5 Unhealthy Holiday Foods To Avoid Weight Gain

As multiple seasonal holidays come across our calendar, it can also be incredibly difficult to keep up with a healthy diet routine without growing our waistline.

In a 2016 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the weight of American participants increased by 0.2% during Thanksgiving and 0.4% over Christmas, with Americans gaining 1-3 pounds between Christmas and New Year’s. Despite the challenges, it is possible to stay in shape during the holiday season with some simple lifestyle hacks.

Here are the top five dishes to avoid bloating and weight gain during the holiday season:

1. CRANBERRY SAUCE – Cranberry sauce is a bitter, sweet, and refreshing side item on a plate full of savory selections, but its more than just melted cranberry. It’s also loaded with multiple cups of sugar which is a direct cause of belly fat.
2. STUFFING – When you think about it, stuffing is essentially bread, butter, and fat. Most of the prepackaged stuffing is sold in stores, is full of salt, trans fats, and overly processed junk that will leave you with a fully bloated gluten belly.
3. PIE – Dessert is an obvious target-rich food, but pie crust is loaded with butter and flour, along with the cream and sugar used for the filling, make for a large dose of saturated fat and calories.
4. MASHED POTATOES – As popular as mashed potatoes are, they’re loaded with all of the ingredients that will blow up your waistline. Some recipes call for cheese and bacon. After you top it with gravy, you have a fat bomb waiting to pad your waistline. If you’re looking for an alternative way to cut the fat but craving that mashed potato flavor, try making cooking mashed cauliflower as an alternative.
5. BISCUITS – Biscuits are essentially a baked carb bomb made of flour, baking powder, salt, butter, and cream. It’s loaded with calories and provides no nutritional value, especially after you top it with butter, gravy, or jelly.