Could verb nominalization work like the て form?

Hello!

Adding の or こと to a plain form verb seems to turn it into a noun. In some ways it seems to behave like the て form. In theory would it be grammatically correct to say 「食べるのはいけません」 instead of 「食べてはいけません」?

If this is incorrect would it still be comprehensible? What kind of misunderstanding would there be?

by Independent-Ad-7060