Why you can stop being afraid of holiday eating

Have you ever felt fear towards the ‘guilty’ holiday and festive food?

Have you ever tried to control your eating during holidays and festivals?

Have you ever gone wild during the holiday, and then regretted it afterwards?

Have you ever done compensatory activities before or after the holiday?

Have you ever thought that I’ll go back on diet after the holiday?

Have you ever had the feeling that you are failing yourself because you don’t have self-discipline during the holiday?

It is completely normal if you answer ‘yes’ to any of the above questions. Most of us have been told the lie that - restriction brings health. Today let’s bust the myths about holiday eating.

Myth 1 - Holiday foods are demonic

Yes, from a nutrition analysis perspective, a lot of food during holidays does not rank at the top, but so does most of the food in daily life. Humans did not evolve around an analytically perfect diet, food is a part of our life, identity, culture and celebration. No food needs to be nor is perfect, so don’t be afraid of having a piece of nutty chocolate cookies or a piece of lamington cake on a holiday.

Myth 2 - you should compensate for holiday eating

Compensation makes perfect sense when we think about calorie balance. However, more and more research suggests the opposite - food control and restriction lead to more food being eaten, more frequent binge eating episodes and more weight gain (Benton & Young, 2017; Fernandez & Angeles, 2011; Schur, Heckbert & Goldberg, 2010; Urbszat, Herman & Polivy, 2002). Exercising more than usual as a means to compensate for food intake increases food consumption (Finlayson et al, 2009) and the same effect is found in people who only just think about using exercise to compensate for calorie intake (Werle, Wansink & Payne, 2017).

Myth 3 - If you go overboard during holiday, you don’t have self-control

Over-eating during the holiday seems to be a sign of lacking self-control, but the truth is, it is exactly because of self-control. Food restraint lead to uncontrolled eating patterns, including binge eating. And often the guilt kicks in after over-eating during the holiday, so you start to engage in compensatory action, which further increases the risk of over-eating that we have discussed above. And this is a vicious cycle a lot of us have experienced to a certain extent. In fact, this is the same cycle people with eating disorders experience and one of the most effective treatments is to make sure they eat enough.

So what to do?

1. Recognise all food is food: instead of classifying them into ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’, start seeing food as their original form - ‘chocolate’, ‘apple’, ‘cake’, etc.

2. Normalising eating: make sure you are properly nourished, it can significantly reduce the chance having an ‘uncontrolled’ eating episode.

3. Ditch dieting: instead of going on a diet, slowly integrate healthier choices and behaviours into everyday life for long-term success.

4. Make life outside holiday enjoyable: you don’t need to wait till a special occasion to enjoy food that you love. Enjoy the food that your body craves at an amount that brings satisfaction. So when the holiday comes, you don’t think it is a rare chance to enjoy food. 

5. In case it really happens:  if you do "go ‘overboard’ during the holiday, simply go back to your daily lifestyle. Going back to your usual lifestyle is technically a kind of ‘compensation’, not to mention your body is excellent at pulling you back to the usual habit.

6. Enjoy and cherish the holiday with family, friends and your loved one instead of worrying about food and body.

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