Healthy Holiday Eating
Practical Tips for Healthy Eating During the Holidays
As the holiday season fills our calendars with festive feasts and sweet treats, it’s easy to let healthy eating habits slip. In our latest article, nutrition expert Kelly Kunkel shares her top tips for enjoying holiday indulgences without compromising your health.
As the holiday season approaches, our calendars are filled with festive gatherings, indulgent feasts, and sweet treats. While this time of year is filled with joy and celebration, it can also present challenges for maintaining healthy eating habits. The allure of rich, calorie-dense dishes and decadent desserts can make it easy to overindulge. However, with a mindful approach and a few strategic tips, you can enjoy the season’s festivities without compromising your health.
Kelly Kunkel is an educator en professor with the University of Minnesota Extension. She has a Bachelor of Science in Food and Nutrition. As a Master Certified Health Education Specialist, she has a vast background and knowledge in nutrition.
In this Q&A, Kelly Kunkel gives practical strategies and tips for making nutritious choices while still savoring the flavors, traditions and nostalgia of the holidays.
What are the most common challenges people face for healthy eating during the holidays?
The holiday season is packed with activities and stressors that can be overwhelming to many people. From festivals and concerts to family gatherings, there are often unspoken expectations about what you should be eating. Holiday parties are almost always centered around food and drinks, making it hard to avoid indulgence. Additionally, the holiday rush can disrupt our routines and heighten stress, which can lead to emotional eating or drinking. All of these factors create challenges around eating during this time of year.
What do you recommend for maintaining a healthy diet during the holidays?
Honestly, I'm challenged by the topic of being healthy over the holidays. Instead, I feel we should emphasize maintaining good habits year-round. Often, when people want to make traditional foods healthier, it’s a matter of substituting ingredients. However, when you swap ingredients, it can change the taste of cherished recipes, which ultimately leads to disappointment.
Instead of altering our favorite holiday dishes, an alternative would be enjoying them in moderation. After all, food is not just about nutrition—it brings us joy and connects us with loved ones. So, let's aim for a holistic approach, focusing on balance and enjoyment rather than stressing over food behaviors during the holidays.
How can we balance indulgence and health, especially when we are surrounded by tempting holiday treats?
During the holidays, we're surrounded by tempting treats that we love to make and enjoy. To strike a balance, consider doing this:
If you're bringing a dish to a potluck, bring a healthier option, like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, or lean proteins. This way, you'll know there will be at least one dish at the potluck you feel comfortable eating.
As a host, consider serving smaller portions of treats. Often, we just want a bite or a taste of something special, so there's no need for oversized servings. Being mindful of portion sizes can help manage indulgence.
In our daily life we make decisions about what to eat, about 200 hundred per day, often without much thought. Factors like convenience and cost influence these decisions, as well as visibility—if we see the food, we’re more likely to eat it. For instance, if vegetables are in the crisper drawer, they might be forgotten, but placing them at eye level in the refrigerator makes them more likely to be noticed and eaten. Making the healthy choice the easy choice can make a big difference.
Another effective strategy when hosting meals is to place fresh vegetables out as an appetizer for your guests when preparing a meal. This way, if people get hungry or impatient, they can snack on veggies. Often, your guests will eat at least one serving of vegetables before even sitting down to the main meal.
How can we handle social pressures or family expectations around food during holiday gatherings?
Family gatherings often come with social pressures, and recognizing this is important, not only during the holidays, but in everyday life. In navigating these pressures, consider adding some fresh twists to your traditions. Instead of sticking with the classic turkey and mashed potatoes, you might explore new recipes. For example, try incorporating different cultural cuisines each year to make the holiday meal more exciting and diverse.
Another idea is to involve the children in planning the menu. Depending on their age, each child could select and help prepare one dish, making the meal more inclusive and engaging for everyone.
Additionally, you could start new traditions with healthy, interactive options like build-your-own bowls or pizzas. This not only promotes healthier eating but also makes mealtime a fun and collaborative experience
Let's talk about updating our recipes. How can we modify our holiday recipes to keep our traditions without sacrificing our health?
There is a wealth of information available online about how to make recipes healthier, so you have plenty of options for modifying them. Sweet potatoes, for example, are naturally nutritious and a great food choice on their own. However, during the holidays, when we start adding ingredients like brown sugar, butter, and marshmallows, they lose some of their health benefits.
You can definitely scale back on the fat and sugar in traditional recipes, but it's important to remember that these adjustments might alter the taste. Of course, if you have dietary restrictions or allergies, modifying recipes is essential.
Another approach is to change the cooking method rather than the recipe itself. If you have access to modern appliances, try cooking in an Instant Pot, slow cooker, and air fryer. For other options, you can grill, steam, or bake instead of deep frying or using excessive amounts of oil and butter.
What are some tools that can help us be healthy during the holiday season?
One great nutrition guide to help you create healthy meals during the holidays and year-round is MyPlate, made by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which depicts proper meal portions of the five food groups (fruit, vegetables, grains, proteins and dairy), helping Americans build healthy meals.
MyPlate gives us a new way of looking at how we eat. It encourages us to evaluate our meals not just one at a time, but over the course of a day or a week. These can be traditional foods or regular meals.
On the MyPlate website (myplate.gov), you’ll find the MyPlate Kitchen, which features a variety of recipes and tips for adapting them to be healthier. You might even find some of your favorite traditional recipes that have already been made healthier.
Another excellent online resource is Real Life, Good Food (reallifegoodfood.umn.edu) from the University of Minnesota Extension. This site offers us a lot of great recipes, information on physical activity, and nutrition tips.
Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?
When attending a party, event, or buffet, it’s helpful to have a strategy. Familiarize yourself with the menu if possible, so you can make informed decisions about what to eat.
Consider having a light, fiber-rich snack before you go. This can help you feel fuller and reduce the temptation to overeat when you arrive.
Opt for smaller plates to trick your mind into feeling satisfied with less food. A large plate with only a few items can make you feel deprived, whereas smaller plates can create the illusion that you’re eating a lot.
Don't forget that beverages can add up in empty calories. Alcohol and soda offer little in terms of nutrition, so enjoy them in moderation. Alternate your drinks with water to stay hydrated and keep calorie intake in check.
Lastly, maintaining your physical activity routine is crucial, especially during the busy holiday season. Don’t let exercise fall by the wayside—regular activity will help you feel better and balance out indulgences.
This article is brought to you by the 10,000 Families Study. If you haven’t joined our study, we invite you to complete our eligibility survey. We need your help to ensure the health of future generations in Minnesota.
For more information about recipes you can visit My Plate Kitchen.
For information about the 10,000 Families Study, please contact us at: [email protected] or take our eligibility survey (z.umn.edu/10KFS-newsletter) to learn if your family qualifies to participate.
