The holidays, such as Thanksgiving and Christmas, can mean meaningful time with family and friends, as well as, family holiday traditions. Part of many family’s Christmas or Thanksgiving traditions also include eating. Pumpkin pie to mashed potatoes, these holiday favorites can mean added inches to your waistline. Still, don’t feel you can’t combat extra holiday poundage this Thanksgiving or Christmas. Instead, try some of these tasty, healthier versions or alternatives to some of your family’s favorite holiday dishes and desserts.
Eat Better Over the Holidays: Tasty and Healthier Versions of Fruit Pies
Fruit pies are part of many families holiday food traditions. These tasty, time-honored desserts are festive around Christmas and Thanksgiving, but are also loaded with sugar and calories. Don’t worry. You don’t have to give up your favorite holiday treats to shed pounds or maintain a healthy body weight. Below are some ideas to still serve the festive fruit desserts your love, with healthier twists.
For starters, ditch the crust. Pie crusts may be delicious, but they are loaded with unhealthy fat, sometimes lard. Only one eighth of a pie crust has around one hundred and fifty calories, not to mention eight grams of fat. Add a top crust to the bottom crust and that’s three hundred calories and sixteen grams of fat a serving. Instead of pastry, put on top of your favorite holiday stewed fruit a simple crisp recipe that includes ingredients such as whole wheat flour, whole-grain oats, and walnuts. This fiber filling alternative to pie crust will let your enjoy the savory, sweet fruit you love without the calories and fat you don’t.
Also, you can cut down on the added sugar and calories in your cooked fruit by using real fruit in your pie filling instead of the tinned varieties. Tinned fruit often comes with added corn syrup and sugar. Cooking your own fruit filling gives you more control on the amount of sugar you are consuming. Most fruit is naturally sweet, so you will be surprised at how little sugar you really need for a tasty, fruit dessert. Using a reduced sugar recipe, make your own fruit filling using frozen or fresh fruit for a healthier alternative to tinned fruit.
You also could substitute traditional apple pie for baked apples or pears. Stuff your baked apples or pears with cinnamon, walnuts, cranberries and heart healthy oats for a tasty winter treat. Just find a recipe that suits your dietary needs and taste buds. Besides, baked apples or pears are much easier to make then apple pie, cutting your time in the kitchen along with your calories.
If looking to make your traditional pumpkin pie a little healthier this Thanksgiving, try making this Thanksgiving family favorite without the crust. Pumpkin custard is just as yummy without the crust and is an easy way to enjoy the dessert you love without the added calories you don’t.
Healthy Eating Choices for the Holidays: Healthy Stocking Stuffers and Candy Bowl Choices
This holiday season indulge and snack on delicious and tasty treats that are still good for your waistline. Ditch the added empty calories in hard candies, and instead fill your candy bowls with dried fruits, such as figs, dates, cranberries, or other family favorites.
Omega-3 fatty acid rich nuts are also a heart healthy holiday treat to have around the house. Nuts such as hazelnuts, brazil nuts, cashews, almonds, pistachios, walnuts, pecans, and even peanuts, according to the Mayo Clinic in June 2009, can be part of a heart healthy diet, in moderation.
Full of fiber and vitamin E fats, nuts are a great snack to have around during the holidays. Still, snack with care. Nuts are also high in calories and fat, meaning they should be consumed in moderation. You only need one serving, about 1.5 ounces, a day.
To reduce dangerous mindless snacking every time you walk past a candy dish, consider buying nuts still in the shells. You are much more likely to be truly motivated by hunger if you have to crack open nuts before you feast on them, then if you can just easily reach in and pull out a handful. Besides, nuts in a festive Christmas bowl or basket also make a beautiful table centerpiece or adornment for a coffee table.
Nuts are also a great stocking stuffer item. For more healthy stocking stuffers, fill stockings with tasty seasonal fruits such as oranges, pomegranates, clementines, or tangerines instead of empty calories sweets. These sweet, tangy fruits will make you forget about empty calorie candies and give you one of your daily servings of fruit.
Squares of dark chocolate are also another healthy option to put into stockings or candy dishes. Dark chocolate, over about 60 percent cocoa, is full of fiber and healthy antioxidants. According to the Mayo Clinic in August 2008, dark chocolate can also help heart health, reducing blood pressure.
Again, dark chocolate is full of calories and fat, so eat in moderation, only around one to two squares a day. Buying dark chocolate in individually wrapped, portion control-sized pieces might be the best way to get your holiday treat in healthy moderation.
Healthy Holiday Dessert Options to Shed Pounds: Alternatives to Cookies and other Confectionaries
Don’t let a sugar cookie here and a piece of fudge there sabotage your hard earned weight loss goals. Instead, opt for some other healthier choices. Keep your kitchen full of healthy seasonal fruit for some sweet, waistline friendly treats.
Bowls of fruit in holiday baskets make great table settings and readily available healthy holiday nibbles. So fill your home with tasty fruit this Christmas season to keep off the pounds and enjoy the holidays.
Healthier Versions of Holiday Favorites: Mashed Potatoes and Other Side Dishes at Your Holiday Feast.
Whether cooking Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner, here are some ways to have some healthier and delicious side dishes.
For starters, instead of using whole milk or butter in your mashed potatoes try using fat free sour cream or nonfat, plain yogurt. You will still get the same creaminess you enjoy, with a fraction of the fat. Add a little garlic powder and zesty herb seasonings to take away the need for mountains of holiday gravy.
You also could consider mashing some cooked cauliflower in with your mashed potatoes for a barely noticeable healthy vegetable serving. About one fourth sweet potatoes with three fourths regular potatoes will add a little color and vitamin C to your mashed potatoes without greatly affecting the taste.
As for sides, ditch the marshmallow covered yams and green bean casserole covered in fried onions for some tasty sautéed in olive oil asparagus or gingered green beans. There are a plethora of tasty recipes for dressing up vegetables. Find a few vegetable recipes you and your family might like, such as gingered cabbage or steamed brussel sprouts, and pile on the veggies this holiday season to take off the pounds.
Healthier Versions of Your Holiday Favorites: Party Foods and Appetizers
Christmas and Thanksgiving family get togethers or seasonal parties can be full of bite sized treats that add up to major splurges. This Christmas or Thanksgiving, make your family and guests healthy appetizers. Serve whole wheat pita wedges and mixed raw vegetables, with humus. Put tomato slices sprinkled with feta and drizzled with olive oil on top of your favorite whole grain crackers. Serve slices of turkey pepperoni with low fat mozzarella on whole wheat crackers instead of a cheese log and summer sausage. See the Mayo Clinic’s article Holiday Recipes: Healthy Eating Ideas for Your Holiday Parties for more ideas on how to serve tasty and healthy hors devours or appetizers at your next family Thanksgiving gathering or Christmas Party.
Eat Better over the Holidays by Remembering to Enjoy Yourself
Remember, the Holidays are all about spending time with loved ones and enjoying yourself. A healthy weight comes from long term commitments to healthy living, not from short term diets. Your commitment to long term healthy living is what will help you achieve long term weight loss and reach your healthy weight goal. So don’t be afraid to splurge on the holidays. Making poor eating choices for one day isn’t going to ruin your long term commitment to healthy living. In fact, splurging is a normal part of a healthy diet. No one expects you to go your whole life without ever eating another chocolate chip cookie again. So try a piece of your grandmother’s famous peach pie that you can’t live without, but remember the next day to continue back on your healthy eating and exercise regain.
Part of what causes weight gain around the holidays doesn’t come from one day of splurging but from weeks of exposure to unhealthy treats. The holiday season, from discount Halloween candy at the end of October to finishing up New Years leftovers, is filled with Christmas parties, co-workers sharing goodies, and other diet saboteurs. Make sure this holiday season to cut back on your exposure to unhealthy treats. Only cook as much as you really need to celebrate the holidays so as not to have tempting treats lurking in wait to sabotage your diet. Make sure alluring leftover chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter fudge isn’t loitering around the kitchen waiting to become convenient snacks. Bake only as much as you or your family need to celebrate the holidays.
Avoid Weight Gain this Christmas or Thanksgiving by Adapting a Few of These Healthier Versions of Your Holiday Favorites
So don’t think that you are helpless to impending pounds around this holiday season. Start shedding pounds while still treating yourself to delicious holiday foods by adapting a few of these healthier alternatives. Recommend to Santa some of these slimming treats to put in your stocking. Make your mashed potatoes to shed pounds instead of pack them on. Follow some of these tasty tips for avoiding weight gain over the holidays.
For more tips on how to eat healthier this Thanksgiving or Christmas and avoid weight gain over the Holidays, see How to Stay on Your Diet and Avoid Weight Gain Over the Holidays.
Sources
“Nuts and Your Heart: Eating nuts for heart health.” MayoClinic.com June 5, 2008.
"Small, Sweet, and Helpful: A Square of Dark Chocolate a Day Offers Benefits." MayoClinic.com August 8, 2008.
