Healthy Eating During the Christmas Holidays

It’s the festive season! A wonderful time to relax, celebrate, and enjoy some good food together. But it can also be a time when those healthy eating habits we’ve been trying hard to upkeep can slip. Rich meals, endless goodies on offer, and social gatherings, it’s easy to overindulge without even noticing. But not to worry, you can easily enjoy the holidays, the good food on offer, and social get-togethers while maintaining balance. Here are a few simple strategies to help you stay healthy throughout the festive period.

Portion Control Made Simple

Over the holidays, we’re more likely to pile food onto our plates and eater portions larger than we usually would. A few simple visual tricks can help keep portions reasonable without feeling starved:

• Use smaller plates.

Using a smaller plate (ideally close to the size of the circumference of your hand) physically limits how much you can serve yourself. Smaller plates can make portions look fuller and reducing the urge to overfill.

• Choose contrasting plate colours.

Research has shown that something as simple as plate colour can help to monitor how much food people serve themselves at mealtimes. When the food stands out visually on the plate, we become more aware how much we’re putting on our plates.

The Delboeuf Illusion

This may sound fancy, but this illusion highlights when circles perceived sizes can be easily distorted when placed inside varying sized borders. When applied to food portions, which illusion shows how a normal serving can look small on a larger plate, encouraging overeating. Yet a smaller plate can work in your favour.

The Benefits of Family-Style Dining

Healthy eating is not just about what you eat, but how you eat too. Making a huge difference in portion control and healthy eating habits. Family-style dining is where dishes are placed in the centre of the table, and everyone can serve themselves. This can have several benefits.

• Slower eating pace.

This style of eating slows down eating which gives your hunger and satiety hormones time to kick in. The endocrine system is the one which keeps your hormones and your body in check and all working in line with one another. This system works gradually, so slowing down your eating gives your endocrine system time to process and helps you feel full before overeating.

• Less grazing and distractions.

Sitting together at the table eating can be a way of managing to fit some quality time in with the family during the hectic period. This can help reduce the mindless nibbling and stop the distractions that screens can cause. More mindful eating, spending time in the moment can help you enjoy the meal and the company.

Snack Smarter

Snacking is often where holiday eating goes off-track. It’s easy to do, but worse for our health. It’s unreasonable advice to cut out snacks completely, but instead try planning ahead and pick your snacks wisely.

• Creating a snacking budget.

Decide ahead of time how much you want to allow yourself. Give yourself a budget to snack and stick to it. This helps to prevent consistent grazing and helps you stay mindful.

• Avoid ‘value’ temptation.

We’ve all seen the oversized share boxes of chocolates and sweets which seem to hit the shelves in the lead up to the holidays. It seems like a wondering idea and a great deal when you’re stood in the shops but having them around the house can make it harder to limit yourself. We’ve all been there; one small chocolate can turn into ten before you even realise. Treat yourself intentionally by buying smaller quantities. And remember, if it’s not in the house, it’s much easier to avoid eating it.

• Choose better alternatives.

Simple and easy changes to our snacks can massively reduce our calorie intake. Not only this but lighter options can satisfy craving and avoid the sluggish feeling afterwards.

Healthy eating during the Christmas holidays doesn’t mean restriction; it means mindfulness. A few small adjustments such as switching to coloured plates and eating together can help you savour the season while keeping your wellbeing on track. Enjoy the festivities, feel well, and have a very merry Christmas.

From all of us at The Family Chemist!