I recently read an article by a doctor who said that gaining weight throughout the holidays is a national pastime. I hadn’t heard it put quite like that but certainly weight gain is a problem for many people. But weight gain doesn’t have to occur as long as you can balance your meals with delicious whole foods and eat within reason. Here are some of my tips to help keep the holiday relatively healthy.
1. When planning a holiday such as Thanksgiving, think about all the wonderful varieties of foods that you can prepare and enjoy with friends and family. Think about their color, texture and flavors. Try to make your meal as fresh and colorful as possible with various crunchy, creamy textures and a variety of tastes such as sweet, sour, bitter, pungent and salty. When you balance meals with these various elements, it is more satisfying and can prevent overeating. So think about these elements as you make your shopping list and plan what you will be serving.
2. If your guests are arriving several hours prior to serving the meal, set out beautiful vegetable and fruit trays with dip or even some freshly made guacamole, popcorn or raw nuts for people to snack on. This will give them something lite to munch on that is also healthy and that takes very little time to prepare. I like to serve pomegranate seeds with orange slices and pineapple or a vegetable tray with a nice (Read Full Article)