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The Intentional Table
Feeding kids isn’t just about what’s on the plate - it’s about raising them to feel confident, capable, and at peace with food and their bodies.
The Intentional Table Podcast is here to help you break the cycles of guilt, shame, and mealtime stress so you can raise kids who eat well and feel good about it.
Hosted by Nicole Cruz, a registered dietitian and mom of three who has coached thousands of parents, this podcast gives you the tools, structure, and mindset shifts to create a positive, empowered eating environment at home.
With guidance, compassion, and strategies that really work, you’ll feel more confident and less stressed while supporting your kids through 'picky' eating, 'overeating', struggles with sweets, and everything in between.
The Intentional Table
Parenting Without Diet Culture with Oona Hanson
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As parents, we're constantly bombarded with conflicting messages about food: avoid ultra-processed foods, watch out for seed oils, limit sugar, push the vegetables. And underneath all of it is this fear - that if we don't control what our kids eat, something bad will happen.
In this episode, I'm talking with parent coach and educator Oona Hanson about what it really means to parent without diet culture - and why letting go of food rules and weight concerns is one of the most powerful things we can do for our kids' health.
Oona shares her journey from high school teacher to parent coach after helping her own child recover from an eating disorder. And she's not holding back on the hard truths: kids as young as six are showing up in treatment for anorexia, our focus on "healthy eating" is making kids sicker, and the restrictive messages we're sending are often the exact thing driving the behaviors we're trying to prevent.
In this conversation, we talk about:
- What diet culture actually is (and what it's not)
- The early warning signs of disordered eating in elementary-aged kids that parents often miss
- Why kids need to gain significant weight during puberty - and what happens when we try to prevent it
- How to respond when your child asks "why is my belly sticking out?" without making it worse
- The truth about weight and health that challenges everything we've been taught
- Why restriction and control around food almost always backfire
If you know that you want to parent without diet culture and show your child there's another way to think about food and bodies, then this episode is for you!
Want to connect? Send us a text!
CONNECT with Nicole:
- Instagram: @nicolecruzRD
- Book a FREE Eating Alignment Call with Nicole to learn more about our approach and how we can work together: Eating Alignment Call
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Thank you for tuning in and see you next week!