As we enter the festive season of celebration, partying, eating and drinking,
for many of us, mixed in with that Yuletide spirit is an uneasy sense that all
this overdoing it can be damaging to health, which is tempting to dismiss with
the excuse that it only happens once a year, so where's the harm? But perhaps,
there are some things we should consider, such as how to avoid weight gain, how
to avoid
food poisoning, and how to be sensible about
drinking and alcohol, without spoiling the cheer, so we can look forward to a
Healthy Merry Christmas.
Avoiding Weight Gain
According to the British Dietetic Association, the
average person in the UK consumes around 6,000 calories on Christmas day, which
is three times the daily guideline amount for women, more than twice that for
men. However, as well as this, over the festive period, which seems to start
earlier every year, the average person consumes an extra 500 calories a day,
equating to a weight gain of about 5 lbs (2 kg) by New Year's Day.
Holly
Hull, a researcher from the Department of Health and Exercise Science at the
University of Oklahoma in the USA, says that Thanksgiving is the start of a high
risk season for people who are already overweight. Nowadays, the holiday season
is not just one day of overeating:
"You have this period that extends
through the new year where there's more alcohol, more snacks, more finger foods
and appetizers that are energy dense," says Hull in an article in the New York
Times.
When you look across the various studies that have been done on
how much weight people put on over the Christmas period it ranges from around 1
pound on average to about 5 pounds (about 2 kg). But while researchers may
disagree on the exact figure, they all agree that the problem isn't so much the
amount of gain itself, but the fact that once gained, it is hard to shift, so as
the years go by, our
body weight creeps up.
So perhaps the
message we should focus on, is treat Christmas as any other time of year when
you have a party or go out to dinner, and be mindful of a few things that are
not too difficult to do, but when you add them all up, they create a shift in
mindset and behavior that makes a significant difference to helping you keep a
trim waistline.
With that in mind, here are some "small step" tips to
help you avoid putting on those pounds over the festive period, and indeed, at
any other time of year:
- Go for a brisk walk if you have over-eaten. Not a jog or a run, as this
could give you indigestion, but instead of flopping on the sofa
and reaching for those chocolates or nibbles, slip into your trainers or stout
walking shoes and take a brisk 15-minute walk round the block.
- Don't eat in front of the TV: prepare your meal thoughtfully, sit at the
table and focus on savouring the food.
- Become aware of the triggers that encourage you to keep on eating when you
are not really hungry: practise Mindful Eating, a topic we covered last year in
our article on how to have yourself a mindful merry
Christmas.
- Don't eat just because the food is there: either take it away or move
yourself away. Learn to listen to your hunger and appetite signals: there is a
difference between feeling "peckish" because you can see something tempting, and
feeling hunger pains. (And don't stand next to the food at parties!)
- Eat slowly: remember, there can be a 15-minute delay before the stomach
tells the brain it is full. If you eat too quickly, you will be over-full. So,
slow down, savour every bite, and when you have finished what is on your plate,
tell yourself: if you are still hungry in 20 minutes, then you can have some
more, and even then, only a bit more.
- Don't starve yourself to compensate for over-eating: respect your appetite.
Keep to a normal eating pattern of meals. Starving confuses your appetite rhythm
and you may find yourself trapped in a vicious cycle of crash diets and
over-eating binges.
- Going to a dinner party? Eat something before you go so you are not tempted
by second and third helpings. Don't be afraid to say "no" if pressed to eat
more, prepare a nice compliment for your host "that was delicious and just the
right amount, any more and it will spoil it, thank you!"
- When eating in restaurants, have a larger starter and skip the main course,
or share courses. If tempted to have a dessert, then ask for one dessert and
several spoons and share it. You don't have to finish every dish: tell yourself
the main reason you are there is for the company, the atmosphere, the food is
secondary, so don't gorge until you are full.
- Avoid eating when you are bored or depressed: become aware of the reason,
then "switch" the trigger to an alternative activity, like getting on with that
hobby, play a game, or go for a walk.
- Beware of tempting buffets at parties, especially those canapés: they pack a
lot of fat per mouthful. Choose the non-creamy, non-pastry varieties, take one
or two, and then politely refuse. If you must stack your plate, make it mostly
salads and crudités, and go easy on the sauces and dips.
- Plan a realistic Christmas (or any other time) exercise regime:
half-hour brisk walks around the block can burn off 200 calories at a time, and
might be easier to fit into your schedule than over-ambitious three-hour
sessions at the gym. Or do one trip to the gym and two walks.
- Research shows that doing vigorous exercise in short bursts, even five or
ten minutes at a time, is as beneficial as a continuous long session. So, go up
the stairs instead of the lift or elevator, park the car at the other end of the
car park and walk briskly to the mall entrance, get off the bus two stops early
and walk the rest. With these small, achievable strategies, you may find that
even on a really busy day, you can can fit in the equivalent of a half-hour
work-out with the same health and calorie-burning benefits.
- Get onto the dance floor at those parties, or even at home, get up and move
and shake to your favourite dance CDs. Not only will you burn calories, and
hopefully have some fun, it is difficult to eat when you are dancing!
- Don't shop when you are hungry! This will also help you keep your money
under control. Plan what to buy and stick to the list. Many people shop with a
"siege" mentality at Christmas, as if the shops are going to be shut for
weeks.
- Don't be tempted to eat the leftovers after a meal. If having friends round
for dinner, offer them the leftovers. Have plenty of containers and food bags
ready, so you can pack the leftovers straight away, either for friends or for
the freezer.
- Balance rich, energy-dense foods with healthy options: the average mince pie
contains about 250 calories (that takes 40 minutes of cycling to burn off, or 25
minutes of swimming, or half an hour of jogging, or 25 minutes on a
Stairmaster!), so when offering mince pies, offer some fresh or dried fruit and
nuts: a plate of mince pies with a bowl of satsumas, for instance. Or instead of
reaching for two mince pies, reach for one plus a satsuma or a handful of nuts.
Some people remove the pastry "lid" and eat an "open" mince pie as a way to cut
down some of the calories.
Cooking the Turkey and Avoiding Food Poisoning
Christmas is one of the few times of the year people
find themselves preparing to cook a large turkey or other bird, and many have
little idea of the health risks.
Strangely enough, many Christmas cooks
actually wash their turkey before preparing it. This is not just a waste of time
(since running water will not rid the bird of the bacteria that cause food
poisoning, only high temperature can do that), but actually increases the risk
of spreading any germs to other parts of the kitchen, for instance by splashing
them onto surfaces, worktops, chopping boards and utensils. Germs that cause
food poisoning can also linger on surfaces for days.
In 2007 the UK's
Food Standards Agency (FSA) surveyed over 2,000 people and found 80% of them
wash their turkeys before cooking them, thereby raising "significantly the risk
of food poisoning". Apparently, women over 45 were the most likely
offenders.
Judith Hilton, Head of Microbiological Safety at the FSA, said
"it's not possible to wash off the germs that cause food poisoning with water.
They're killed by heat. By washing your raw turkey, you're actually more likely
to spread the germs than get rid of them."
The FSA says 20% of all food
poisoning outbreaks are related to poultry, and they receive more reports in
December than any other month.
Around a quarter of turkeys eaten at
Christmas in the UK will have been bought frozen, yet many people don't thaw the
bird correctly, allowing salmonella and campylobacter to survive the cooking
process.
The agency says one in three cooks also puts the stuffing inside
the bird, but they recommend you don't do that. The safest way is to cook the
stuffing separately, outside the bird, in its own roasting tin, because cooking
it inside the bird raises the risk that the poultry meat might not cook through
fully.
The FSA says to make sure your turkey is cooked properly:
- Check it's piping hot all the way through,
- Cut into the thickest part to check that none of the meat is pink, and
- If the juices run out, they should be clear.
NHS Choices has a
comprehensive webpage
on how to defrost, prepare and cook the perfect Christmas
turkey or other poultry, including goose, duck and chicken. There is also useful
advice on how to handle leftovers, which should be refrigerated and never stored
at room temperature.
Drinking and Alcohol
Christmas is a special time of year as we catch up
with family and friends and celebrate, and for many, the spirit of the season is
accompanied by the ready flow and consumption of that other spirit, alcohol. But
as the festive period now extends into weeks, it can be rough on your health,
and may well cause you to feel physically and mentally worn out.
How much
harm does regularly drinking too much at Christmas, or indeed at any other time,
do to your liver? And what about your health in general?
Chris Day,
professor of liver medicine at Newcastle University in the UK, says you run the
risk of developing "fatty liver" if you regularly drink more than 8 units a day
if you are a man or over 5 units a day if you are a woman, for two or three
weeks. So if you are regularly drinking three or four pints of beer a day, or
several glasses of wine, or three or four double whiskies, you are likely to be
running that risk, because one unit of alcohol is 10ml or 8g of pure alcohol,
which is the amount of alcohol in one 25ml single measure of whisky (ABV 40%), a
third of a pint of beer (ABV 5-6%) or half a standard (175ml) glass of red wine
(ABV 12%).
In an article on the website of the independent charity
Drinkaware, Day explains how alcohol affects the liver:
"Our liver turns
glucose into fat which it sends round the body to store for use when we need it.
Alcohol stops this happening, so your liver cells just get stuffed full of fat.
Your liver gets larger."
When this happens, you can feel vaguely
uncomfortable in the abdomen, as your liver is swollen. You can also feel
nauseous and lose your appetite.
However, the liver is a remarkable organ
that is wonderful at repairing itself, and the chances are, if you are not a
regular heavy drinker, then your liver will recover from a bout of heavy
drinking. But, says Day, if you continue to drink alcohol on a regular basis,
above 2-3 units a day for women, and 3-4 units a day for men, that fatty liver
will persist and become inflamed, raising the risk of developing
hepatitis, and then eventually,
cirrhosis, which is scarring of the liver from
continuous hepatitis.
Unfortunately, the problem is people can be
completely unaware of the damage being done to their liver. You can spend 20
years damaging your liver and feel fine until the damage is serious, says Day
who warns that "two or three heavy sessions a week for a year will increase the
chance of liver damage".
But the liver is not the only part of your body
you need to take care of where alcohol is concerned. Heavy drinking sessions
have other consequences, such as causing irregular heart rhythms and raising the
risk of developing a
heart attack. There is a term for this, the
so-called "Holiday Heart Syndrome", where people feel they are having a heart
attack. Jonathan Chick, a consultant psychiatrist specialising in alcohol
dependence, says people who have 15 units of alcohol or more in one session are
vulnerable to Holiday Heart Syndrome, which can lead to sudden death.
Other problems that result from heavy drinking sessions are damage to
the stomach lining, which can lead to vomiting and diarrhea; feeling shaky and
anxious, as your brain reacts to alcohol withdrawal; and changes in mood, skin,
weight and sleep.
Returning to a healthier lifestyle usually addresses
all these consequences, but if you drink too much on a regular basis, you are
more likely to develop
diabetes, liver and
mouth cancer,
chronic pancreatitis and
mental health problems.
Drinkaware
suggest if you are planning to drink this Christmas, then stay within the daily
unit guidelines. In the UK the government advises men should not regularly drink
more than 3-4 units of alcohol a day, and women should not regularly drink more
than 2-3 units a day.
Day also suggests you give your liver a break, and
have days when you don't drink alcohol at all over the Christmas
period:
"There's no doubt that the liver does much better when you give
it a break."
Another fact that may not occur to people out to have a
"good time" at Christmas, is that when you are drunk you are very vulnerable.
According to Thames Valley Police in the UK, one third of rapes happen when the
victim is drunk, almost half of all violent crime is alcohol-related, as are 80%
of pedestrian deaths on a Friday or Saturday night. Their message is it is fine
to have fun and go out and enjoy yourself, but plan ahead, drink sensibly and
"look out for one another".
They offer tips like plan in advance how you
will get home, save the number of a cab firm in your mobile or cellphone, don't
accept drinks from strangers, never leave your drink unattended, stay clear of
any trouble you see, and avoid walking alone through dark or unsafe areas (men
as well as women).
And of course, don't drink and drive, and remember,
you can still have alcohol in your system the day after a big night out: enough
to be over the legal limit.
Finally, here are some more tips from
Drinkaware to help you keep your alcohol intake in check:
- If you want to cut down, do it gradually rather than go "cold turkey" and
you are more likely to stay committed.
- Keep track of your drinking: count your units and see how the pattern
develops over time.
- Know what you are buying: check how much alcohol is in different drinks, eg
it's not uncommon for some wines to be nearly 15% ABV (alcohol by volume), which
means you would be over your daily limit if you drank more than one glass.
Fortunately more and more wines at 10% ABV are starting to appear, so check the
labels.
- Smaller measures: an easy way to cut down is to use smaller glasses. For
example, go for 125ml wine glasses rather than the larger 250ml ones. You will
get six glasses out of a standard 750ml bottle with the smaller glasses, rather
than just three as you would with the larger ones.
- If you like your spirits, get an alcohol measure for home use and make it
easier to keep track of your units.
- Confine your drinking to dinner time only, rather than treat the whole
evening as drinking time.
- Don't feel tempted to finish off the bottle because there is still some
left: get a good bottle stop, or get inventive with what you can do with
leftover wine, for instance in cooking.
- When you are out, beware of "rounds". This is more of a British tradition,
but it can be dangerous not only for your wallet but for your health if you feel
forced to keep up with the heaviest drinker in the group just when you are
trying to cut down. Duck out of a round, or choose a smaller drink, or a soft
drink.
- Track your drinks as you go along, go for smaller drinks, and sip soft
drinks in between alcoholic ones, to help you cut down the rate of your drinking
when you are out. If out clubbing, take a bottle of water with you on the dance
floor, so you are not tempted to quench your thirst with alcohol (and also
increase your dehydration).
Written by Catharine
Paddock PhD
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/238769.php
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