Welcome to the Ask a Nutritionist podcast, brought to you by Nutritional Weight and Wellness.

We are thrilled to have you join us today as we discuss the connection between what you eat and how you feel,

and share practical real-life solutions for healthier living through balanced nutrition.

Now let's get started.

Good morning and welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition's new

midweek segment called Ask a Nutritionist. My name is Brittany Vincent and I am a registered and

licensed dietitian. On today's show brought to you by nutritional weight and wellness,

I'll be answering a nutrition question we've received from one of our Dishing Up Nutrition listeners.

The question today is, are there specific tips or suggestions for how to reframe celebrations or

rewards that don't include food? Or what would make a healthy food option feel more rewarding? Or how do you

celebrate your achievements in life without sabotaging your health effort? So the answer to this

question really varies from person to person. And it's kind of a loaded question. There's a lot here.

This person mentions rewards. And for me,

I think to how many people reward themselves with food after a tough day. If they're having a lot of

stress, they feel like they deserve a treat. And then celebrations was also mentioned in this topic and that's a little bit

different so I'm going to be touching on both of these I think for most of us the association of

food and reward really goes back to childhood most people think of dessert or candy as a treat.

It's something special.

You know, many of us only got dessert if we finished everything on our plate.

So that alone puts that sugar up on a pedestal and makes us want it even more and then creates a negative association with the vegetables on the plate or whatever

else was offered for dinner. Some parents or caregivers also reward kids with food if they're good.

You know, I remember in grade school, we would get what was called power cookies. If we were

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