How To Stay Healthy During Christmas

Yea ’tis a jolly season’.

You will definitely agree that it is more difficult to stick to healthy eating habit this time of the year.

It would rather be unrealistic trying to shed excess kilos this season as its filled with an abundance of delicious treats, snacks, and meals, making it difficult not to overindulge(of course who says no to food)!

However, THE WHISTLER in this report gives tips to help you have a fun-filled Christmas and not end up looking like Santa’S descendant by the end of the year.

A medical practitioner Mr Daniel Umoren, who spoke to this medium said in this festive period the keyword should be “moderation”.

The expert said there is a need for people to make water instead of carbonated drinks, the main components of their meals.

“this is the festive season and anywhere you go, you will be served with a soft drink, so the most important component of our meals this season, I will say should be water, it is too important to be neglected.

“You notice that you drink more in the festive season than other days because when you drink coke or any other soft drink with high sugar content, it combines with blood and increases your thirst for water to dilute the concentrated solute in your blood.

“But people still fall back to soft drinks to cure thirst which increases the concentrated solute in the blood and however creates a vicious circle leading to dehydration.

“My advice would be while eating your home prepared food, try to drink more of water because when you go for yuletide visitation, friends will serve you with soft drinks and you wouldn’t want to look insultive or sound like you are not interested in taking their offer, being that we are very religious in Africa.”

Studies have however shown that people get chronically dehydrated during the festive period, leaving a lot of work to the kidney because of the high content of carbonated drinks.

Umoren further said the festive period should not be about cooking rice, chicken and goats as is commonly done in many households, but people should try to be more innovative in their meals.

“People should be more innovative during this season by inviting friends over to a roundtable event or chill out called ‘fruit salad night’.

“So here they get to share large chunks of a variety of fruits. You can make orange juice or make pineapple juice by getting pineapples and you probably get some lemon and ginger and add to the juice and you already have a unique drink that is natural,” Umoren said.