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BY JESSICA SEGOVIA-YAP, MD
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THE CHRISTMAS season is fast approaching. And with the celebration comes a lot of get-togethers, parties and a whole lot of food and eating. Can you imagine what this could do to your health?
FYI, there is an increase in the prevalence of heart attacks during Christmastime. The overindulgence in food and alcohol is the main culprit, more so if one already has a lot of risk factors such as hypertension and diabetes, elevated cholesterol levels and existing heart conditions.
So what is the importance of healthy holiday eating?
Some of us want to look our best during the holidays, thus we try to follow and stick to a healthy diet plan. However, it is unfortunate that a lot find it difficult to eat healthy during this time of the year.
Some of the holiday eating challenges we face are:
* overabundance of food – And not just food but unhealthy, cholesterol laden, carbohydrate heavy foods such as lechon, ham, all sorts of pasta and noodles, and a variety of sweets and desserts; the types of food that is so tempting that you tend to stuff yourself even though you are already full.
* holiday stress – We all are excited with the holidays, but with the excitement comes a lot of stress from the hustle and bustle of Christmas preparations to shopping, traffic, budgeting and over-budgeting or even the lack of finances. All these contribute to stress and emotional eating.
* excuses of convenience – We tend to relax our eating standards during this time of year simply because it is Christmas after all. We make it as an excuse because we are celebrating and enjoying.
* no time for exercise – We all have a full-packed schedule during the holidays which makes it more difficult to find time to exercise for those who do, and worse for those who don’t. This adds up to those extra pounds we gain because of overeating and not able to burn the excess calories.
There are, however, several effective ways to control over eating and sticking to healthy food choices without compromising enjoyment and dampening the holiday spirit:
* Practice mindful eating. Pay attention to what you put on your plate and how much you are going to eat. Be aware when you are full so you can stop eating.
* Avoid emotional eating. It will definitely lead you to overstuff yourself.
* Eat a low calorie snack to partially fill up your tummy before you go to a party. That way, you don’t have to over indulge and you get full faster.
* Don’t go shopping hungry because if you do, you might have to stop to grab a bite. And your most likely destination would be a fast food chain as you are pressed for time and you wanted to have your food ready the soonest time possible. Remember that fast food is laden with fats and sugars, overflowing with calories.
* Eat the best-for-you offering (read: the healthiest menu on the table) first. Like a hot soup that is broth based and not cream- based. This will start filling you so you end up eating small portions of what the rest of the menu has to offer.
* Stand or seat an arm’s length away from the munchies like chips and nuts. You tend to unconsciously grab on these while you chat with your friends.
* Whenever you need to eat out, choose a proper restaurant over fast food chains or food courts. Avoid red-color schemed fast food places. Research has shown that red stimulates the appetite more. No wonder that almost all fast food chains has red as the dominant color of their logo or their décor.
You might want to weigh yourself daily if possible so you can keep track of your weight gain. Zip yourself into your favorite skinny jeans once or twice a week. Again, this will give you a reminder on how far those calories have gone.
Balance what you put on your plate. Put more of the low calorie foods rather than the high- calorie ones.
Pop a sugar-free mint in your mouth once you think you had enough. This will be your signal to stop eating.
And lastly, eat a full breakfast. Remember, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. By eating a full breakfast, it will prevent you from overeating the rest of the day.
May we all have a joyful but healthy holiday!
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Jessica P. Segovia-Yap, M.D., FPAFP is a Diplomate and Fellow of the Philippine Academy of Family Physicians. She is a practicing Family Medicine Specialist and holds clinic at the Medical Arts Building of Iloilo Mission Hospital. For comments, questions and suggestions, you may email at drjec.is.in@ gmail.com./PN
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