Healthy Holiday Eating Tips

Don’t let eating at social events, parties and restaurants side-track your health.

 Social events can put you in situations that can compromise your health goals by offering few items to eat that are good for your health.  High sugar and salty foods, dips ladened with trans-fats and who know what else can be the normal fare when socializing.     

But here are a few tips to help preserve your good health:

• Eat an apple before the affair
• Pick the healthy snacks such as nuts and the vegetable tray- avoid the rest. 
• Eat something healthy (vegetables) before and after the chocolate or cake.  When you consume refined sugars and carbohydrates, potassium is lost, raising sodium.  Wherever sodium goes, water goes.  To counter the loss of potassium, you should consume high-potassium foods – leafy greens.
• When you eat the junk food, don’t stuff yourself - overeating refined carbohydrates severely increases insulin.  Choose a small taste of the junk food and fill up on healthier foods.

The worst restaurants to go to on this program are Chinese restaurants because most have hidden sources of monosodium glutamate (MSG).  MSG causes water retention and swelling because of massive amounts of sodium.  Even if they tell you they add no extra MSG, it’s still in the pre-made sauces.

Italian restaurants have lots of pasta and breaded foods.  Skip the bread on the table and order some fish or steak and salad.  Often the steaks come in 12 and 16 ounces, which is too much to digest comfortably.  Eat only 5 to 6 ounces and take the rest home or share it with your dinner companion.

At Mexican restaurants, order a burrito bowl (which is chicken, salsa, lettuce, cheese and sour cream) without the tortilla, refried beans or taco shell.

When eating a potato, add more real butter or sour cream to buffer the insulin response.  If you eat some popcorn, add more butter to slow the insulin response.  Adding fat helps slow the process.  Don’t overdo the butter and sour cream, though.

Tell the server to bring you a burger without the bun or French fries.  Add a salad instead, and in place of ketchup use mayonnaise and mustard.  Ketchup contains high-fructose corn syrup.

Realize when eating out you are consuming many different chemicals in the sauces, breading, gravy, dips, etc.  Try to eat whole foods, such as fish and vegetables, meat and salad.  Skip the dessert; especially if you are eating meat, as together they affect stress hormones negatively. 

Adding a sugary dessert or alcohol to the meal puts a strain on digestion, which severely affects insulin.  You don’t have to be a social outcast when eating smart, plus you’ll feel better several hours later and your friends and family will wish they had done the same.  Keep focused on the consequences (your future!). 

Check out our previous blog post "Eating When Stressed".

We are here to help you have a healthier future.   

Contact our office to begin today.

Dr. Glenn Nicholas - www.WholeBasics.com

Eating When Stressed

When you are stressed, the adrenal glands overproduce adrenalin and it becomes difficult to think clearly.  You might look for comfort in food.  This means you should eat certain things to support your adrenals.  These are primarily fats, such as butter, cream cheese, Brie cheese with apples, chicken noodle soup, coconut butter and avocados.  These foods greatly stabilize your blood sugar.  The worst thing to do is skip a meal and not eat.  Hunger is stress to the body.  Overeating and stuffing yourself also stress the body.  Eating sugar puts stress on the body.

 The other thing to do is take calming minerals – potassium, magnesium and calcium.  Make sure you do not take the calcium carbonate version, since limestone is not absorbed too well.

When you or your kids consume refined sugar, large quantities of lactic acid builds up, which is a byproduct of the sugar.  Lactic acid makes people restless because it lowers oxygen in the tissues.  This is behind restless leg syndrome and hyperactivity in children.  Various B vitamins also get depleted when refined sugars and refined grains are eaten.  That is why food manufacturing companies enrich grain products with synthetic B vitamins.  However, this doesn’t work because of the type of vitamin – synthetic made from petroleum material.  One of the best sources of B vitamins is nutritional yeast.  Put a little in some plain yogurt each day to supply your B vitamins, as lots of mental stress depletes B vitamins.

Also, organize your life so you have healthy foods available.  Don’t keep sweets at home or at work, since they will always be a temptation.  You’ll need to purchase some Tupperware and a cooler so you can prepare foods and snacks for the day.  Make sure you always have raw nuts, celery, apples, carrots and low-fat plain yogurt in the cooler as well.  By keeping your blood sugars level, it will be easier.

We are here to help you have a healthier future.   

Contact our office to begin today.

Dr. Glenn Nicholas - www.WholeBasics.com