"The base should be vegetables and fruits": dietitian - about planning a New Year's menu

- New Year's holidays are a time when people sometimes forget about healthy lifestyles and healthy eating.

How to minimize damage, but at the same time not deprive yourself of gastronomic pleasures?

- First of all, you need to prepare for the holiday.

A person who, at a basic level, understands how to eat, how to plan your diet, even festive feasts will not become a reason for overeating for him.

This knowledge, skills need to be "pumped" constantly.

But if there are no such skills yet, then the following tips can help.

First of all, you need to plan the menu in advance and make a list of products that will be on the New Year's table.

So that it does not happen that the whole table will consist of cakes and sausages, figuratively speaking, from not the most useful products.

- And what share can be accounted for by such products?

- There is no need to exclude them entirely, of course.

The challenge is not simply to exclude something, but to find a more correct replacement.

In general, it is possible to talk about "unhealthy" products only conditionally, because any food is useful in certain quantities.

• Natalia Pavlyuk

• © Photo from personal archive

However, the base of our diet in terms of volume should be vegetables and fruits - and when planning a festive table, you need to buy them first.

You need to think about how to serve them - in the form of some cuts, salads, etc. For example, it makes sense to put sliced ​​fruits on the table.

Then, it is better to bake meat, poultry or fish without adding extra fats.

You do not need to starve before a feast, so that severe hunger does not force you to sweep away half the table at once.

It is better to start with those foods that saturate well - these are protein dishes.

In addition, you should not sit at the table for several hours in a row, as many people like.

It is better to take breaks - go for a walk, dance, etc. And each approach to the table should be planned in order to put on the plate exactly what you want to try, and in moderation.

It is very important not to abuse alcohol.

Of course, everyone knows about its dangers and calorie content, but, in addition, drinking alcohol reduces immunity for about a day.

And excessive alcohol consumption is always a big blow to the immune system.

So it is better on New Year's Eve to drink not only alcoholic drinks, but also juices and water.

- Is it necessary to somehow adapt the usual dishes in order to reduce their calorie content?

Many people try to replace regular mayonnaise with yogurt, make PP-desserts with sweeteners and low-fat cottage cheese, and so on?

Or is it better to just cut back on the amount of food consumed?

- In fact, it is important not to observe any calorie content, but rather, to include in the diet as many healthy foods as possible.

Calorie content, the ratio of proteins, fats and carbohydrates are already in second place.

If we are talking about a healthy person who regularly goes in for sports, eats right, then he need not follow so closely the calorie intake.

But if we are talking about a person who leads a sedentary lifestyle, is already overweight - then in this case, yes, it is better to limit the calorie intake.

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• © Komsomolskaya Pravda

Speaking specifically about the popular New Year's salads, in which mayonnaise is usually added, then it is better to replace it with low-fat options.

Or just put less.

And some salads can even be seasoned with yogurt, soft cottage cheese. 

As for baking, it is better to cook it yourself, if possible.

In this case, you can also replace some of the ingredients with something more useful.

You can make a cake from carrots, bananas, add dietary fiber, nuts, dried fruits to it ... Such a cake will be more useful than a purchased one.

- Does this also apply to everyday life?

- All people need to be approached individually.

For example, there are people with food addiction, mainly caused by sugar and fats, which are abundant in cakes and pastries.

It can be compared with alcoholism - if a person has such an addiction, he should not drink alcohol at all, even in small doses.

And in the case of alcohol, not even natural wine, with which mankind has known since antiquity, poses a particular threat, but vodka, which was invented relatively recently.

Refined sugars are also not a natural part of our diet.

For thousands of years, sugar has been available to people except in the form of fruits, and occasionally honey.

Therefore, the human body is not adapted to the consumption of large amounts of pure sugar, it easily becomes dependent on it.

It comes to the point that a person is ready to eat sweets for breakfast, lunch and dinner - in this case, it is already worth working not only with a nutritionist, but also with a psychologist.

Of course, in this case, it is better to replace industrial sweets with some more useful ingredients.