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| Celebrate Healthily This Christmas |
By:
4Ps--Marketing |
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Time for Healthy Christmas
In fact, the average person puts on as much as five pounds over the Christmas period and then struggles to lose it in the New Year. Not a surprise when you think that a typical Christmas dinner can contain as many as 3,000 calories. When it comes to preventing cancer you should maintain a healthy weight rather than putting it on and then trying to take it off again.
Lisa Cooney, Head of Education for World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), gives her top tips on how we can make sure we enjoy festive parties and Christmas dinner without our health ending up the loser:
Party tips:
Make sure you have a light snack like a bowl of wholegrain cereal or homemade soup before you go out. By making sure you are not hungry, you will be less likely to be tempted by the unhealthy options on offer.
When you are at a buffet try to avoid creamy sauces and dips, as well as pastry and fried food, as these are all high in fat and calories. Instead, go for tomato-based sauces with salad, vegetable crudities, lean cooked meat and wholegrain pitta bread or breadsticks.
Only visit the buffet table once, and try not to pile your plate too high. Then make sure you stand well away from the table so that you are not tempted to pick at the food.
As well as being full of calories, alcohol can also stimulate your appetite and reduce your willpower. If you are going to have a drink, choose a diet mixer or add diet lemonade or soda water to wine for a refreshing spritzer.
You might think of dancing to Slade as just good fun, but it is also a great way to burn calories and it counts towards your daily hour of physical activity that can help reduce your cancer risk.
Christmas dinner tips:
The traditional Christmas turkey can be an excellent source of protein. It is important to remove the skin, which is high in fat, making sure a portion does not take up more than a third of your plate.
Christmas dinner is a great chance to get some healthy vegetables into your diet, with carrots and parsnips both containing the antioxidant beta-carotene. Brussels Sprouts, a Christmas favourite, contain fibre and Vitamin C.
This is often high in fat, but using a gravy skimmer will save you lots of calories. Gravy made from vegetable cooking water adds extra flavour, as well as vitamins and minerals.
You can cut calories of your roast spuds by roasting potatoes in larger chunks, as this reduces the amount of fat each potato absorbs. Try using olive oil instead of lard or butter, as this will replace saturated fat with unsaturated fats.
If you buy stuffing from the shops, it is often high in salt, and those made with sausage meat can be high in saturated fat. You can make your own stuffing by mixing some chopped fresh herbs with wholemeal breadcrumbs, a cooked chopped onion, a few dried apricots, a little sunflower oil and some beaten egg.
Mince pies and Christmas pudding might taste good, but they are high in fat, sugar and calories. A mince pie alone contains 250 calories. There are plenty of traditional yet healthy ways to round off your Christmas dinner. Satsumas are a great source of Vitamin C, while dates are high in fibre and rich in potassium.
Afterwards, why not go for a traditional post-Christmas dinner walk? As well as being relaxing, it is also a good chance to get some physical activity into your Christmas Day schedule.
About the Author:
Lifestyle and diet play an important role in preventing cancer. Visit the World Cancer Research Fund's website for guidance on http://www.wcrf-uk.org/preventing_cancer/physical_activity/index.php/. |
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