The Medical Minute: To feast or not to feast, that's the holiday question

By John Messmer, M.D.
Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center

Here it comes – the time of year when overindulgence is a tradition. At Thanksgiving, we stuff the turkey then we stuff ourselves. This may go on for days if leftovers hold out. Then come holiday get-togethers, Christmas cookies, eggnog, office parties and Christmas dinner. Finally, there are New Year’s Eve celebrations with the attendant food and drink followed by half-hearted resolutions to lose weight and exercise more. Why wait until January? If you start now, you can avoid the feelings of guilt when you gain so much weight.

No foods are intrinsically bad – it’s a matter of quantity. For some foods such as French fries and potato chips, the quantity consumed in a day should be one ounce or less – none if you are trying to lose weight. On the other hand, we should have eight 3-ounce servings of fruit and vegetables each day. Dessert or entertainment foods – pie, cake, candy, ice cream, etc. – are not primarily consumed for our health, even though they may have some nutritional value. The calorie content compared to the nutrition provided – the calorie density – is too high to eat more than a limited quantity of these on a regular basis.

For many people, dining out is more common during the holidays and for some people all those attractive menu options – foods you can’t get at home – might make it more difficult to control your appetite.

Portion control, or lack of it, is a big part of our nation’s current obesity epidemic. The problem is not only “super-sizing” at fast food restaurants. Restaurants serve large portions in order to justify higher prices because increasing the portion costs little and makes you feel you got your money’s worth. At restaurants, skip the appetizer, have the salad dressing on the side and use only a tablespoon on your salad and take half the entrée home or share it with your guest. It might also be a good idea to avoid combination platters. Split dessert or skip it altogether if you are trying to lose weight.

Portions matter at home also. It might sound silly, but try eating on a smaller plate so it looks like more food. With packaged foods, remember that the entire package may not be a serving. The calorie content listed for a serving might refer to half the package or less. Pasta is a good example – most Americans eat an entire plate at a time, typically four or more times the proper amount.

When eating meat, a serving is 3 ounces – about the size of a deck of playing cards. Restaurant portions are much larger. The typical menu offers prime rib in 16 and 18 ounce servings – enough for a party of five or more! A half chicken is at least three servings. Add fresh bread and dessert and one can easily consume 2500 or more calories in one meal – an entire day’s calories. Alcohol adds even more calories – about 150 calories more or less per drink.

In order to prepare for the holidays, start now to reduce your portions at every meal. You will probably feel a little hungry at first since our bodies are designed to maintain weight even if we are very overweight. After a couple days, the portions will feel normal. Start an exercise program. Walking 30 minutes a day will help although exercise will not make up for too many calories. A half-hour walk burns only about 200 calories. However, if you reduce your calorie consumption by 300 calories (one serving of bread or pasta, one ounce of meat plus one cookie equals about 300 calories) AND burn off 200 by walking, AND if you do this consistently, you will lose a pound a week. Consistency is important; if you overeat, you stop losing and begin to feel hungry again. The more you eat, the more you will want.

If you eat properly every day, exercise regularly and maintain a normal weight, overdoing it on Thanksgiving and Christmas will not have much of a long term effect. Unfortunately, we have become a nation of chronic overeaters unwilling to admit we eat too much. So begin now to eat smaller portions every day so when you overdo it a little on holidays, it is an exception rather than just another day of overeating.