Christmas Dinner, Weight Loss and Your Health
The title should really read Christmas Dinner and NO weight loss if the amount of calories we consume is anything to go by. On Christmas Day, most of us can eat three or four times more than we do on a normal day – gulping thousands of calories in just a few hours. It seems we really take things to excess, and festive feasting should carry a health warning.
By over indulging, we can cause long term health problems for ourselves. While the extra eating will make our waistline bigger, it will also increase blood pressure and blood sugar levels.
To be honest, it will only cause problems if you already have a poor diet. If you eat healthily the rest of the year, and only over indulge on the big day, you should be OK. As long as you go back to your healthy diet the next day, then having a full Christmas dinner shouldn’t be a problem.
The problem comes if you already eat poorly throughout the year and then over indulge during the whole festive period. Heart disease, stroke and diabetes take a while to develop, but eating and drinking to excess at Christmas is only going to compound any problems that are already in the making.
Make your Christmas dinner more healthy by avoiding cooking in fat, having vegetable soup as a starter and leaving out suet from your Christmas pudding. Having smaller portions can make a big difference. It has been calculated that the average amount of calories that can be consumed on Christmas day is 3,240. The recommended daily intake of calories is 2,500 for men and 2,000 for women. You can see how the problem can be compounded if you were to indulge to excess for more than just Christmas Day.
Like has been said before on here, everything in moderation. You don’t have to stuff yourself like the Christmas turkey to make sure you have a good time. Fact is, if you eat a little less you will probably have a better time. And better health.
