Dec 02, 2023
Welcome back to UHC’s House Call on WDTV. Emily Shreve, clinical nutrition manager at United Hospital Center, talks about achieving a healthy holiday lifestyle.
1.) What are your recommendations for baking healthier for the holidays?
Your body needs healthy fats for energy and other functions. But too much saturated fat can cause cholesterol to build up in your blood vessels. Saturated fats raise your LDL (bad) cholesterol. High LDL cholesterol increases your risk for heart disease and stroke. In most baking recipes, you can reduce the saturated fat (butter, shortening, oil) by half without compromising your dish. If a recipe calls for 1 cup of butter, try ½ cup instead. You can replace the remaining ½ cup with an alternative ingredient to ensure your dish has the same texture. Some replacements can be fat-free sour cream, low-fat buttermilk, orange juice, low-fat yogurt, applesauce, or low-fat cream cheese.
2.) What are your recommendations for preparing healthier holiday side dishes?
Take a tip from the reindeer and snack on something green at holiday parties! Also ditch the full–fat dips and dressings; instead use fat–free or reduced–fat yogurt in your recipes and for the veggie dip. Another consideration is to replace white bread with whole grain or wheat bread or white rice with brown rice.
3.) What are your recommendations for preparing healthier holiday desserts?
Holiday desserts often call for sugar, honey, maple syrup, and molasses. These sweeteners can raise your blood sugar. For many recipes, you can reduce the amount of sugar recommended without changing the taste. Sugar substitutes can also be used as alternatives to sugar and provide sweetness to desserts and foods without adding a lot of extra calories. In some cases, a sugar substitute can replace half of the sugar called for in a recipe.
This content was originally posted on the WDTV News website here.
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