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H E A L T H Y E A T I N G
By Bev Bennett
Y
ou know the holiday cooking
drill: You're preparing food
nonstop from Thanksgiving
through New Year's Eve, as you
make everyone's favorite dishes
as well as a few delicious surprises.
But you don't have to cook yourself into a
frenzied state, and you don't have to opt for
high-fat, high-calorie fast food as an alternative.
By a wonderful coincidence, the same
strategies that nutrition experts recommend to
avoid weight gain during the holidays will help
you rein in your kitchen workload:
1. Re-evaluate traditional dishes. To make
sure you use your calories and your time wisely,
"think about the food you look forward to during
the year, things that are special dishes," says
Dr. Angelina Cain at WellStar Comprehensive
Bariatric Services, part of WellStar Health
System, Marietta, Ga. Prepare those dishes and
skip the ones that no one touches, keeping a
nutritionally balanced menu in mind.
Maybe this means you'll cross the Christmas
fruitcake off your to-do list. Instead, knowing
your family loves apple desserts, you can
prepare an apple crumble with a topping of oats
and nuts, suggests Margaret Brittain, a registered
dietitian with Pocono Medical Center, East
Stroudsburg, Pa.
2. Have a plan. When you're dieting, you think
about upcoming social activities and how
you'll manage making healthy food choices,
says Diane Giambruno, registered dietitian,
CentraCare Heart & Vascular Center, St. Cloud
Hospital, St. Cloud, Minn. Do the same with
your holiday
meals
5 ways
to