Holiday Eating Guide

Holidays are full of beautiful traditions. And many of our traditions and holiday memories center around food. Holiday food isn't always healthy though! Mostly as sugar and too many extra calories. Here's a guide, with some common questions answered, to help you navigate the long stretch of days, parties, and traditions that span from Halloween to the New Year!

What kinds of foods are usually eaten over the holidays, and does that contribute to weight gain? The biggest difference over the holidays for kids and teens is treats at every turn! Lots of treat. Candy canes, full-size packets of Skittles, hot chocolate with loads of whipped cream and sugary toppings, cookie decorating parties, class parties with sugary desserts. For adults, it is extra alcohol, extra desserts and sugary snacks, extra meals and nibbles offered everywhere. For adults it means extra calories. and usually not balanced with more exercise!

How much more sugar do we eat over the holidays?

A lot. And that's on top of how much we over indulge as a population already. That's how adults can get heavier over time. Sugar has an addictive quality to it, so the more we eat the more we crave, and so on.

In another post, I go over why it's a good idea to cut back on sugar for health and cognitive reasons. But one of the reasons I recommend being mindful of how much sugar you are eating over the holidays is that sugar can make you sleepy, can cause digestive problems, contribute to acne, and add too many unwanted calories. Digestive problems associated with sugar can create bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine and can cause brain fog. It can also give you bad breath! Holidays are a time of overwhelm and sugar certainly doesn't make you feel better or cope with overwhelm! Lots of sugar can even contribute to the holiday blues because of what it does in your gut.

It is estimated that American adults gain about 2 lbs of weight over the holiday season. That's an extra 7000 calories! Kids and teens might not notice a difference because they are growing but the extra sugar can lead to more acne, brain fog, sleepiness, and the dreaded bad breath. This is true for adults too.

How to eat healthier during the holidays?

• For kids and teens, enjoy this special time in your childhood! Enjoy the treats, the class parties with holiday desserts, the family celebrations with special foods, but try to balance with extra exercise/activity and minimizing other sweets when you don't need them. For example, avoid fruit juice, sodas, or a sweet coffee/tea during the day so you can enjoy a cookie party in the evening. And enjoy just a few cookies rather than a massive plateful.

• Choose the time you enjoy treats. Enjoy candy canes with your friends at events but not in your room while you are doing homework by yourself.

• Balance your sweets with lots of high fiber vegetables as snacks, such as celery sticks, bell pepper slices, carrot sticks, fennel slices, endive bulbs, and cherry tomatoes

• Try to move the celebration dinner hour up earlier in the evening to 4:00 or 5:00 so that you aren't eating so late into the night

• Before heading to a party or a dinner event take a run, a rigorous hike in the woods, or a quick trip to the gym

• If you overate at an event or dinner, take a walk afterwards with friends or pets

• Enjoy the cookies at the cookie party with friends, but try to avoid binging on more cookies later at home while watching TV

• Speaking of TV, commercials during the holidays are full of images showing you hot cocoa, candies, cakes, cookies, pies, fudge! I'm craving these just writing this. The imagery entices your cravings. Enjoy those treats when you are celebrating with friends and family, not because you are watching TV.