Making Good Food Choices for Christmas

Pavlova, trifles, fudge, mud cakes, Christmas mince tarts, Christmas fruit cakes, wine, and all the other indulgences of the season.  This is a great time of the year to have a well deserved rest and spend quality time with family and friends.  However, there are also lots of temptations, especially at parties.  My take on these foods is to keep a low consumption of them and if you make them yourselves, choose stevia as a sweetener.  Sugar is inflammatory and creates many gastrointestinal problems, blood sugar imbalances and loads your liver.  But a slice of Christmas cake and a mince tart once a year would not hurt.

Ham, turkey, salmon, seafood, lamb leg roast and the colourful look and smell of beautiful fresh salads also mark this season.  Many of these foods, apart from cured meats and their preservatives meet all the requirements of eating for nourishment. 

Plants are great sources of minerals, plant based phytonutrients and soluble and insoluble fibre.  Balancing the protein rich meats that you consume in this season with lots of plant based foods, is important to keep you in balance.  Protein rich meats are acidic, but provide the amino acids for our bodies, and they do taste good!  Plant based foods are alkaline with good sources of minerals absorbed from the soil, chlorophyll (a superb cleanser and oxygenator) and antioxidants (which helps to reverse ageing).  So those multicoloured, beautiful salads and fruit platter will quench your free radicals that cause ageing of cells.

After the parties, make yourself a green smoothie with kale, parsley, granny smith apple and a scoop of Shape Up (yes, you need good pH balanced protein to help with detoxing).

When you view food as nourishment, you make better choices than when you view food as love. But just know that you do not have to be perfect.  How much your body likes your choices depends on the effect after – are you bloated, have reflux and/or flatulence, did you gain a few centimetres on the waist, did you scales have a big jump (large jumps may also be due to water retention, from inappropriate eating), are you unusually hot or experience more pain?  If you do, you body is speaking to you and you should listen.

Spending time with family does not need to centre around unhealthy food, you can make healthier choices – foods that are whole and less processed, high in good oils – olive oil, coconut oil, nuts and seeds, good protein and unrefined carbohydrates. Spend time outdoors, enjoy nature and soak up the sun in the mornings!