Christmas dinner calorie countdown

INFOGRAPHIC BY JESSICA BEAULIEU

For most people, celebrating the holiday season means family, friends, fun and food. People will be gathering around their tables to enjoy each other’s company and platefuls of festive foods. There’s no doubt that it’s a delicious time of year, but all those holiday meals can wreak havoc on your waistline. Second-year exercise science and health promotion student Victoria Nielsen explains how easy it can be to pack on the pounds this time of year. “It’s not the foods in general at a Christmas dinner, it’s the serving sizes and our tendency to overdo it during the holidays,” she said. So if you’re trying to keep control of your calorie count this year here are a few tips to help you along:

• Make your holiday meals from scratch, “the high amounts of sodium in most foods at a Christmas meal come from the packaged foods, like sweet corn and stuffing,” Nielsen said. “Canned foods are higher in preservatives and sodium in order to increase their shelf life.”
• Refrain from eating turkey skin which contains high amounts of fat and choose white meat over dark, for leaner protein
• Cook sweet potatoes instead of mashed, they are easier for your body to digest so they don’t turn to fat as easily
•  Skip extra sauces and gravies – while they add flavor to your meal, they also add calories to your daily intake
• Portion control and learn to say “no” to seconds

Check out this infographic on how a traditional Christmas meal measures up:

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