Three Tips to Avoid Overeating During Christmas
Eating excessively during Christmas is more than common. However, this can negatively affect health and cause an increase in subcutaneous adipose tissue (body fat, in other words). For this reason, we’re going to give you a series of tips to avoid overeating and keep your body composition stable.
The truth is that it can be difficult to eat healthy at parties. However, it’s possible to put certain strategies into practice that reduce appetite, in order to keep anxiety under control and not end up eating too much unhealthy food. Keep reading to learn more!
Three tips to avoid overeating during Christmas
Here are the most effective tips to avoid overeating during Christmas.
1. Drink a glass of water before every meal
You can stimulate satiety through several mechanisms. Some of them are mediated by hormonal factors, while others respond to changes in the distention of stomach tissue.
In order to increase the feeling of fullness, something you could do is drink a glass of water before each meal. According to a study published in the Clinical Nutrition Research journal, this practice helps reduce appetite and the risk of snacking between meals.
Moreover, consuming this fluid stimulates stomach mechanoreceptors. This sends a signal to the brain that results in an increased feeling of fullness, which helps reduce anxiety.
2. Include a good portion of fiber in your meal
In order to reduce your appetite, we recommend that you consume foods that have a high fiber content as a first course. This substance exerts an effect similar to water in the previous case.
Recent studies have shown that fiber is able to increase the size of the stool, which initiates signaling via the stomach distention receptors.
However, some types of fiber are able to retain water inside the body. For that reason, combining this strategy with the one discussed previously would be very the most effective bet.
In this sense, remember that the foods with the highest fiber content are usually vegetables. Vegetables or whole grains will be your greatest allies in this case. Try your best to eat salad as a first course.
3. Eat spicy foods to avoid overeating
Spicy food can also help you avoid overeating during Christmas. These foods have a double function. On the one hand, they stimulate appetite reduction thanks to the fiber content and the flavor they present.
In addition to this, they’re capable of increasing the basal metabolic rate. The latter is an effect exerted from capsaicin, a substance that also has anti-inflammatory effects, which is why it’s capable of improving health.
Nonetheless, keep in mind that you have to be cautious with spicy food if you suffer from any type of stomach dysfunction or if you suffer from reflux. Your symptoms may be aggravated as a result.
On the other hand, remember that everything can be bad when consumed excessively. We don’t recommend that you add spice to everything, just to a few dishes. In this way, you can benefit from the effects of capsaicin without giving up the enjoyment of the main dishes.
It’s possible to avoid overeating during Christmas
As you can see, you can put into practice a series of strategies to help avoid overeating at Christmas. In this way, you’ll take care of your body composition and health in the medium term, which will help you reduce the risk of developing pathologies.
In addition to being strictly dietary, keep in mind that you can opt for other alternatives in order to avoid gaining fatty tissue. The best option would be to exercise regularly.
Likewise, getting enough rest will also help prevent imbalances in the hormonal mechanisms that control the sensation of appetite. Sleeping only for a few hours on a regular basis can increase hunger, leading to an increased risk of snacking on unhealthy foods between meals.
It’s also true that this situation slightly raises the basal metabolism, although this effect isn’t able to compensate for the excess calories you ingest. For this reason, we advise you to take care of your lifestyle beyond the foods you choose to consume during the Christmas period.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Jeong JN., Effect of pre meal water consumption on energy intake and satiety in non obese young adults. Clin Nutr Res, 2018. 7 (4): 291-296.
- Warrilow A., Mellor D., McKune A., Pumpa K., Dietary fat, fibre, satiation, and satiety a systematic review of acute studies. Eur J Clin Nutr, 2019. 73 (3): 333-344.