Art of Intentions with Maya Feller, MS, RD, CDN
At a time when nutrition feels increasingly restrictive and trend-driven, Maya Feller offers a more grounded perspective. As a Brooklyn-based dietitian, founder of Maya Feller Nutrition, and author of Eating From Our Roots, her work blends clinical expertise with a deeply personal understanding of how food shapes identity, culture, and long-term health.
Rooted in her early experiences around the table, where nourishment meant connection as much as it did nutrition, Maya’s approach challenges the idea that eating well requires restriction or disconnection from the foods we love.
In this edition of Art of Intentions, she shares the philosophy and daily practices that guide her work today, and why true nourishment is less about perfection and more about building something sustainable, inclusive, and real.
Your work brings together clinical nutrition, cultural food traditions, and a more human-centered approach to health. What originally shaped your philosophy around food and wellbeing?
My earliest memories around food and wellbeing date back to childhood and are specifically related to family and a sense of belonging. Nourishment, specifically breaking bread with loved ones, was central to my mothers’ home. Our dining room table was a place where flavor, spice, color, strong tastes, and smells were enjoyed over deep conversation and laughter. These formative years taught me that nourishment was a non-negotiable, and there was no reason to make yourself physically or figuratively smaller to fit someone else's ideal of who you should be. The women who graced our home and table reminded me that wellbeing encompasses physical, emotional, and community. As I’ve grown my family and have had the privilege of taking care of people from a variety of backgrounds, I know that food, how we eat, and what we eat are central to our identity. And I also know that food holds memory and tradition, so as a clinician working in nutrition, I know that it’s my job to honor my patients' foodways and bridge the clinical with their lived experience.
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