Integrative Health Zone
Educate You!

Here we go. We begin the season of OVERINDULGING. Stores are filled with an abundance of sweet treats. Brightly packaged in red, green, and gold foil are a variety of chocolates, fudge, cookies, and truffles. It’s amazing the variety of food items that can be covered with chocolate! Miniature Santas are made of marshmallow, caramel, mint creme, peanut butter, and toffee. Bells, balls, and trees. Sugar, fat, and calories. What a temptation it is to purchase bags of such treats and keep refilling the pretty bowl on the coffee table or on our office desk. We rationalize our actions: “It’s the holiday!”  or “It’s part of our tradition!”

At what point in our holiday celebrations did Hershey, Reese, Nestle, Ghirardelli

, Russell Stover, and Dove become so dominant? Is a bowl of red and green M & M’s really necessary as we celebrate the true meaning of the holiday? Did the Three Wise Men deliver gifts of Sea Salt Caramels to baby Jesus? Did the Virgin Mary have 10 different kinds of cookies to greet her guests? How did eggnog and fudge become core components of the holiday season? And what about fruitcake? Is that real fruit in there?  

Sensibility and moderation come into play here. Occasional sweet treats are fine, as long as you keep it under control and it isn’t a daily occurrence from December 1st until January 2nd! The problem is that we tend to eat these treats alone at our kitchen counters throughout the week when it isn’t a special holiday event. They call your name from the bowl! This would be a good season to overindulge in exercise rather than in calorie-laden foods. Enjoy the season with a commitment to sensibility and moderation in eating and drinking, and make time for exercise. If you do this, the season will be even more joyful when you can still comfortably snap your jeans on January 2nd!

                                                                                                                                                                 

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