Welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition's Ask a Nutritionist podcast, brought to you by Nutritional

Weight and Wellness. My name is Brandy Burrow and I'm a licensed and registered dietitian

here at Nutritional Weight and Wellness. We are so excited to be celebrating 20 years on air,

discussing the connection between what you eat and how you feel, all while sharing practical real-life

solutions to help you live a healthier life through balanced nutrition. So I want to thank all of you

for your support over all of these years. Let's get started with today's topic, which was a question

that came in from our Dishing Up Nutrition listeners. So our question today is, do you have better alternatives for sweets cravings?

I thought this was a great question to explore, especially as we are nearing the end of the holiday season.

I'm sure many of our listeners out there have been challenged by the temptation of holiday

treats basically at every turn.

And now we're all kind of trying to refocus on our health and wellness goals and ditch

the sugar.

Cravings for sweets and sugar can be really complicated.

There are so many possible reasons why someone might

experience a sugar craving. So I figured, rather than simply giving you a list of healthier food

options when you have a sweet craving, I thought we could review some of the potential root

causes of why we might experience a sugar craving. And think about

the strategies we can use to prevent those sugar cravings. I just think it's a more sustainable way

to approach this versus just finding a substitute that's a little healthier. So I'm going to talk

about some of the biochemical causes of sugar cravings and also touch on the role that habit and routine can play.

And to wrap it all up, I'm still going to give you some ideas for foods and recipes that can scratch that itch of wanting a little something sweet.

Because I think we all want something

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