The Intentional Table

Nicole Cruz, MS, RDN
  • 5.0 (11)
  • Parenting

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.

  1. 5d ago

    What's Actually Making Kids More Anxious with Kristen McNeely

    Worry and anxiety often feel like something is wrong. Like there's something we need to fix. But what if it's a normal human response to have these emotions? And what if we can teach our kids that they're completely capable of getting through them? On this week's episode, we have Kristen McNeely, a marriage and family therapist who specializes in helping kids and families work through anxiety, without ever sending kids to therapy. She works with parents to actually decrease the time it takes to see results, and believes that kids should be more focused on playing and just being kids. Kristen and I talk about: Why kids seem more anxious right now, and the reasons that go beyond screensThe biological reason anxiety shows up in the body, and why it's not your child being dramaticThe difference between validating your child's fear and accidentally making it worseA tool Kristen uses with her own son to help him feel braver, with food and beyondThe exact language to use when your child is scared or overwhelmedWhy anxiety is one of the most treatable things a child can experience, even when it doesn't feel that wayIf your child runs a little anxious, or a lot anxious, or you're just looking for another tool to help them feel braver at the table and beyond, this episode is for you. RESOURCES MENTIONED: ✅ Instagram: @childhood.empowered ✅ Website: kristenmcneally.com ✅ School Capable: schoolcapable.com Want to connect? Send us a text! CONNECT with Nicole: FREE Training: Raise a Balanced Eater AND Protect Their Relationship With Food - Instagram: @nicolecruzRD SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW: If you loved this episode, it would mean so much for you to follow, subscribe, share, or leave a review. Your support helps us reach more conscious and loving parents who need these insight! Thank you for tuning in and see you next week!

  2. Sep 24

    Weight and Health Aren't Synonyms with Dr. Lisa Folden

    Most of us grew up believing that being smaller means being healthier. That if the number on the scale went up, something was going wrong. And if it went down, we were doing something right. It's such a deep belief that we rarely stop to question it. But what if weight and health were never actually the same thing? Dr. Lisa Folden is a licensed physical therapist and body image coach who works with people living in larger bodies and folks in recovery from disordered eating. She came to this work through her own story, after years of believing (and teaching) that weight and health were one and the same, until she started pulling that belief apart and couldn't unsee what was underneath it. This conversation goes a lot of places. We get into our own bodies as parents, and we get into what happens when it's our kids' bodies that are changing and we start to panic. In this episode, we talk about: Why weight and health aren't the same thing, and the markers that actually tell us something about our healthThe one kind of weight change that's a true medical red flag (and it's not gaining)Why kids' bodies are supposed to change, especially through puberty, and what happens when we try to stop itWhat to do when a growing body makes movement harder, without making it about getting smallerHow dieting early in life sets kids up for the very thing we're trying to protect them fromWhat "joyful movement" really means, even on the days you don't love the workoutIf you've ever looked at your own changing body, or your child's, and felt that flicker of worry that something must be wrong, this episode is for you. RESOURCES MENTIONED: ✅ Instagram: @healthyphit ✅ Website: healthyphit.com ✅ Body Respect Journal (available on Amazon) Want to connect? Send us a text! CONNECT with Nicole: FREE Training: Raise a Balanced Eater AND Protect Their Relationship With Food - Instagram: @nicolecruzRD SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW: If you loved this episode, it would mean so much for you to follow, subscribe, share, or leave a review. Your support helps us reach more conscious and loving parents who need these insight! Thank you for tuning in and see you next week!

  3. Sep 17

    I Don't Tell My Kids Broccoli Is Healthy

    We can probably all agree that broccoli is healthy. It has vitamins, minerals, fiber. So when your kid asks if it's healthy and you say yes, that seems harmless enough. And it mostly is. But most of us never stop to ask what we actually mean when we call a food "healthy." And once you do, the whole idea gets a lot harder to pin down than it seems. I break down the four reasons why I don't label food as "healthy" with my own kids, and why the way we talk about food matters if we want our kids to eat in a balanced way. In this episode, I talk about: Why labeling one food "healthy" inherently labels other foods "unhealthy"Why "healthy" is so much harder to pin down than it seemsHow the very same food can be exactly what our body needs in one moment, and not in anotherWhat these labels can do to the way our kids feel about food, and about themselvesWhat to focus on instead of healthy and unhealthyIf you want your child to have a healthy relationship with food and feel good about all types of foods, listen in! Want to connect? Send us a text! CONNECT with Nicole: FREE Training: Raise a Balanced Eater AND Protect Their Relationship With Food - Instagram: @nicolecruzRD SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW: If you loved this episode, it would mean so much for you to follow, subscribe, share, or leave a review. Your support helps us reach more conscious and loving parents who need these insight! Thank you for tuning in and see you next week!

  4. Sep 10

    It's Not the Sugar, It's the Shame with Crystal Haitsma

    We think our reactions to how our kids eat are about the food. The sugar, the snacking, the fourth piece of pizza that makes us snap... "That's enough."  But it's rarely (if ever) truly about the food. Crystal Haitsma is a life coach whose entire practice centers on shame, and how shame is basically at the root of all of our reactions. As a parenting coach, she kept noticing that parents already knew how they wanted to respond. That wasn't the problem. It was that they often couldn't do it.  There's a trigger that fires before we can even think. In this conversation, we get into what that looks like around food and parenting, and what our reactions are really signalling. We can have all the logical information, but it doesn't mean that's what we'll necessarily rely on. In this episode, we talk about: The difference between guilt and shame, and why Crystal doesn't even know if guilt is really a thingWhy staying calm on the outside isn't enough, and what your kids pick up on even when you don't say a wordWhat's actually happening in the moment your kid's eating triggers youHow to hold a boundary around food from a grounded place instead of a reactive oneWhy the work isn't about controlling your kid's eating, it's about what comes up in youIf you've ever known exactly how you wanted to respond around food and found yourself reacting anyway, this episode is for you. RESOURCES MENTIONED: ✅ Podcast: The Art of Shame Free Living ✅ Instagram: @its.crystal.Noelle Want to connect? Send us a text! CONNECT with Nicole: FREE Training: Raise a Balanced Eater AND Protect Their Relationship With Food - Instagram: @nicolecruzRD SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW: If you loved this episode, it would mean so much for you to follow, subscribe, share, or leave a review. Your support helps us reach more conscious and loving parents who need these insight! Thank you for tuning in and see you next week!

  5. Sep 4

    Oreogate Isn't About the Oreos

    We all have reasons for the foods we choose for our kids. Maybe you'd rather they weren't eating Oreos every day, or don't want to buy Doritos. But then they start kindergarten, or go to a birthday party, or come home from a friend's house asking for the exact thing you don't keep around. And suddenly you're not sure exactly what to do. That's at the heart of Oreogate, the viral story of a mom asking the other parents in her kid's class to stop packing Oreos. If you've been anywhere near social media, you've probably heard something about it. It's easy to have an opinion about the mom, but also... what do you actually do when your kid wants the foods you didn't choose, in a world you can't fully control? In this episode, we talk about: → Why trying to control the foods around your kid tends to backfire, even when it works → The two extremes parents swing to, permissiveness and holding a hard line, and what each one does → Why "just teach them to walk past it" sounds empowering but sends a different message with food than something like alcohol → How restriction can turn a food into the forbidden fruit, and the consequences that follow → What it looks like to hold boundaries and also protect your child's relationship with food in these situations → How your kid's reaction tells you exactly how big a deal to make of it We don't live in a bubble, and if you've ever wondered how to deal with food you don't fully have control over, listen in! Want to connect? Send us a text! CONNECT with Nicole: FREE Training: Raise a Balanced Eater AND Protect Their Relationship With Food - Instagram: @nicolecruzRD SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW: If you loved this episode, it would mean so much for you to follow, subscribe, share, or leave a review. Your support helps us reach more conscious and loving parents who need these insight! Thank you for tuning in and see you next week!

  6. Aug 27

    When Your Kid Asks If a Food Is Healthy

    The other day my son asked me, "Mom, is my smoothie healthy?" And it would be so easy to just answer: Yes. No. Or, well, kind of, but it has a lot of sugar. But instead, I didn't answer him directly, because there isn't really a clean, absolute answer to that. Food is far more nuanced than yes or no, and that's also not how I want my child to think about food. So in this episode, I walk you through the actual conversation I had with him, and why asking a few questions did so much more to help him think about "healthy" or "unhealthy" and food in general. In this episode, I'm covering: → The real conversation I had with my son, question by question, that you can use with your kids → Why answering "yes" or "no" isn't accurate or helpful → How we can use this approach whether it's about a smoothie, cookie, or any food → How to talk to our kids about the different jobs that food does → What to do instead when your kid asks you a food question you don't have a clean answer to If you've ever frozen, unsure of what to say when your kid asks a question about food... or you're waiting for it to happen and want to be prepared, this episode is for you. Listen in! ✅ More on food neutrality - Episode 4, "All Food Is Not Equal" ✅ Related - Episode 42, "Unhealthy" Isn't a Fact (It's a Judgment) Want to connect? Send us a text! CONNECT with Nicole: FREE Training: Raise a Balanced Eater AND Protect Their Relationship With Food - Instagram: @nicolecruzRD SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW: If you loved this episode, it would mean so much for you to follow, subscribe, share, or leave a review. Your support helps us reach more conscious and loving parents who need these insight! Thank you for tuning in and see you next week!

  7. Aug 13

    "Unhealthy" Isn't a Fact (It's a Judgment)

    Last week, as we were gearing up for back to school, I made a post asking parents not to label foods as junk, bad, or unhealthy. And people got fired up about it. Way more than I expected. The comments kept coming back to the same idea: that "unhealthy" isn't a judgment, it's just the truth. That some foods are simply bad, and we should be teaching our kids that. I'm not sharing this to talk about the pushback I got. I'm sharing because those comments show how deeply we hold these beliefs, and how rarely we stop to ask whether they're actually true, or whether they've just become ingrained in the way we approach food.  Not to mention, do we ever look at whether these ideas about food are actually helpful? In this episode, I'm covering: → Why no single food is simply "healthy" or "unhealthy" → The comment from a mom of a child with ARFID → What actually happens to kids down the road when we ban and label foods (including a story from a dad who lived it) → Why the harm isn't just about the food, but about what kids come to believe about themselves → How to make a more informed choice about food talk in your home, wherever you are and however old your kids are If you still struggle with making food sound neutral, or wonder if you really should be teaching your child more about what's "healthy" or "unhealthy", listen in! ✅ More on food neutrality - Episode 4, "All Food Is Not Equal"  Want to connect? Send us a text! CONNECT with Nicole: FREE Training: Raise a Balanced Eater AND Protect Their Relationship With Food - Instagram: @nicolecruzRD SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW: If you loved this episode, it would mean so much for you to follow, subscribe, share, or leave a review. Your support helps us reach more conscious and loving parents who need these insight! Thank you for tuning in and see you next week!

  8. Jul 24

    How Do I Change My Kid's Food for a Medical Reasons... Without Creating Stress or Anxiety?

    We all want to take care of our kids' bodies. So when there's a real medical reason to change how they eat, whether that's adding something in or cutting something out, we want to do it to support their health and to help them feel good. And at the same time, we don't want food to feel more stressful. We don't want to put pressure on them, make them anxious, or create a whole new issue around eating. So we end up bouncing between two paths, either making the change happen no matter what, or tiptoeing around it and doing nothing. But it doesn't have to be one or the other. We can help our kids make changes to what they're eating for specific medical concerns, while still protecting their relationship with food. In this episode, I talk about: → Why changing food for a medical issue is different than doing it to "be healthy" → How to be proactive and shift what you're providing so you don't make it a "thing" for your child → The difference between adding foods in and taking foods out, and where to start → Specific tips for dealing with constipation, that are also applicable to other conditions → How to talk to your kid directly when you need to, in a way that's concrete instead of scary If you're navigating a medical need, and feel like you need to make some dietary changes but aren't quite sure how, listen in! ✅ Training: How to Talk to Your Child About Nutrition Without Guilt or Shame — $27, includes video + PDF, broken down by age group from 2 through the teen years Want to connect? Send us a text! CONNECT with Nicole: FREE Training: Raise a Balanced Eater AND Protect Their Relationship With Food - Instagram: @nicolecruzRD SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW: If you loved this episode, it would mean so much for you to follow, subscribe, share, or leave a review. Your support helps us reach more conscious and loving parents who need these insight! Thank you for tuning in and see you next week!

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About

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.

Information

  • Creator
    Nicole Cruz, MS, RDN
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    49
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Intentional Table
  • Show Website
    The Intentional Table

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