The good and bad of holiday diets

MANILA, Philippines -You’ll hear of a lot of new diets that cite a breakthrough miracle ingredient or a magic combination of foods that speed up metabolism or work with your body chemistry. But ultimately, they work on an old premise: starvation.

Nestlé nutritionists offer a more realistic and effective approach: there are no good or bad foods, just good and bad diets.  A good diet has variety, moderation and balance. This lets you eat the food that you love, but in a way that still nourishes your body.

“Variety” encourages you to eat different kinds of foods.  Don’t cut out any food group, because you lose macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins and fat) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) that all work together to keep your body at its best. Every nutrient counts. “There is no super food that contains all the nutrients we require,” says Catherine Sarmiento, a professional nutritionist with the Nestlé corporate wellness group. “That’s why we need food variety, which at the same time keeps meals from becoming boring.”

“Moderation” helps you decide how much to eat. Even a healthy dish like vegetable soup (which contains fiber, vitamin C, calcium, potassium, vitamin B6 and folate) can hurt you if you eat too much of it alone. People who go through a soup diet complain of embarrassing bouts of gas and stomachaches. And if you eat too little food at all — sticking to a diet that’s lower than the minimum 1,200 calories recommended by the The US Committee on Dietary Allowance — you force your body to basically feed on itself. 

The challenge, of course, is applying moderation when you’re at a party. Leslie Go-Alcantara, corporate wellness head of Nestlé Philippines, gives this easy tip: stick to a nine-inch-diameter plate, and wait 20 minutes before you go for seconds. It takes that long for the brain to register that it’s full, so just eat slowly and indulge in party conversation before raiding the buffet a second time.

“Balance” is prioritizing nutrition according to what your body needs the most. Leslie gives another easy visual tool. Think of your plate as divided into three parts: 1/4 of which is filled with carbohydrates, another 1/4 is filled with proteins, and the remaining half can overflow with vegetables and fruits. That lets you indulge in some of your lola’s famous holiday adobo and paella, but reminds you that you should be having more of the steamed broccoli and carrots, which is a lot better than not eating anything at all.

“There are no shortcuts to achieving and maintaining a healthy diet,” Leslie says. “We may lose weight from a fad diet in the short term, but it is not sustainable and there is eventually a rebound. This is why we have made it our advocacy to educate Filipinos on the importance of proper nutrition through our Choose Wellness campaign.”