10 Ways To Healthify Your Christmas Day Menu
LAURENTINE TEN BOSCH
With the festive season right around the corner, many of us are wondering how to deal with the food challenges that this time of year can present.
On one hand, it’s important to enjoy social occasions without obsessing over food. On the other, our bodies can start to feel a bit sluggish if we’re overdoing it.
Here are our 10 tips to enjoying the holiday season, without being a Christmas Food Grinch or compromising your wellbeing.
1. Mix Up A Ginger Kombucha Punch
This is seriously delicious! Replace ginger ale with ginger kombucha in your favorite punch recipes. Both ginger and kombucha are excellent digestive aids, and your guests won’t taste the difference. You can also combine ginger kombucha, sliced citrus, fresh lemon wedges and pure fruit juice of your choice to create an extra-restorative elixir.
2. Plan The Menu Together
A little communication and coordination can really make a big difference to your Christmas feast. Decide ahead of time who will prepare each dish or aspect of your Christmas menu. This saves a surplus of food that otherwise encourages overeating and also makes Christmas expenses more manageable.
3. Eat Like It's Fine Dining
Gourmet restaurants always serve small portions, but are you ever left unsatisfied? There are several reasons for this. Firstly, no bite ever tastes as good as the first mouthful, as our tastebuds progressively desensitize to the flavors in our meal. We are also more likely to notice fullness when served with small portions on petite plates.
4. Enjoy Some Nutty Nibbles
Nuts provide quality protein, are high in fiber and can help us to feel fuller for longer. Roast some mixed nuts in honey with a little cinnamon or allspice and include them with your Christmas appetizers. They are delicious, make a great festive snack and can curb your appetite for the main meal.
5. Spritz Up Your Drinks With Lemon
As you top up your Christmas drinks, add in a fresh wedge of lemon. The light taste of lemon refreshes the palate, complements the flavor of sweet drinks, and is a natural alkalizer to help balance out the intake of acid-forming treat foods.
6. Start With The End In Mind
Take a moment to ask howyou would like to feel when you finish your Christmas event. Are there certain foods that are non-negotiable indulgences? Or perhaps there are some foods you would be happy not to sample? You can avoid the post-feast downer by deciding how you want to feel afterwards and tuning in to how your body is matching this as you eat.
7. Go Seasonal With Your Christmas Cooking
Most Christmas recipes can be modified to incorporate foods that are in season. As long as the produce is similar in texture (e.g. swap potatoes with other starchy vegetables) most dishes can be easily adapted to use seasonal fruit and veggies. It will taste just as good but provide more goodness!
8. Buy Less But Only The Best
Food wastage is a massive environmental concern, with an estimated 6 million tonnes of additional food waste generated during this season. Try to think about how much food you realistically need and treat yourself by buying the finest quality, rather than splurging with quantity. Your wallet, bellies and Mother Nature will all benefit for it!
9. Use Fine And Dainty Chinaware
Who doesn’t want to present a beautiful table spread on Christmas Day? Some good quality chinaware not only puts the Wow factor on your Christmas table but also limits the amount of food we can pile on our plates.
10. Don’t Turn The Feast Into A Festival
If you treat your body with nutritious food most of the time, splashing out a bit with Christmas food isn’t likely to be very bad for your health. However, it’s easy to slip into unhealthy eating habits if you have lots of non-nutritious food left over in your fridge. Divvy up the leftovers between your Christmas guests and make the transition back into vibrant eating all the easier!
What Are Your Thoughts Around Making Christmas Day A Little Easier? Share Your Tips For Handling the Christmas Feast Below!
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Laurentine ten Bosch, filmmaker of Food Matters, Hungry For Change and TRANSCENDENCE - Live Life Beyond The Ordinary and founder of FMTV. Along with James Colquhoun, Laurentine founded Food Matters, giving people the tools (films, books, website, TV) to take charge of their own health. Food Matters is an internationally acclaimed widely popular documentary about the medical and healthcare industries. Their latest documentary, Hungry For Change, reveals how the diet and processed food industries are the enemies of permanent weight loss, vibrant health, and natural living. From here, FMTV was born! A place where we can access vital information by watching all of your favorite inspiring documentaries, expert interviews & recipe videos in one place.