Transcription:
How to Make Healthy Eating Choices During the Holidays

Melanie Cole (Host): Holiday parties and family gatherings can present a special challenge when it comes to eating healthy. We could all use a few tips to help stay healthy and enjoy the holidays. My guest today is Jill Rolfson. She's a registered dietitian at Bryan Health. Welcome to the show, Jill. So, what do you tell people is the most important thing when they're thinking about all these holiday parties and they're worried about weight gain over the holidays? What do you tell them?

Jill Rolfson (Guest): Yes. Holiday parties can be a great, fun atmosphere for us to enjoy time with family and friends but it also presents a special challenge for people that are trying to maintain a healthy weight, trying to follow a heart healthy or diabetic diet, and so the key to a nutritious gathering is having a variety of healthy food selections. It doesn't mean that you have to completely sacrifice all your favorites. As you celebrate, think of little changes that you can make this holiday season to create healthier meals and more active days can be pretty easy. Maybe incorporating a healthy snack before you leave home to try to reduce the risk of overeating at the party or just going to the party with a plan. Checking out the food before you're making your plate. You can decide what foods you really want to try and how much you're wanting to eat before you create your meal. You can also do things like contributing a healthy dish to the holiday buffet versus another sweet treat, so then you know you'll have a healthy one to choose from when you go to the party. And, just recognizing how much food you're putting on your plate, trying to reduce some of those portion sizes, taking small amounts of your holiday favorites but also listening to your stomach and stop eating when you're full.

Melanie: So, Jill, are you someone who advocates eating before you go to one of these parties? Having a salad or some yogurt? Something to help fill you up so that maybe you're not as tempted by the appetizer table?

Jill: Absolutely. You know, all of those calories from the foods that are at holiday parties can really add up. I mean, drinking water as a healthy choice instead of a high-calorie beverage. Like, one cup of eggnog can actually be almost 350 calories, or a cup of apple cider can be close to 200 calories. Same with those appetizers. They can really add up really quick. So, not going to the party completely hungry, already having some food in your stomach that are healthy foods, can help you to prevent from overeating at the party.

Melanie: Jill, one of the problems with overeating at the parties comes in the form of alcohol because we add a lot of calories. You mentioned eggnog but then alcohol and the mixers that go with them can add a tremendous amount of calories to an already filling holiday meal. Plus, it can reduce your inhibitions. What do you tell people about alcohol at these parties?

Jill: I think when it comes to alcohol, it's important to know what your heart health and your overall nutritional health is at that current point to know if it's appropriate for you to drink alcohol. And then, just to drink in moderation. I would think that one glass of alcohol for a female or two drinks for a male would be appropriate but also knowing that you don't really fill up on those by drinking the fluids, drinking the alcohol. So, if you're worried about overeating, I would absolutely choose a food product that is actually going to fill up your stomach, take longer to digest, and really give you better satiety than just drinking your calories.

Melanie: So, what can you do as the party host to create a healthier holiday party?

Jill: Yes, it's a great opportunity to be a party host to offer more healthy foods. Kind of looking at your meal plan that you're planning and identifying if you've got good sources of fruits and vegetables; good choices of lean meats--things like fish, turkey, chicken; trying to create healthier choices for holiday dishes is another options, as well. Trying to choose lower fat or lower calorie products versus high fat milk or cream, trying to trim back some of the fat can actually reduce every tablespoon of fat that you trim off is a hundred calories, so that can reduce some of the fat in your foods, as well. And, just trying to limit the high-fat products like butter and cream and cheese, you can actually reduce them by 1/4 or 1/2 of what the recipe calls for and most of the time you barely notice the change, but can make it a healthier product.

Melanie: Jill, what do you tell people about gaining weight during the holidays? If there's somebody who's been trying to lose weight, are the holidays a time to just work on maintaining? Can you lose weight? How do you avoid gaining weight?

Jill: Yes, you know, it definitely can be individualized for the person, if they're wanting to try to lose weight over the holidays, it is achievable. Or, even just maintaining a healthy weight and not picking up those extra holiday pounds, that's a great idea for anyone. Just really focusing on moderating your portions, trying to choose small amounts of foods that you love, and small amounts of foods that you want to try. Often, we see a big buffet of food and we want to try everything and we get a little overboard on our portions and just remembering that if we want to taste all of them, that's absolutely fine, to just cut back on the portions so we're still having a small plate. Also, stopping when you feel satisfied. Often, we're sitting around food, there's food sitting around us the entire day as we're spending this time with family and friends and we're prone to graze or snack throughout the entire get together. Kind of identifying that maybe you need to get up and do something else, go socialize, go outside, do something active to avoid from snacking all day long and just recognizing when you feel full, when you feel satisfied, and you don't need to keep eating until you're overly full.

Melanie: What about the sweets and treats around the holidays? There are so many of them around and people feel like it's the one time of year you don't have to deny yourself that chocolate-covered pretzel, or that piece of pecan pie. What do you tell them about moderating the sweets?

Jill: Yes, sweets and treats can often be an important part of any of these holiday gatherings and so it's not that you cannot have those foods, it's just maybe it's identifying which ones are your favorites and you don't necessarily have to have a cookie, a piece of pie, and ice cream--maybe it's just you want the piece of pie the most, so then you pick that one as your one choice. Or, maybe it's almost like making a dessert sampler and taking a tablespoon of three different things so you can try different sweets and treats. That's another option. Just avoiding overindulging by not arriving on an empty stomach, not eating too many of those sweets and treats before the meal or throughout the day as we were grazing, like we were talking about. Also, when you're prepping some of those sweets and treats, you can use something like unsweetened applesauce, or a mashed ripe banana instead of butter in baking recipes. Trying to decrease the amount of sugar listed in the recipe by almost half. You can also use other spices and other things like cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg, to flavor your dessert as opposed to extra sugar.

Melanie: And, then, there's always the foods that you really, really should avoid. Are there any that you tell people, Jill, that they should stay away from? And, what are some of your favorite foods for the holidays?

Jill: Yes, you know I don't think there are necessarily any foods that everyone has to completely avoid. I do know that around the holidays, there are foods that are higher in fats, like that meat fat, gravy, things that are creamy or buttery. Those are higher fat, so I would automatically say, you know, those should be eaten in moderation, they should be something that you limit, not necessarily that you can't have. And, also recommending people that have diabetes to still continue to watch their carbohydrate counting to appropriate their diets because that can be really hard on your diabetic health, if you just overindulge and forget about those things. Same with your heart health, so watching your fat and your sodium for those products. My specific favorites for holidays, I enjoy a good sugar cookie, and I also enjoy turkey. Those are probably my favorites and a great protein food to have the turkey and the sugar cookie is a nice holiday treat that I enjoy when the holidays come around.

Melanie: So, wrap it up for us, Jill, about the holidays and trying to maintain some semblance of healthy eating during the holidays while we're at this party. Tell us what you tell people every single day when they ask you these questions.

Jill: Yes. Holiday parties and family gatherings can be a wonderful way to celebrate these special Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and Hanukkah times, but just remembering to eat as we would the rest of the year with healthy portions, good moderation of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, low fat dairy, and just making sure that the foods that you're building your plate with are ones that you're not going to regret in the long run. You're choosing foods, trying to maintain healthy nutrition, and a healthy weight.

Melanie: Thank you so much for being with us today. You're listening to Bryan Health Radio and if you'd like to learn more about healthy living, you can go to bryanhealth.org. That's bryanhealth.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.