes herself in her Instagram bio as "a non-diet dietitian & nurse practitioner," who's all about helping women make peace with their bodies.
Nohling's approach to food is incredibly refreshing and non-restrictive, and her caption underneath a photo of a cookie earlier this week spoke to my soul:
What goes through your mind when you see a picture of a cookie? Maybe you didn't think much, maybe you thought it looked tasty (it was) or maybe you thought...⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
"Sugar is inflammtory. Sugar is bad. Sugar is addicting."⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Micromanaging your sugar intake or eliminating it all together creates a lot of psychological stress. Stress is inflammatory. Food is not a moral issue. Marginalized people. Terriorism. Human Rights. Those are moral issues. Not a cookie.
She added,⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Sugar is not addicting. Restricting sugar might make you feel addicted because your reward response to sugar is stronger, but you're not addicted. There's a difference between feeling out of control and feeling physiologically addicted. Eliminating sugar will make you crave sugar more, not less. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
How are you making peace with sugar?
Mic. Drop.
If you're into woodsy, earthy vibes with drool-worthy photos of peanut butter pancakes, buttery French toast, and vibrant tacos, Meg Dixon, aka @root_for_food on Instagram, should be your go-to gal. The integrative registered dietitian is all about "conscious and slow living," as her Insta bio says, as well as mindfully enjoying the food you eat, and sustainably sourced ingredients from local farmers markets.
Dixon never fails to keep things real AF in her Instagram content. In the caption for an especially tasty-looking photo of a strawberry ice cream cone, the RD wrote,
Don’t let the pursuit of “health” cause you to compromise in other areas of your life and therefore compromise your ability to experience TRUE wellness. Because true wellness includes things like fun with friends, soul foods, and a relaxed mentality around food that does not include unnecessary, societally conditioned or fear based parameters.
Don’t let fear drive your food decisions. If you want the burger, get the damn burger. Live yo best life, friends!!!
Ella Mills is the UK-based woman behind the popular food blog, Deliciously Ella, which I've legit been following for years now. Mills was diagnosed with postural tachycardia syndrome (which, put simply, is a condition in which a person's blood doesn't return to their heart quite as fast as it should when they go from sitting to standing, resulting in lightheadedness and fainting) back in 2011, and soon after that, she found plant-based foods to be very healing for her symptoms. And thus, the colorfully creative recipes that make up Deliciously Ella were born. In the "About" page on her website, Mills wrote,
Deliciously Ella is all about celebrating what you can do with delicious, plant based ingredients. It’s not about diet or deprivation, there’s no one size fits all, and everything I do can be adapted to suit you.
I eat the way I do as it helps me manage my illness, but I don’t want Deliciously Ella to be prescriptive in any way. Recent research has shown that only 27% of people get their 5-a-day in the UK, and I hope that the way I can help is by providing the most interesting, delicious ways, to add more fruit and vegetables in to your diet. My values are: Natural, Simple, Honest, and I hope that comes through in everything I do. That can range from trying to create delicious recipes with a limited amount of well known, readily available ingredients, to sharing the recipes for our products we sell in grocery stores.
Now these are some values we can all get behind, no?
In her Instagram bio, Rachael Hartley describes herself as a "private practice RD and blogger on a mission to take the diet out of dietitian." Hartley helps women rediscover the joy of eating through both her career and the inspirational text and food posts decorating her social media feed.
While there are definitely plenty of food posts on her feed, what really stands out to me are the completely woke truth bombs Hartley consistently drops in her captions. In a post from Aug. 16, the RD wrote,
In our fatphobic society, the way body fat, or adipose tissue, is talked about makes it sound like it’s this dangerous thing. But there’s a biological need for body fat - it’s not this inert substance. Fat tissue plays many important roles in supporting our body’s health.
Another RD who will make you consider ditching diets once and for all is Alissa Rumsey, who's all about educating her followers on the benefits of intuitive eating on her Instagram page. In a post from December 2017, Rumsey uploaded a photo with the text: "Diet idea: Eat whatever you want and if anyone tries to lecture you about it, eat them too." Preach, woman. Preach.
Dana Shultz is the recipe developer, content creator, and food photographer behind the Minimalist Baker blog, and TBH, every single one of her posts will make you want to sprint to your oven and go on a full-out baking spree of savory-sweet goodness.
Shultz's recipes take food porn to new heights, and they're super simple for people who are a bit, shall we say, unskilled in the kitchen (aka me). Plus, as the foodie's Instagram bio says, Shultz's recipes only require one bowl, 10 ingredients or less, and take 30 minutes max to prepare — are you in love yet?
On her Minimalist Baker blog, Shultz wrote,
While there’s always been a love for sweet things, Minimalist Baker is about much more. We love our hearty entrées as much as we love our decadent desserts.
Whether you have dietary restrictions or not, we hope you’ll find something you love here.
Nazima Qureshi, MPH, RD is a dietitian and nutritionist with a "non-diet approach," as her Insta bio explains, and she's all about helping Muslim women live their healthiest and happiest lives.
Qureshi has a refreshing perspective on how to make healthy foods taste genuinely delicious. In the caption for a photo of Brussels sprouts from back in April, the foodie wrote,
I never had Brussels sprouts growing up but I always saw it in TV shows as a disliked veggie by kids. I had it for the first time after I got married and I LOVED it. I make it a variety of ways but never wrote down a recipe for it.
My mission this week is to put together a "omg Brussels sprouts taste so good" recipe. How do you feel about these little guys?
Honestly, if Qureshi can turn veggie haters into Brussels sprouts enthusiasts, she can do anything.
