No wonder we think about eating when the calendar turns to the holiday season. Even the songs about the holidays are filled with references to food and drink: chestnuts roasting on an open fire, figgy pudding, wassail, latkes, candy canes. We go over the river and through the woods to grandmothers house in a song that ends, Hurrah for the pumpkin pie! When grandma gets run over by a reindeer in another song, its because shes been drinking too much eggnog.
For many dieters, the holidays are a time for giving up, says Susan B. Roberts, PhD, director of Tufts HNRCA Energy Metabolism Laboratory and author of The i Diet
According to Roberts, the typical adult gains between five and eight pounds in the short interval between Thanksgiving and New Years-the equivalent of eating about 20,000 excess calories, or 550 calories a day beyond what you need to maintain weight. The Thanksgiving feast alone can add 3,000 to 4,000 calories, along with 100 grams or more of fat (most of it the saturated fat thats bad for cholesterol levels).
The huge piles of food in our presence on that day cause unconscious overeating, says Roberts, because the sight and smell of abundance triggers real metabolic signals of hunger and expands our stomach so that we need to eat more to feel full.
RECIPE FOR DISASTER: Even if youre not watching your weight, the holidays can be a healthy-eating disaster. Not only do we eat more food during this time of the year, but the spirit of holiday indulgence leads us to especially over-consume added sugars, saturated fats, sodium and alcohol. Nutritious choices get squeezed out by gravy, candy, pastries, salty snacks and grandmas favorite eggnog.
Roberts points out, The defining characteristic of traditional holiday items like stuffing, traditional gravy, yams and pie is that theyre all extremely high in calories and low in fiber. In other words, theyre the perfect mix of nutritional factors to cause a deficiency in satiety, meaning that you have to eat huge amounts of these foods before you feel good and full.
The sheer variety of food choices at holiday feasts also contributes to the problem, she adds. So do the social facilitators of overeating, more common during the holidays than at any other time of the year, such as dinner guests and a party atmosphere. These factors are so effective at increasing spontaneous calorie intake that nursing homes, where weight loss is often a problem, are starting to use them to increase their patients calorie intakes.
It all adds up, research shows. Every extra guest at dinner increases the amount of food youre likely to consume by 35 calories. Those holiday tunes playing during dinner encourage another 100 calories of eating. If the action moves to the couch and youre eating during the football game, add another 140 calories.
Nor does the gorging end when the partys over. Says Roberts, Studies have shown that after eating particularly delicious food, you can expect to be hungrier and eat more at your next sitting. Mechanistically, this probably happens because our intestinal processes speed up for great food, emptying our stomachs more quickly. What nutrition scientists call the second meal effect would have served us well long ago during leaner times by allowing us to overeat when there was a rare overabundance of food. Today, however, it creates a negative cycle of having one great meal and then not being able to snap back to more sensible eating, especially when youre attending party after holiday party.
HEALTHY HOLIDAY HOW-TO: Whether youre worried about your weight or your cholesterol levels and blood pressure, there are some smart strategies you can adopt to minimize the negative health effects of holiday feasts and parties. Some of the experts advice might surprise you: Banking calories by eating less before an indulgence opportunity, for example, just makes you hungry and causes you to eat more less-healthy fare.
Here are some proven ideas you can try instead to keep the holidays from wiping out all your healthy-eating progress from the rest of 2013:
– Start early, filling up on fiber-Dont wait until the day of a holiday meal to start preparing your defenses against overdoing it. Says Roberts, One foolproof way to prepare for a particular impending feeding frenzy is to add to your regular meals two or three half-cup servings of a high-fiber cereal beginning one or even two days before the big meal. Give yourself this satiety-boost to gain fullness and control. When dinner is served, youll automatically want to eat far less.
– Control your food microenvironment-Multiple research studies have shown that the proximity of food determines how much you load onto your plate, says Roberts. So keep the high-calorie foods and alcohol moving down the table away from you, making sure the least-healthy but most-tempting platters dont end up within easy reach. Even your choice of dinner companions can make a difference, according to Roberts: Short, skinny neighbors will serve themselves smaller portions and tempt you to eat less than tall, overweight or athletic ones.
– Zero out skippable choices-Even holiday meals serve up some options you can take or leave-so leave them completely. If youre really not that fond of grandmas mashed potatoes, dont put even a dollop on your plate. By not looking at, smelling and especially tasting even a single bite of the mundane items, Roberts says, you avoid revving up metabolic hunger signals unnecessarily and can save hundreds of calories.
– Add healthy choices while minimizing variety-If youre hosting the meal, of course, you have greater control over the availability of healthy alternatives. Plan a menu in which half is made up of low-calorie fruit and vegetables dishes, and dont have more than one starch (plain bread or potatoes, for example), Roberts suggests. Minimizing variety makes dinner easier to prepare and results in less overeating-a win-win situation. But if you have time to put more work in, add a soup or another vegetable or fruit. This will make the meal that much more interesting.
Dont worry that your guests will feel let down, she adds. In my experience, guests are positively relieved to sit down to a good meal that doesnt make them overeat.
-Eat slowly, then leave the table-Savor those holiday meals, and try to be the last one to finish (without, of course, taking second helpings). Then get up from the table so you wont be tempted to resume eating. If its your house, youve got the excuse of starting with the dishes; if youre a guest, offer to lend a hand with clearing the table and cleaning the kitchen.
– Dont wait to get back in control-The metabolic effects of feasts like Thanksgiving can make you hungry for one more big meal after another, Roberts warns. The key to nipping negative cycles in the bud is doing recovery activities in the right order. Although cutting out high-calorie treats starting the next day might seem like the right place to start, in fact this superficially easy route frequently leads to failure because you get hungry and then overeat when you get hungry again.
The key here, in my clinical experience, is to recover satiety first, she goes on. Put yourself on a high-fiber regimen the very next morning-high-fiber cereals, legume dishes, and low-carb, high-fiber breads are best-and see how quickly you lose the urge to overeat. With some good satiety under your belt, you are ready to start eating healthy stuff again.
NIBBLING NO-NOS: For many people, their real downfall during the holidays isnt the occasional big feast but the day-to-day temptations. Suddenly theres candy everywhere, co-workers bring holiday-meal leftovers to the office, and eating opportunities stack up faster than letters to Santa. Eating one piece of fudge wont undo 11 months of healthy living. But how do you keep from letting one piece turn into a dozen, nibbled one at a time?
Never eat a treat alone, Roberts advises.Always eat your treat accompanied by a low-calorie food. For example, if your treat is chips, try eating them with a low-fat yogurt dip and some red-pepper slices and celery.
Similarly, holiday parties can be an invitation to unconscious eating. All that finger food adds up, lubricated by alcohol (also a source of all-too-easy calories, with little nutrients). You might think skipping a meal when youve got a party to attend would help, by making up for the calories youll consume there. But its actually smarter to stick to your normal meal schedule on a party day. Before you go, eat a healthy snack like raw vegetables or fruit to take the edge off your appetite.
Eat something satisfying before you go and keep a glass of seltzer in your hand, Roberts advises.
When youre invited out, take control of the food choices by offering to bring a dish-and make it a healthy one. Your host will appreciate the help and youll know you have something good-for-you to eat.
Controlling your microenvironment can make a difference at parties, too. Stand more than an arms length away from the buffet table and snack bowls, so you arent unconsciously reaching for more while you chat. Try filling your plate only once, then concentrate on the people at the party instead of the food.
SUBSTITUTE TEACHINGS: Smart substitutions can also make the holiday fare you do choose to indulge in a little less indulgent. Simple strategies for lightening up holiday standbys include:
– Dressing-Use whole-grain bread and less of it, while ramping up the onions, celery and other vegetables as well as adding fruit such as apples, cranberries, raisins or dried apricots. Nuts add texture and body to a stuffing along with healthy fats and phytonutrients. Use liquid vegetable oils instead of butter and moisturize with low-fat, reduced-sodium broth.
– Mashed potatoes-Skip the cream and butter and opt for fluffy buttermilk mashed potatoes instead. Microwave potatoes still in the skin instead of boiling them, which can make potatoes watery, then let cool enough to peel. Mash in a bowl with enough buttermilk for the desired texture, season and then pop back in the microwave just before dinnertime. One cup of low-fat buttermilk adds only 98 calories and 1.3 grams of saturated fat, compared to 821 calories and a whopping 54.8 grams of saturated fat in a cup of heavy cream.
– Baked treats-Substitute an equal amount of applesauce or other fruit puree for the fats in baked items. You may have to experiment to see where you can apply this strategy, so dont try it the first time when youre hosting Thanksgiving dinner.
– Drinks-Skip the cocktails and turn white wine into spritzers with an equal amount of seltzer, club soda or sparkling mineral water. Adorn with a slice of citrus for holiday flair. Not only will you cut the liquid calories in half, but less alcohol will mean less loosening of your self-control. You can also make festive, delicious non-alcoholic spritzers using 100% fruit juice.
GET PHYSICAL: The holiday crush of activities can also mean skipping the best counterweight to eating excess and holiday stress-regular physical activity. Instead of using the season as an excuse to avoid exercise, make it a motivation to add extra activity to your routine; try to incorporate an additional 15 minutes or more of physical exertion into every day.
That might mean signing up and training for a local holiday run or walk, organizing a game of touch football (instead of watching others play on TV), or simply going for a walk after a holiday meal. If holiday guests are coming over, put some extra effort into cleaning the house. Make an active video game, such as the Wii or Xbox Kinnect, part of the holiday presents-and consider opening it early.
Even holiday shopping can present a chance to make healthy choices. Park at the far end of the parking lot to get in some walking before you reach a store. Use a trip to the mall as an opportunity to enjoy a brisk walk, out of the elements, before you start actually shopping. On the other hand, avoid the food court and those cinnamon-bun shops whose aroma wafts into the mall. Just like attending a holiday party, dont go to the mall hungry.
The holiday season doesnt have to be the Grinch to your year-round best intentions to eat right and stay fit. Living healthier longer, after all, means you can enjoy many more holidays to come-and thats really something to celebrate.