Heart Tips for the Holidays
When you get into the holiday mood, you are very enthusiastic of making it a wonderful one and accordingly start planning for it. Everything that may be required is meticulously thought of and taken along. You also resolve to abide by a strict regimen towards food and exercise habits that you otherwise follow and hope that you will be able to stick to it.
However, once you are on the road, things take a different turn. The holiday mood engulfs you and your rational approach totally and you begin to violate codes that you thought you would abide by. So right from traveling to shopping to your exercise routine, you find that you have not been able to keep to the limits you had promised yourself and suddenly, you are adrift without any control mechanism working in your favor. The one activity in excess that will hurt you the most is the eating habit. For somebody with health problems and advised specific food habits with certain limits, this can develop into a serious problem. Typically, somebody with hypertension or diabetes or having cholesterol levels beyond acceptable norms face a huge challenge, when they holiday, not only sourcing the right food but to maintain that discipline.
Following are some suggestions that we have found are useful to enjoy the holidays without the feeling of guilt or the feeling of having missed out something. This is borne out of personal experience, having to deal with diabetic parents and a father with a severe heart problem.
The first one deals with the consumption of whole milk that is typically the main ingredient in ice creams, desserts and some main course menus. This milk in this form consists of unacceptable concentrations of sugars, fats and cholesterol, all of which can cause a lot of harm. It is advisable to mix this milk with an equal quantity of skim milk or the one that contains less than 2% fat. This diluted preparation does not take away the taste and serves to also fulfill your dietary requirement. You can enjoy your favorite foods or desserts and be none the worse for it.
The next one concerns the sweet preparations made from sweet potatoes, berries and pumpkin. These contain high levels of sugars that are already built in. If your preparations call for a lot of sugar to be added, do not make the error of adding synthetic sugar to top the already present fruit sugars. Let the preparation have the natural taste of the fruit sugars and you will find that it is a good option. The other alternative is try a sugar substitute, which is similar to the normal sugar but is chemically treated such that it does not contain the sweet content to the same extent and therefore is less harmful.
When suffering from problems of cholesterol and hypertension, consumption of red meat is taboo. You can however, prepare the meat by smoking it on the charcoal and the advantage of this is that it does not take longer than the baking process. It is more effective in separating the fat and lends a better flavor.