Eat guilt–free and enjoy your holidays

The Nutrition Scoop columnist, Larry Lindner, talked to the experts and many of them say now is the time for enjoyment—not deprivation or guilt. "

"All the richness anyone could want for less than 200 calories a helping," promises Health magazine this month with its recipes for low–fat "festive goodies." Healthy Living promises "guilt–free baking" with instructions for making cheesecake "without a bit of cheese" and chocolate orange crisps prepared with whole–wheat flour. And a Better Homes and Gardens spinoff offers "low–fat nibbles" for holiday fetes.

The irony is that even in the face of all that, er, encouragement, most people probably do not substitute reduced–fat goodies for traditional holiday fare. But that doesn't mean that seeing all those calls to turn Christmas dinner into a paradigm of healthful eating doesn't make folks even more anxious than they already are around holiday time. After all, not following the "rules" is totally separate from feeling guilty about not following them.

But should people feel guilty? And, more to the point, should they be making an effort to slim down their holiday recipes? Professional opinions range from a resounding "if they feel like it" to "absolutely not."

"I guess in principle it's a reasonable idea" for people to cook lower–fat during the holidays, says Kelly Brownell, a Yale University professor of psychology who serves as director of the Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders. "But it's swimming against the tidal wave of the very high–fat way people like to eat at this time of year," he points out. "They feel, rightfully so, that it's a time to treat themselves."

"I don't think I'd worry about that too much, because once a year is not going to hurt," Brownell adds. But, he comments, attitude really counts. "If people say, 'this is a time for celebration and I love these foods and I only have them once in a while,' then I don't think it's a problem," he remarks. But if they "feel shame and guilt," they'll feel bad and they won't get to enjoy the food.

As for his own holiday eating, Brownell says that "I kind of go with what I want. I love ham over the holidays because I don't eat it much during the year. And desserts." Which ones in particular? "Every dessert," he responds.

Cutting Yourself Some Slack
Gail Zyla, a registered dietitian and visiting lecturer at the Tufts University School of Nutrition Science and Policy and coauthor of the popular college text Personal Nutrition (Wadsworth Publishing Co.), believes that Christmas belongs in the 20% part of the 80/20 rule. "Eighty percent of the time you try to do things 'right,'" she explains. "Give yourself a little more room 20% of the time. It allows for the stick–with–it–ness people need" to follow a healthful diet.

For example, Zyla points out, the 20% part of the rule helps people refrain from overeating throughout the holiday season. "A lot of people go hog wild for the entire month of December," she notes. "If people were a little more relaxed about it and a little more forgiving, they wouldn't feel the need to go nuts and then get rigid in January."

The way for people to relax themselves into the 20% fraction of the rule, she says, is to remind themselves that "this isn't the last time that I'm going to be able to eat a cookie, or have some pie, or eat a little gravy." That way, they "don't overdo it because they don't feel they're stockpiling for the whole next year."

Boston–area dietitian Christine Smith concurs. "Why can't you have some pecan pie in March?" she asks rhetorically. "Christmas isn't the only time of year that you can eat Christmas–y foods."
Mark Hegsted, professor emeritus of nutrition at Harvard University's School of Public Health, who has done a great deal of research on the relationship between diet and heart disease, says of low–fat cooking, "my inclination is not to take it too seriously at this time of the year. The meals we want to eat have got to be good. If you can find low–fat ones that are satisfying, fine." Otherwise, says Hegsted, whose holiday fare includes mince pie and many other potentially high–fat favorites, "I wouldn't worry about it too much."

Ironically, Jill Melton, a dietitian who serves as senior food editor at Cooking Light magazine, tends to agree. "I kind of go all out" with desserts, she says. "I don't want to give up the fat there."

Balance Can Be Key
But different things are going to work for different people, Melton remarks. For instance, she explains that the magazine's Thanksgiving issue last year had an "absolutely yummy" low–fat recipe for maple–orange sweet potatoes that included orange juice, maple syrup, brown sugar, and just a little butter and chopped pecans. She says, however, that while such a dish might be fine for some, "if your grandmother made a dish with lots of butter that you absolutely just love, go for it."

Similarly, she says that "if it's really vital to your emotional well–being to have everything your Mom made, then you probably should stick with that."
Rather than thinking of lower–fat dishes as things to make instead of the dishes you really love, Melton notes, people should simply look at them as possible opportunities to make new dishes that "are just good for their own sake and on their own merits."

Melton also points out that no matter what high–fat, high–calorie dishes you make, there's probably going to be some naturally low–fat fare on the table, too?"fresh saut褤 green beans alongside the scalloped potatoes with cheese and cream," as she puts it. In other words, there tends to be at least some balance, even on the most weighed–down of groaning boards.
Even if there isn't, the experts say, the world isn't going to come to an end. Or as Zyla succinctly puts it, "people should not beat themselves up over Christmas dinner. That's the last thing anyone needs to feel guilty about. Kick back and enjoy."