Healthy Christmas Dinner Suggestions

The hardest time to stick to a diet is around the holidays. Everyone wants to sample the desserts and filling foods on the dinner table. This Christmas, choose healthier menu items for your Christmas dinner.

It is not uncommon for people to gain a few pounds during Christmas. After a week of eating every scrumptious thing in sight, it’s a wonder anyone can move. This Christmas, you can help yourself and your family by slimming down traditional recipes.

Adapting Christmas recipes to healthier versions doesn’t mean that they have to taste bland. On the contrary, these dinner recipes can be full of flavor. It is fat we are trying to avoid.

Simple changes are the easiest and best to make. Some simple substitutions involve the most fattening ingredients. For example, use liquid oil and applesauce in place of liquid oil alone. Use margarine in place of butter and sugar substitutes instead of pure sugar. Many recipes have suggestions for healthy substitutions.

We eat too much and our portion sizes are out of control. Making simple substitutions lowers the fat content of our Christmas dinner dishes even if we eat a bit too much. For home made recipes, substitutions will go on feel and experience.

When making gravy for the turkey, begin with a can or jar of fat free turkey gravy. Add the turkey drippings from the baking pan to the fat free gravy. Season the food to taste. For thicker gravy, add some chicken broth and a few instant potato flakes to the drippings before adding it to the fat free gravy.

Mashed potatoes are a favorite Christmas dinner side dish to complement turkey and gravy. When making the potatoes, substitute half of the potatoes with cauliflower. Mash both together well.

Serve a soup and salad before putting the main courses on the table. A low fat vegetable soup like tomato and a simple green salad fills part of the stomach and everyone will eat less later on. Make available an assortment of low fat salad dressings for the salad.

Even the Christmas dinner turkey can slim down. Instead of preparing an entire twenty pound turkey, opt for a turkey breast instead. To maintain tenderness and moistness, marinade the thawed turkey breast before cooking. Remove any skin before serving.

One place we often fill up on empty calories is beverages. Instead of soda, serve punch sweetened with sugar substitute like Splenda®. Ice tea can also be sweetened with sugar substitute and lemons. Flavored waters are another option.

Christmas dinner doesn’t have to be fattening to be delicious. With a few healthy tweaks, many won’t notice the difference. This year, expand your repertoire of healthy Christmas dinner choices instead of expanding the waistline.

Will Fruit Make You Fat?

By Nick Nilsson

Learn the truth about fruit...is it the diabolical diet-killer it's sometimes made out to be or is it just fruit and actually pretty good for you?!

The answer to the question of whether fruit can or will make you fat isn't as simple as yes OR no...because the answer is yes AND no.

Sound confusing? It's not so bad!

There have been studies done on fruit sugar (fructose) and how it's metabolized in the body and liver, which I'll get into in a bit, but I'm also going to talk about fruit from a practical standpoint.

First, here is why it WON'T make you fat...

Fruit is a fat-free (with rare exception, like avocados) and fairly low-calorie, high-fiber food. It's going to be hard to eat ENOUGH fruit to result in an excess of calories, resulting in noticeable fat gain...hard, but not impossible.

You would have to look long and hard to find somebody who ate a lot of fruit and had gained a lot of fat because of all the fruit they ate. Fruit roll-ups, fruit juice (with 10% real juice), Fruity Pebbles and Froot Loops...maybe not so hard, though I do have to say high fructose corn syrup is NOT a fruit just because it has the word "fructose" in it, so that doesn't count.

And I don't know about you, but I have yet to hear of somebody sitting down in front of the television and not realizing they ate an entire bag of apples or saying their doctor told them they need to lay off the bananas!

"Real" fruit actually contains a lot of water, nutrients, fiber, etc...healthy stuff...stuff your body NEEDS. It's generally when we start mucking around with fruit that we start to run into problems.

In the words of Homer Simpson..."This jelly donut has purple stuff in it. Purple is a fruit."

That being said, there ARE metabolic issues with fruit and fat.

Yes, it IS true that the body has certain limitations processing fructose (the type of sugar found in fruit).

Fructose can only be stored as glycogen (glycogen is the carbohydrate storage molecule in the body) in the liver, not in the muscles. Muscle cells lack the proper enzymes to convert fructose into this storage molecule.

So that leaves the liver for storage...

When liver glycogen levels are full and your body can't store any more carbs in the liver, fructose IS easier for the body to convert into fat than other carbs because of its molecular structure.

This fat is NOT immediately converted into bodyfat, however. It becomes free fatty acids circulating in the bloodstream. If they're not burned, they CAN be stored as bodyfat.

But the OTHER good stuff you find in fruit, notably the fiber and vitamins and minerals, outweigh the "dangers" of storing a little extra fat.

And here's the point that a lot of people miss, especially when they hear that fruit has the potential to work against fat loss when on a diet...

If you're dieting, you should be in a caloric deficit. This means that your liver glycogen levels should very RARELY be full. You're in a deficit after all!

Therefore...

1. The fructose should have little chance of being converted into fat.

2. If some excess fructose IS converted to fat, chances are good it'll be USED by the body soon after being converted to fat because you're in a caloric deficit.

Granted, just like ANY other carbohydrate, if you eat too much of it, it can be stored as fat. If you're a competitive bodybuilder peaking for a competition, you MAY have to watch your fruit intake to be sure you come in at your leanest.

But for the average person looking to drop bodyfat, fruit is not something I would be too worried about (unless you're on a low-carb diet, in which case you're watching ALL carbs anyway).

I would be FAR more concerned about a person drinking too much of that diet soda garbage while dieting before I'd even be slightly concerned about them eating an apple.

Bottom line, my stance is this...DO NOT feel guilty about eating fruit, even while dieting. Treat it as you would any other food with calories in it and simply be aware of your intake because ANY food has the potential to make you fat, especially if you eat it when your body doesn't need any more calories for that day.

If you want to minimize the impact of fruit on your fat-loss diet, eat it in the morning when liver glycogen levels are naturally at their lowest point. This will help ensure fructose won't be converted into fat.

Honestly, there are MUCH more important things to worry about when it comes to fat loss...your training and overall nutrition are much more important than worrying about eating too much fruit.

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Nick Nilsson is Vice-President of the online personal training company BetterU, Inc. He has a degree in Physical Education and Psychology and has been inventing new training techniques for more than 18 years. Nick is the author of a number of bodybuilding eBooks including "Metabolic Surge - Rapid Fat Loss," "The Best Exercises You've Never Heard Of," "Gluteus to the Maximus - Build a Bigger Butt NOW!" and "The Best Abdominal Exercises You've Never Heard Of" all available at http://fitness-ebooks.rxsportz.com. He can be contacted at betteru@fitstep.com.

20 Vegan Holiday Recipes

With Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up, a lot of vegetarians are getting a little anxious, because they don't know what to eat over these holidays.

Fortunately, I just received an email from vegetarian recipe expert, Kardena Pauza, and here's what she has planned:

"For Thanksgiving, we are going to be at my good friend's house so we will bring some dishes over to contribute to the dinner.

The dishes I am going to make are in the new Vegan holiday recipe book that I just prepared for you.

So on Thursday, I'll be "cooking" up a storm, preparing...

1. Cauliflower mashed potatoes and vegan gravy
2. Healthy Vegan green bean casserole
3. Raw chocolate truffles - my specialty!    
4. Fresh, homemade cranberry sauce

And my vegan friends will surprise me with their awesome holiday dishes. I cant wait to have pumpkin pie and sweet potatoes! Two of my favorites!

If you want to try those out, plus 16 more of the best holiday Vegan recipes to help you eat healthy and veggie over the holidays, then I have great news for you.

You'll even discover a substitute for Thanksgiving Turkey, Beef Wellington, and more yummy chocolate desserts."

And to celebrate Thanks-Veganing (and November's World Vegan Month), Kardena is including her 20 Vegan Holiday Recipes book along with a $30 discount on the Easy Veggie Meal Plans System.

But hurry...the $30 off Easy Veggie Meal Plans celebration discount is only available until American Thanksgiving Thursday, November 26th at 11:59pm. As soon as "Black Friday" morning comes, the bonus is removed and the price goes back up.

Click here for the veggie holiday recipes bonus & $30 off holiday sale:

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I look forward to hearing about your success with the Easy Veggie Meal Plans program today!

Happy Thanksgiving (and Happy Vegan Month to EVERYONE in the world),

Arthur M.

PS - Be a FAST ACTION taker and start celebrating vegetarian eating and Thanks-Veganing by improving your health, boosting your energy, clearing your complexion, and dramatically transforming your body with these special holiday recipes and the Easy Veggie Meal Plans today!

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