‘It’s about balancing out December’: why nutritionists overindulge at Christmas too | Ultra-processed foods

From mince pies to pigs in blankets, Christmas is a time to indulge – often with ultra-processed foods.

And as we eat our own body weight in chocolate while watching Life is Wonderful for the 14th time, we often expect someone who knows better to mock us as they whip up healthier options.

But it turns out that even leading experts admit they don’t tend to worry about their own overindulgence – they try to eat a piece of fruit and worry about it in January like the rest of us.

Dr. Lindsey Smith Tayley, associate professor of nutrition and co-director of the Global Food Research Program at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, said: “In general, the concern is less for people who eat rich foods on special occasions than for is the fact that we have very high levels of ultra-processed foods high in sugar, salt and saturated fat in our daily diet.

She added: “In other words, nutritionally, I wouldn’t [worry] for enjoying some chocolate or sausage at Christmas, hyper-processed or not. Occasional treats can be part of a healthy diet. They are also the way we can show love and express our culture and identity.

Dr. Chris van Tuleken, author of bestseller Ultra processed people — who examines how the food industry creates and markets products designed to make us overeat — said he won’t be giving advice on what to scoff at this holiday season.

“What I do is I buy a lot of pre-made, some of it will be ultra-processed, Christmas foods – tinfoil trays of potatoes and vegetables and sprouts with bacon – and I take them out of their containers the night before and put it in pottery, then I put it in the oven and told my family I cooked it,” he said. “And it saves me a huge amount of time. Everyone loves it and I actually get to spend time with my family at Christmas.”

Van Tuleken said that while he believed structural and policy changes were needed to address ultra-processed foods (UPFs), he stressed that people should not be made to feel guilty about what they eat.

“You can change how you vote, you can change what you campaign for, but you can’t change the air you breathe from your own bat or the house you live in or the food you eat,” said he.

Nicola Ludlam-Rain, a nutritionist from Leeds and author of the book How not to eat ultra-processed foodssaid that not all ultra-processed foods are unhealthy and not all whole foods are healthy—like a homemade dessert with cream and sugar.

Ludlam-Rain said she supports the “80:20” rule, whereby whole foods such as vegetables and lean proteins make up four-fifths of the diet.

“However, I do believe that there are certain times of the year when you should allow yourself a bit of slack and not worry too much about things, because food isn’t just there to feed us physically – it’s also there, you know, for soul food, for socializing,” she said, adding that overindulging on one day can be offset by increasing consumption of whole foods or extra walks in subsequent days.

“I think it’s about trying to balance December,” she added, echoing most of us.

One piece of advice Ludlam-Rain had is to make sure the healthy choice is the easy choice.

“So yes, by all means have Quality Street and mince pies in the house like we will, but they won’t be on the side. They’ll be in a cupboard and I’ll leave my bowl of fruit on the side,” she said.

Prof. Giles Yeo from the University of Cambridge – broadcaster and obesity expert who had previously expressed concern about the term UPF – added Christmas and other festive periods are not a good time to be restrictive with our diets.

“I think we need to think about diets as a whole, not about each individual meal or period of time,” he said. “So, yes, I have to take it easy like everyone else. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, everything in moderation, including moderation!”