Hermine Dow,

I am not Yada nor a Hebrew expert but I’ll give your question a shot.

Many Hebrew verbs have a light and a dark (positive and negative) side. And clerics just love to use the dark or negative side of words.

Eating is how we get nourishment. Eating food is nourishing.

Webster’s definition of nurture:

nur•ture
noun \ˈnər-chər\
: the care and attention given to someone or something that is growing or developing
Full Definition of NURTURE
1
: training, upbringing
2
: something that nourishes : food
3
: the sum of the environmental factors influencing the behavior and traits expressed by an organism


Notice that H400 and H398 are spelled exactly the same.

H400
אכל
'ôkel
BDB Definition:
1) food
1a) cereal
1b) meat
2) food supply
3) meal, dinner
Part of Speech: noun masculine
A Related Word by BDB/Strong’s Number: from H398


H398
אכל
'âkal
BDB Definition:
1) to eat, devour, burn up, feed
1a) (Qal)
1a1) to eat (human subject)
1a2) to eat, devour (of beasts and birds)
1a3) to devour, consume (of fire)
1a4) to devour, slay (of sword)
1a5) to devour, consume, destroy (inanimate subjects i.e., pestilence, drought)
1a6) to devour (of oppression)
1b) (Niphal)
1b1) to be eaten (by men)
1b2) to be devoured, consumed (of fire)
1b3) to be wasted, destroyed (of flesh)
1c) (Pual)
1c1) to cause to eat, feed with
1c2) to cause to devour
1d) (Hiphil)
1d1) to feed
1d2) to cause to eat
1e) (Piel)
1e1) consume
Part of Speech: verb
A Related Word by BDB/Strong’s Number: a primitive root


Hope that this helped.

Shalom