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Healthy eating during a gluttonous season

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Rae Perry
  • 4th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SEYMOUR JOHNSON AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. --  Humans tend to shove their faces full of delicious food that surrounds us during the holidays.

Knowing what types of food to eat and how much to eat can help prevent that dreaded holiday weight gain that normally ends up as a New Year's resolution January 1.

"For the holidays, anything is fine in moderation," said Tiffany Brassard, Health and Wellness Center (HAWC) dietitian. "When you're eating [holiday] meals, only get one plate, eat a plateful and end it at that."

Selecting the right amounts of certain foods can also help prevent over eating.

"For selecting proper portion sizes, you can use the palm of your hand," said Staff Sgt. Crystal Frazier, HAWC nutritionist.

The palm of your hand is good for measuring starches and vegetables, for meat servings imagine the size of a deck of cards, and for fruits the size of your fist balled up, but both Brassard and Frazier encourage people to eat more leafy green vegetables.

Leafy green vegetables are the healthiest, but are also the ones most children avoid eating including brussel sprouts, broccoli, spinach and green beans. Limiting large portions of starchy food, like white potatoes or those oh-so-tempting lima beans, can encourage a healthy intake of carbohydrates.

"Also, don't fast during the day leading up to a large meal, you will be more likely to over eat," said Brassard. "Fasting causes your body to go into starvation mode where it turns most of the sugars you get from food into fat."

Eating normal meals and small snacks throughout the day will decrease your hunger and the amount you eat during a big meal. In some cases, left overs can taste just as good, if not better, the next day.

Besides helping people eat right during the holidays, the HAWC's dietitian and nutritionist are available to help with any number of health and nutrition related problems. Their goal is to educate people on how to live a healthy lifestyle. They hold various classes aimed toward specific needs, like Diabetes and being heart healthy.