Nutritious choices made simple ®
Happy holidays! Let’s keep them that way with food safety guidelines that keep your family and friends safe. From a day of baking to the holiday office party, we’ve got you covered with tips and resources to ensure your holiday is all joy and cheer.
I’m one of those people who throw an annual holiday party, and every year I make a big bowl (okay, more like 2-3 bowls) of punch for my guests. I serve grown-up punch: its festive appearance (complete with fancy ice ring) belies its potency. People look forward to it because punch is one of those things that just screams “party.” Plus, pretty much nobody else I know makes punch.
Let’s face it: the holidays are not all glowing and perfect like the picture found on the front of a Hallmark card. They are packed with last-minute gift giving, scrambling for your child who “forgot” to tell you they need a crimson collared shirt for their holiday concert, and well, just trying to keep up. Whether it’s because you’re too busy to get to the supermarket or craving less healthful foods, holiday stress reaches all aspects of your food choices. The good news is you’re not alone, and there are solutions to these common problems.
Figs are a delightful treat in the fall and winter. If you’re looking for non-alcoholic beverages to delight guests at a holiday party, try making up a big batch of this delicious smoothie and serving it in small cocktail glasses.
It seems like most people either fall into one of two camps when it comes to stress: it either prompts you to eat more than you usually would (science shows that’s about 40% of the population), or it completely takes away your appetite (another 40% fall here; the other 20% don’t change their food intake at all in the face of stress). Add in all the holiday “joy” that’s around right now and it’s not difficult to see that lots of us use food and alcohol to assuage our seasonal stress. And yet, there are ways around it, thank goodness. For the sake of your health and sanity, you owe it to yourself to try and manage your stress in non-food ways.
Looking for more nutritious recipes to try out this holiday season? We’ve put together a few of our favorite seasonal treats for you to try. Check them out in our Healthy Holidays Flipbook!
With the unveiling of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines earlier this year, came new recommendations designed to encourage better food choices and eating patterns to improve health. For those of us who work closely with the Guiding Stars algorithm, the guidance related to dietary cholesterol was of particular interest… and frankly kind of exciting. In case you missed it, the new dietary guidelines don’t offer a specific guideline on cholesterol, but rather recommend that we seek to limit our intake of it and focus on a healthful, balanced diet. At Guiding Stars, we knew all along that there was nutritional benefit to some foods that contain cholesterol like eggs and shrimp, and having the Dietary Guidelines back us up meant we could incorporate these foods into our rating and therefore our recommendations, recipes and suggested foods. What better time to do this than during the holiday season? Cheers!
During our webinar, Here’s to Your Health: Balancing Entertaining and Nutrition, Kit and I talk about putting together a healthier holiday brunch. Here’s a quick list of recipes to get you started!