There are some really tasty treats that appear during the holidays. Unfortunately, many of these seasonal goodies are extremely bad for your health. As much as you might want to reward yourself with a treat after a long, hard year, holiday treats are not the best decision.
Avoiding certain foods during the holidays including Thanksgiving and Christmas should be your mission. With the holidays come really delicious foods, which are, unfortunately, loaded in calories. Before you take a bite of your loaded plate of holiday foods, think about these foods.
Stuffing is a holiday treat. It wouldn’t be the holidays without turkey, ham, and stuffing. But before you take a bite of that stuffing, think about what you are eating. Loaded with butter, high fat meats, and plenty of calories to share, your stuffing didn’t get its name for no reason. Don’t stuff yourself with stuffing, and if you must, consider baking it with low-sodium chicken broth instead of butter.
Another holiday meal includes prime rib. And to celebrate the holidays, there is a prime rib holiday cut strait from the fattest part of the cow. Now who can resist that? Hopefully everyone; with a single piece consisting of 750 calories and 45 grams of fat, prime rib holiday cut might taste good, but it’s far from good for you. Replace that with beef tenderloins and enjoy a healthier alternative.
For you seafood lovers, crab cakes are melt-in-your-mouth good. However, rolled in breadcrumbs and dipped in fat, they don’t sacrifice calories for their taste. Avoid crab cakes and try shrimp cocktails. Giving you your seafood fix, shrimp cocktail avoids the fat and still satisfies your taste buds.
Side dishes can be just as high in calories as your meats. Candied sweet potatoes are the signature side dish of the holidays. But you might want to consider it a side dish and desert. Made with brown sugar, butter, and marshmallows, this high-calorie side has as many calories as your seafood feast.
Just like sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes are a tasty treat, high in calories. With plenty of milk, butter, and salt infused in the potatoes, this holiday food might indulge your taste buds, but the calories don’t indulge anything. Slim milk can make your mashed potatoes slimmer in calories, without sacrificing a great taste.
For desert, you might be tempted by delicious pecan pie. But beware, this delicious dessert is filled with more than pecans, it’s calories are overflowing. A single slice of pecan pie is between 500 and 800 calories. Made with corn syrup, butter, and sugar, no matter how good it might seem, your hips can’t lie for you on this one. If a piece of pecan pie is a tradition you’re not willing to give up, consider cutting a small sliver and sacrificing the crust.
Holiday foods are high in taste bud satisfaction and in calories. Be careful when choosing your holiday foods. Consider lower calorie alternatives and enjoy your meal and your body.
