Healthy Holiday Eating Tips!

Let's face it...the holidays are the worst time to stay healthy!

But where there's a will there's a way!

Diary Products: Many holiday foods include dairy products.

• use skimmed milk and other 'low' or 'no' fat dairy products in your recipes whenever possible. Look for low fat cheeses (my favorite is mozzarella!), ultra-light cream cheese or cheddar cheese with only 7% fat.


• If you use spread that are high in fat such as butter, mayonnaise, sour cream, spread them very thinly or use only a small amount.
  

The Meat Dish:

• Choose leaner cuts of meat. Turkey is one of the leanest types of meat- typically white meat is leaner than dark meat so choose the breast meat of a chicken or turkey rather than the drumstick.


• Trim the visible fat off of meats


• Remove skin from poultry


• Choose fish more often-cold water fatty fish such as turn and salmon have 'heart healthy' types of fat in them.


• Prepare meats in ways that reduce the fat content such as broiling, stewing, or baking


• Drain the excess fat off of meats after cooking


• Cook meats on a rack so fat can drip away


• Cool soups, gravies,stews before serving and then remove the hardened fat that collects at the top

Vegetables: Fortunately, most vegetables contain little or no fat. It is what we add to the veggies that increase their fat content.

• Avoid smothering veggies with think creamy sauces or butter. Potatoes contain no fat. They do contain very little salt and are a good source of Vitamins B and C and potassium. Potato skins are a good source of fibre (fibre helps to decrease cholesterol levels, and reduce the risk of colon cancer). Leave the skins on the potatoes when you mash them and try whipping the potatoes with skim or 1% milk or low/no fat sour cream or yogurt.


• Include 2-3 veggies with your meal- steam, bake, or microwave them. Dark green veggies (broccoli) and bring orange veggies (carrots, sweet potatoes) are high in antioxidant vitamins, folic acid, and fibre. Antioxidants (as vitamins A, C, and E) can be protective agents against heart disease and cancer. Folic acid may reduce risk of heart attacks and strokes. Pick the veggies darkest in color to ensure maximum nutrition.


• Have a salad with low fat dressing
  

Stuffing

• If your stuffing recipe calls for meat or giblets, replace half of the meat with dried fruits such as cranberries, raisins, or apricots.


• Cooking Tip: Rather than cooking stuffing inside of poultry or a roast, cook the stuffing in a casserole dish or aluminum foil in the oven. This reduces the amount of fat considerably.

Gravy

• Make gravy from a low fat broth rather than drippings from the poultry is a good way to reduce fat. If your gravy recipe calls for milk, use skim milk.


• Cooking Tip: If you use drippings for the gravy, pour or skim the fat off the top of the drippings before using.

Cranberry Sauce: cranberries are an excellent source of Vitamin C. Unfortunately most of the Vitamin C is lost when cranberries are processed.

• Make your own cranberry sauce. The recipe can be found on the back of the Ocean Spray cranberry bag. It's great. I make it every year!


• Cooking Tip: When making cranberry sauce, add sugar after cooking the cranberries to maintain the tenderness of the skin.

Dessert

• Mix applesauce with mincemeat to reduce the amount of fat and serve with frozen low fat or fat free yogurt


• Angel food cake contains little or no fat and can make a great dessert when served with fruits such as strawberries, raspberries, or a fresh fruit salad


• If making pumpkin pie- use evaporated skim milk and top with low fat or fat free ice cream or frozen yogurt. Also try 'crustless pumpkin pie'.


• try to make 'wise' dessert choices rather than deny yourself.


• Have a smaller portion and savor every mouthful.


• Opt for desserts that are lower in fat and sugar (choose the sugar cookies or gingerbread cookies over the shortbread cookies as they tend to be lower in fat).

Beverage

• Mulled cider or low fat eggnog are good alternatives to high fat eggnog.


• If you choose the eggnog, have a smaller amount and dilute it with skim milk or use low fat or fat free eggnog.


• Diet carbonated sodas can make a very festive drink when added to your favorite fruit juice- try cranberry or grape juice with soda


• nonalcoholic or de-alcoholized wines are improving all the time and make great beverage alternatives.

Kick Start that 2010 'Get Healthy' Resolutions by utilizing these healthy holiday eating tips! Then we'll see you at our next 'Kick Start Healthy Habits' Boot Camp to make that resolution stick well into 2010!