Healthy Holiday Eating

Enjoy Healthy, Flavorful Food This Holiday Season

During the holiday season, many of us will be making – and unfortunately overindulging in — holiday foods. UCF College of Medicine faculty member Dr. Magdalena Pasarica, an M.D./Ph.D. who specializes in family medicine and nutritional science shares ways to eat more healthfully this holiday season to create new dining traditions.

Food plays a role in all of our celebrations. The challenge is that many traditional holiday foods are filled with sugar and fat that can impact long-term wellness and also how you feel the day of the event. Here are some suggestions for a different approach:

  • Choose quality over quantity. A bite of a great cheese or dark chocolate you love is just as enjoyable – and much healthier – than devouring the entire box of candy or four cheese-filled baked potatoes. (And you won’t feel miserable two hours later.) If everything on the holiday table looks divine, take a small bite-sized amount of what looks good. That’s a bite, not a huge serving. Choose small portions and focus on savoring each bite, not eating until you’re stuffed.

  • Read food labels religiously. Choose foods that are high in fiber and low in simple sugar and saturated fat. A bottle of juice may claim it has “no added sugar” but still have a lot of unhealthy simple sugar in a serving.

  • When possible, use sugar substitutes instead of sugar for baking. Also, use fruits instead of chocolate chips for dessert. Choose dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate. Swap low-fat milk, crème and cheeses for whole-fat varieties.

  • Increase your fruits and vegetables. Swap a crudité tray for chips. Find healthy vegetable side dishes instead of potatoes and bread. Instead of a high-fat, high-sugar dessert, try a piece of fruit drizzled in dark chocolate. Build a different kind of salad with colorful fruits and vegetables like raspberries (which boost immunity). Remember, your eyes play a key role in the foods you enjoy, so make healthy foods beautiful in their presentation.

  • Make this year’s holiday a culinary adventure. Explore your market for new fruits and veggies you’ve never tried before. Take your kids with you. Go online together and find new plant-based recipes. Encourage your family members – especially children – to appreciate many different kinds of foods. Show them that healthy foods can look and taste great. Do this and you’ll be developing healthy family eating habits for the new year.

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