Choosing healthy foods for the festive season

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Extract from the article: French nutritionist Dr Pierre Dukan once wrote that ‘when a man puts on weight, it's mainly because he eats too much and stores his excess calories in the form of fat’. So what should you eat over the festive period, or how should you combine foods t

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French nutritionist Dr Pierre Dukan once wrote that ‘when a man puts on weight, it's mainly because he eats too much and stores his excess calories in the form of fat’. So what should you eat over the festive period, or how should you combine foods to avoid overloading your body, avoid being overweight and stay in good shape?

During the festive season, it's important to choose the right food combinations at the right time. When we eat, all the foods mix together in our stomachs.Their glycaemic indexes combine to form a new glycaemic index (glycaemia is the blood glucose level.

On an empty stomach, normal blood sugar levels are between 0.7 and 1.1 g/litre. After a meal, blood sugar levels rise to 1.4 g/litre). When you eat a food with a medium or high glycaemic index, always combine it with another food with a low glycaemic index. For example, when eating white rice, add pulses such as beans to the plate. Start the meal with a green salad or raw vegetables dressed with a lemon or vinegar sauce (as much lemon or vinegar as oil), especially if you plan to eat a high-GI food such as fried potatoes and yams. Acidity, for example in the form of a salad with plenty of vinegar or lemon, helps to lower blood sugar levels by 25 to 30% after the meal.

No one respects mealtimes on a festive day, so the body loses its bearings. Be sparing with your choice of food.

What to serve as an aperitif?

For those who don't drink alcohol, offer a pierrier rondelle (a small dish that whets the appetite).For others, a glass of champagne or whisky, or an aniseed-flavoured aperitif (flavoured liqueur).Serve with candied ginger (cut into small pieces), apples or walnuts.Be careful, though, if you are diabetic: normally, insulin stops being secreted at the end of the day, but as you stay up late on the night of the party, the pancreas is still secreting insulin.

What should you serve on your New Year's Eve menu?

Prefer seafood, or fish that is less difficult to manage.Preferably salmon, as it provides just over 20g of protein per 100g and 10% fat, advises the dietician.These fats are well distributed: 1/3 saturated, 1/3 monounsaturated and 1/3 polyunsaturated, providing more than 2g of omega-3. There are plenty of vitamins and minerals: phosphorus, iodine, potassium, vitamins B3, B5, B6, B12, D and E.Combine with vegetables, which are lighter than starchy foods.

Cereals (rice, maize paste, millet or pearl millet) can be combined with vegetables. Dessert is the only item on the menu on New Year's Eve, to avoid an exaggerated rise in blood sugar levels.

After the festive season

It's time to put your body to rest to regain a slim waistline and, if necessary, lose a little weight quickly.By practising this method, you avoid storing food where you don't want to.Animal proteins that are not used for energy are stored in the shoulders and chest, slow and fast sugars give you a belly, dairy products increase your waistline and vegetables add too much volume to your buttocks. 

With this diet, you'll lose excess fat and water, without losing any muscle mass, because a typical day only allows you to meet your body's vital needs. The protein and fat content of the diet ensures that you feel full and delay the urge to eat.  

Elom AKAKPO