{"id":116128,"date":"2021-11-17T08:25:07","date_gmt":"2021-11-17T13:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=116128"},"modified":"2021-11-17T10:58:09","modified_gmt":"2021-11-17T15:58:09","slug":"making-holiday-eating-healthy-and-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/making-holiday-eating-healthy-and-fun\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Holiday Eating Healthy AND Fun"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While COVID-19 has greatly impacted this year\u2019s holiday season, many of us will still be making \u2014 and unfortunately overindulging in \u2014 holiday foods. This pandemic is stressful, which also causes many of us to overeat. So this week, we turn to College of Medicine faculty member Magdalena Pasarica, an M.D.<strong>\/<\/strong>Ph.D. who specializes in family medicine and nutritional science, on ways to eat more healthfully this holiday season \u2013 and maybe use the unique nature of this year\u2019s season to create new dining traditions.<\/p>\n<p>Food plays a role in all of our celebrations. The challenge is that many traditional holiday foods are filled with sugar and fat that can impact long-term wellness and also how you feel the day of the event. Here are some suggestions for a different approach:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Choose quality over quantity<\/strong>. A bite of a great cheese or dark chocolate you love is just as enjoyable \u2014 and much healthier \u2014than devouring the entire box of candy or four cheese-filled baked potatoes. (And you won\u2019t feel miserable two hours later.) If everything on the holiday table looks divine, take a small bite-sized amount of what looks good. That\u2019s a bite, not a huge serving, Choose small portions and focus on savoring each bite, not eating until you\u2019re stuffed.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Read food labels religiously.<\/strong> Choose foods that are high in fiber and low in simple sugar and saturated fat. A bottle of juice may claim it has \u201cno added sugar\u201d but still have a lot of unhealthy simple sugar in a serving.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>When possible, use sugar substitutes instead of sugar for baking<\/strong>. Also, use fruits instead of chocolate chips for dessert. Choose dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate. Swap low-fat milk, cr\u00e8me and cheeses for whole-fat varieties.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Increase your fruits and vegetables.<\/strong> Swap a crudit\u00e9 tray for chips. Find healthy vegetable side dishes instead of potatoes and bread. Instead of a high-fat, high-sugar dessert, try a piece of fruit drizzled in dark chocolate. Build a different kind of salad with colorful fruits and vegetables like raspberries (which boost immunity). Remember, your eyes play a key role in the foods you enjoy, so make healthy foods beautiful in their presentation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Make this year\u2019s holiday a culinary adventure. <\/strong>Explore your market for new fruits and veggies you\u2019ve never tried before. Take your kids with you. Go online together and find new plant-based recipes. Encourage your family members \u2014 especially children \u2014 to appreciate many different kinds of foods. Show them that healthy foods can look and taste great. Do this and you\u2019ll be developing healthy family eating habits for 2021.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Looking for more ideas? UCF\u2019s Recreation and Wellness Center and Wellness and Health Promotion Services offers healthy recipes <a href=\"https:\/\/whps.sdes.ucf.edu\/recipes\/\">here<\/a> sorted by recipe type.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many traditional holiday dishes are high in fat and sugar \u2014 here&#8217;s College of Medicine faculty member Magdalena Pasaric , who specializes in nutritional science, provides advice for a healthier approach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":152,"featured_media":116129,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[979,23581],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-116128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-college-of-medicine","tag-health-tip"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v27.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Making Holiday Eating Healthy AND Fun | 海角直播 News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Many traditional holiday dishes are high in fat and sugar \u2014 here&#039;s College of Medicine faculty member Magdalena Pasaric , who specializes in nutritional science, provides advice for a healthier approach.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/making-holiday-eating-healthy-and-fun\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Making Holiday Eating Healthy AND Fun\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many traditional holiday dishes are high in fat and sugar \u2014 here&#039;s College of Medicine faculty member Magdalena Pasaric , who specializes in nutritional science, provides advice for a healthier approach.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/making-holiday-eating-healthy-and-fun\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"海角直播 News | UCF Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UCF\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-17T13:25:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-17T15:58:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2020\/12\/iStock-1132126366.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"724\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"482\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Wendy Sarubbi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@UCF\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@UCF\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Wendy Sarubbi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/making-holiday-eating-healthy-and-fun\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/making-holiday-eating-healthy-and-fun\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Wendy Sarubbi\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/2658b36b762dc51dbdefb8fa83c66915\"},\"headline\":\"Making Holiday Eating Healthy AND Fun\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-17T13:25:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-17T15:58:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/making-holiday-eating-healthy-and-fun\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":464,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/making-holiday-eating-healthy-and-fun\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/20\\\/files\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/iStock-1132126366.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"College of Medicine\",\"health tip\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Health &amp; 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