"Good vs Evil: The 2 Sides of Holiday Foods"

maxwebber.hunter.cuny.edu

Its that time of the year again people. Pool parties, birthday bashes, annual extravaganzas, and crazy music festivals. Its officially party time. You know what that means don’t you? Cake, pudding, chocolate pie, strawberry cupcakes, butter cookies, and much much more… Ok, you can stop the drooling! Before you reach for that second, make that, THIRD slice of the caramel toffee cake stop and take a second to read on. For I have for you a neat little list of the not-so- goodies on our holiday plates, just to help you know when its worth another bite, and when its most definitely not!


And I am not just talking about a little big of struggling to get into those fitted jeans. According to statistics, the average person puts on about a half kg every festive season (make that 1kg for us Indians since we like to party during Diwali and at the end of the year!), and most people do not end up losing that extra kg, leading to progressive weight gain year after year!

Listen up, and learn girls and boys.

Chicken with the skin on – you’ll be surprised to learn that the skin of the chicken actually contains a whole lot of saturated fat which is usually the stuff that likes to clog up your arteries, not to mention add some ummm…bump to your backside. Another warning – pick white meat (chicken, turkey, pork) over red meat (mutton, beef) when possible since the latter has more fat per bite than the former!

Mashed, soft –as-heaven potatoes – you can bet your last rupee this stuff has got dollops of butter and other creamy delights inside its innocent looking exterior and trust me, you don’t want to go there. If you want to eat potatoes, pick the grilled or even the roasted kind…yummy, without the tummy.

Pecan/Apple Pie – don’t fool yourself into thinking that because its named after a healthy fruit or nut, its super light and healthy. On the contrary, these desserts usually come loaded with all kinds of fatty stuff like butter, milk, cream, sugar and corn syrup. On average, one slice of a pecan pie can be between 500 and 800 calories. Now how long does it take to work that off on the treadmill?? Hmmm, about 90 minutes for most of us!

So before you attack that buffet table at random, think twice people.