"trimming" holiday indulgence

[finallyfull]

I have always been annoyed at the articles that crop up every holiday in magazines and newspapers that have all of these "slimmed down" or "light" versions of holiday favorite foods. Even before No S, it drove me nuts because doing this encourages the notion that to be slim, people have to watch themselves on Christmas Day or Easter Sunday or whatever your holiday, instead of being moderate on all of the regular days. With No S, I can really appreciate why holidays became feast days in the first place: because it's a way to make the day more special. But it seems like the majority treat every day as a little "special" with all the snacks, and then pile guilt on the holidays. No thanks!!

I plan to dive guilt-free into my Easter basket, my ham dinner and whatever I want. I can never eat enough to kill my seven weeks of green N days, and the lifetime of green N days to come.

This is truly a way to have your cake and eat it too.

[kccc]

It is just silly, isn't it?

If you are going to eat something that is an indulgence by definition, have the good-tasting version and be done with it. As long as indulgences are a minor portion of your overall intake, you're good.

The trouble is that when people make a "light" version, they get into "it's not reeaaallly an indulgence because..." thinking. And it still is, but because it's not recognized as such, they'll have something else, and something else, and something else...

Better to have one real treat and stop than 20 "light" almost-treats.

[RJLupin]

I totally agree, just commented on this on another message. Those "light" versions never taste good, and if anything make one bitter and longing for the real thing. I would never be satisfied with "diet" cake or "diet" turkey or "diet" gravy. Most holidays only last one day; if you eat like a sensible person the rest of the time, you're not going to gain weight from one or two days.

[Nichole]

I'd rather eat less than something wonderful than the same or more of something "made over". hehe. I go easy on holidays because there are A LOT of parties in my family, but I definitely don't deprive myself!

This reminds me of last night, we were talking about beer and beer bellies. I don't generally drink, but when I do, I'd rather have one bottle of something good than some gross low-calorie beer or whatever.

[wosnes]

I have always been annoyed at the articles that crop up every holiday in magazines and newspapers that have all of these "slimmed down" or "light" versions of holiday favorite foods. Even before No S, it drove me nuts because doing this encourages the notion that to be slim, people have to watch themselves on Christmas Day or Easter Sunday or whatever your holiday, instead of being moderate on all of the regular days. With No S, I can really appreciate why holidays became feast days in the first place: because it's a way to make the day more special. But it seems like the majority treat every day as a little "special" with all the snacks, and then pile guilt on the holidays. No thanks!!


This is truly a way to have your cake and eat it too.

I totally agree! Some years back there was a "recipe redux" column in Cooking Light magazine and a reader wanted some holiday dessert lightened. She wrote that it had so much fat that she couldn't in good conscience serve it to her holiday guests. My immediate response was "What???? This is something you serve once a year and guests get 1 or maybe 2 servings? What's the big deal?"

[marygrace]

I have always been annoyed at the articles that crop up every holiday in magazines and newspapers that have all of these "slimmed down" or "light" versions of holiday favorite foods. Even before No S, it drove me nuts because doing this encourages the notion that to be slim, people have to watch themselves on Christmas Day or Easter Sunday or whatever your holiday, instead of being moderate on all of the regular days. With No S, I can really appreciate why holidays became feast days in the first place: because it's a way to make the day more special. But it seems like the majority treat every day as a little "special" with all the snacks, and then pile guilt on the holidays. No thanks!!


This is truly a way to have your cake and eat it too.

I totally agree! Some years back there was a "recipe redux" column in Cooking Light magazine and a reader wanted some holiday dessert lightened. She wrote that it had so much fat that she couldn't in good conscience serve it to her holiday guests. My immediate response was "What???? This is something you serve once a year and guests get 1 or maybe 2 servings? What's the big deal?"

I couldn't in good conscience serve some kind of health-ified recipe for a holiday. I would feel completely ridiculous. My mom knows a personal trainer who served low-carb cookies made from soy flour for dessert at her Thanksgiving dinner. That's just EMBARRASSING!

[finallyfull]

I think there could be a whole cartoon strip called "You know you eat too much everyday when...." and this one would be

"You know you eat too much everyday when you have to cut calories at Thanksgiving dinner"

or

"You know you eat too much everyday when you resort to blaming one-day holidays for those pesky extra 20 pounds."

It's sort of like saying "I shouldn't have had that last glass wine" when in fact it was the previous four that were the main problem.

But who needs denial when you have No S.

[wosnes]

I think there could be a whole cartoon strip called "You know you eat too much everyday when...." and this one would be

"You know you eat too much everyday when you have to cut calories at Thanksgiving dinner"

or

"You know you eat too much everyday when you resort to blaming one-day holidays for those pesky extra 20 pounds."

It's sort of like saying "I shouldn't have had that last glass wine" when in fact it was the previous four that were the main problem.

But who needs denial when you have No S.

Well, said! I recently read that it's not the occasional day of indulgence that causes us to gain weight; it's the daily consumption of 200-300 (or more) calories over and above what we need. Or, it's not what you do now and again that matters; it's what you do every day.

[NoelFigart]

But who needs denial when you have No S.

Amen to that.

I overheard two women at the gym a few months ago (both of whom were quite lean) lamenting the fact they had eaten something "bad" last over a holiday.

I laughed at them and said that if pie at Thanksgiving is REALLY your biggest eating problem, chances are quite slim that you HAVE a problem. Enjoy the darn holiday!

I think these women were obsessing unnecessarily and feeling foolish guilt. They were lean and fit, goodness knows, and weren't training for a figure competition or anything like that.

[wosnes]

We're so good with guilt!

No wonder we have become, in the midst of our astounding abundance, the world's most anxious eaters. A few years ago, Paul Rozin, a University of Pennsylvania psychologist, and Claude Fischler, a French sociologist, began collaborating on a series of cross-cultural surveys of food attitudes. They found that of the four populations surveyed (the U.S., France, Flemish Belgium and Japan), Americans associated food with health the most and pleasure the least. Asked what comes to mind upon hearing the phrase ''chocolate cake,'' Americans were more apt to say ''guilt,'' while the French said ''celebration''; ''heavy cream'' elicited ''unhealthy'' from Americans, ''whipped'' from the French. The researchers found that Americans worry more about food and derive less pleasure from eating than people in any other nation they surveyed.

[clarinetgal]

While reading that quote, I realized my thinking on food is a mix of French and American. The first word that came to my mind when I read 'chocolate cake' was yum! and the first word that came to my mind with 'heavy cream' was whipped cream.

[RJLupin]

I have always been annoyed at the articles that crop up every holiday in magazines and newspapers that have all of these "slimmed down" or "light" versions of holiday favorite foods. Even before No S, it drove me nuts because doing this encourages the notion that to be slim, people have to watch themselves on Christmas Day or Easter Sunday or whatever your holiday, instead of being moderate on all of the regular days. With No S, I can really appreciate why holidays became feast days in the first place: because it's a way to make the day more special. But it seems like the majority treat every day as a little "special" with all the snacks, and then pile guilt on the holidays. No thanks!!


This is truly a way to have your cake and eat it too.

I totally agree! Some years back there was a "recipe redux" column in Cooking Light magazine and a reader wanted some holiday dessert lightened. She wrote that it had so much fat that she couldn't in good conscience serve it to her holiday guests. My immediate response was "What???? This is something you serve once a year and guests get 1 or maybe 2 servings? What's the big deal?"

I couldn't in good conscience serve some kind of health-ified recipe for a holiday. I would feel completely ridiculous. My mom knows a personal trainer who served low-carb cookies made from soy flour for dessert at her Thanksgiving dinner. That's just EMBARRASSING!

Indeed it is. It just goes back to the whole "some foods are good and can be binged on, and some foods are bad and should never be eaten" mindset. If you ate two normal cookies, you would be way better off than eating 6 "diet" cookies. I have known people who said "I ate half a cake last night, but it's ok because it was low fat and made with soy milk." Well, no, it's not ok. Also, have you noticed how fake a lot of what people call "healthy" food is? They replace real flour and sugar with soy flour and Splenda and artificial cheese and chocolate, and act as though this is somehow a good thing.

[wosnes]

Is "healthy treats" an oxymoron?

[marygrace]

Is "healthy treats" an oxymoron?

Not necessarily, though it probably depends on your definition of a treat. I'd definitely consider something like dark chocolate-covered fruit a treat, and it probably has a fair amount of health benefits (especially compared to something like a cupcake). But it would annoy me to no end to actually call it a "healthy" treat, because I don't think people should pick treats based on their nutritional content. Doing so would kind of do away with the purpose of treating yourself.