Christmas feasts: Hungarian dietitians say the following

Hungarians  – as many people in the world – wait for Christmas to eat as many delicious dishes around the finely laid Christmas tables as they can. However, eating a traditional Hungarian menu can easily result in indigestion which can be the cause of other problems. Therefore, Hungarian dietitians told how we could preserve the excellent taste but make our Christmas table healthier at the same time by replacing some ingredients.

Emese Antal, a dietitian, sociologist and leader of the TÉT Platform, told that excessive eating burdens human body a lot around Christmas time – hellovidek.hu reported. Eating a lot can result in gastric and intestine problems while consuming a lot of fat can lead to pancreas inflammation. Irregular eating can also cause problems – she added. Therefore, everybody needs to pay attention to their health even at Christmas.

Good news is that there are a lot of simple modifications with which dishes can become healthier. The most fundamental of these is to process quality food,

quantity is not as important as quality.

Planning the menu can help a lot, and we should cook as much as we can consume so that we will not eat a lot from the remnants.

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Christmas should not be about eating a lot but about spending quality time together. Gastronomic pleasures should be the most important and though tradition should be preserved, there has to be space for innovation, too, with which we can make healthier Christmas dishes. 

Emese Antal mentioned that, for example, stuffed cabbage could be prepared with brown rice instead of white. The former is consumed later, so it provides the feeling of being full for longer. If one puts more cabbage in the stuffed cabbage, it becomes healthier. When preparing a good traditional Hungarian fish soup, we can use catfish instead of carp because the former contains less fat. Furthermore, fish can not only be fried but also grilled, which is much healthier.

Pastries are important in all Christmas tables, but they can be prepared with

less sugar or even sugar-free by using natural sweeteners like eritrit or stevia.

Using wholemeal flour instead of its white counterpart can also help a lot. The favourite side dish of the Hungarians is unquestionably the potato; however, one can use healthier ones like brown rice, bulgur, grilled vegetables or salads.

Emese Antal suggested that we should drink alcoholic beverages only after we already ate something. Furthermore, consuming drinks with fewer calories (drinking spritzers instead of liqueurs) is also better.

Source: hellovidek.hu