Healthy Eating for the Holidays

Podcast Transcript

Scott Steele: Butts & Guts, a Cleveland Clinic Podcast, exploring your digestive and surgical health from end to end. Hi again everyone, and welcome to another episode of Butts & Guts. I'm your host, Scott Steele, President of Main Campus, colon and rectal surgeon here at the Cleveland Clinic in beautiful Cleveland, Ohio. So today I am super pleased to welcome, literally just talking about this, my most frequent guest ever because she is absolutely fantastic. Julia Zumpano who is a dietitian in Cleveland Clinic's Digestive Disease and Surgery Institute. Julia, welcome to Butts & Guts.

Julia Zumpano: Thank you so much for having me today, Dr. Steele.

Scott Steele: Well, super excited to have you here and today, this is actually an episode I've been looking forward to, and I know we've done this, I think one time in the past, but it is changes all the time, and that's talking about healthy eating for the holidays, something that I think many listeners out there don't necessarily do. But before we jump in, for those who have not heard your background, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, where you're from, where'd you train, and how to come to the point that you're here at the Cleveland Clinic?

Julia Zumpano: Sure. I was born outside of the country in Northern Macedonia and I spent most of my life in the Cleveland area, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. And I did my undergraduate at the University of Akron and I did my internship at the Cleveland Clinic and have been at the clinic ever since. So it's been over 20 years.

Scott Steele: Well, we are very much a better organization for having you here, and so we're going to jump right into it. As I said, we're going to be talking about eating healthy during the holiday season. So let's just start here. What have you found to be one of the greatest concerns that people have when it comes to eating during this time of year, whether it's Thanksgiving through New Year's?

Julia Zumpano: Absolutely, weight gain. So I think most people are concerned with weight gain and also if they've worked really hard to meet some health goals and weight goals, they're just concerned that those may be more challenging and then they may kind of throw their hands up and just give up through this holiday season, which is a legit concern.

Scott Steele: So hard to believe but I used to do a lot of athletics and our coaching staff used to say all the time, "You got to prepare yourself going into a game. You got to think about it mentally. You got to think about it physically. You got to use visualization." Can this, if you will, pre-game activity, prepare the listeners out there for the holiday season, mentally, physically, when it comes to eating healthy?

Julia Zumpano: I completely agree. I think preparing yourself can be a great way to walk into any situation, of course, but we want to think about it ahead of time. So maybe a month or so before, try to maybe get a little more tight with your diet. Give a little more time in for exercise or movement. Set a plan, set a routine of what you are going to do. I think planning ahead is key. So having a game plan if you're going to a potluck or if you're cooking at home or if your biggest concern is all the treats that are laying around the office or wherever you're working or living. So just have a game plan ahead of time and try to do the best to stick to it. I mean, of course it's the holiday season, we'll just do the best we can, but keeping yourself accountable is key.

Scott Steele: So one of the things that's often difficult for listeners out there and for patients that I see, they'll talk about, listen, holidays are tough for me, or vacations are tough for me, in some cases weekend's are tough for me because I am a person who likes routine. So we know that it's hard to keep a routine during this busy time. So what do you suggest in terms of keeping in place to maintain proper nutrition throughout the holiday season?

Julia Zumpano: Well, number one would be don't skip meals. We want to certainly have three solid meals and the meals that you can control what you're eating, make an extra effort to really have a balanced meal, nutritious meal, meaning lean protein, complex carbohydrate, tons of vegetables, and a healthy fat. So really trying to balance that meal when you have the opportunity and ability to plan ahead there. And that will allow you to be more mindful of your choices. Your blood sugar will be better managed, so you're less opt to grab some of those snacks if you're hungry because of skipping meals or you haven't planned properly. And then arriving at parties prepared. So being able to bring a healthy snack or even having a healthy snack before you go. So a handful of nuts and vegetables and hummus, something that kind of gets your stomach filled just enough where you're not ravenous when you walk into that door.

Scott Steele: I don't know what it is, about 8 p.m. in my house, but I always have a longing for that bag of jalapeno chips. And then you throw that into the holiday season and you have a candy jar here, a cookie plate there, it's the treats at work, all of those other things. So what's one tip if you have for kind of offsetting any extra indulgences that you have during the holiday season?

Julia Zumpano: Well, first of all, I would allow yourself one indulgence a day. So instead of it getting overboard, just know right off the bat you get one a day. So you pick whatever that might be and have it be a reasonable serving. So a standard serving size, so maybe a small bowl of chips, one brownie, one cookie, whatever it might be, and stick to that. And then whatever you can do from an activity perspective, of course, to burn some extra calories, knowing that we're consuming just a little extra. That would be a great tip too. So if you can park further, take the stairs, stand at your desk, maybe set a timer for every hour you get up and do a five-minute walk, whatever you can do to get more movement. We know during those holiday seasons, we tend to be less active, especially when we're in a state like Ohio and it's cold and snowy and people are less opt to be as active as they would be in warmer months.

Scott Steele: The other aspect of that is we constantly hear about the benefits of drinking water and staying hydrated. So can staying hydrated over the holiday season prevent you from overeating?

Julia Zumpano: Absolutely. Hydration is key. A lot of times we may assume we're hungry and we're actually thirsty. So I find that often with patients who are just kind of always looking, searching, snacking, and then I may take a diet history and notice they may drink at most a cup of water a day. So I think hydration is extremely important as we know it fills our belly, it gives us something to kind of sip on. That nervous energy kind of always sipping on something can also help. And then it can also in some ways resolve some cravings. So if you have maybe a hot cup of tea with some honey, it may do the trick of what you're looking for versus going to the candy jar or the cookie plate that's in the break room.

Scott Steele: I know this isn't a problem for everyone, but some holiday parties do serve alcohol. So can you talk a little bit about those hidden calories that may be hiding, especially in those festive drinks that are so accustomed on the holiday side and ways to make better choices when it comes to alcohol?

Julia Zumpano: Sure. So yeah, alcoholic beverages are very, very calorically dense, mainly sugar based. In some cases, especially holiday drinks can be very high in fat, high in carbs. So we do want to be very aware because at most some of these drinks can cost you 600 calories, and in addition to having extra dietary intake, that can really lead to excess calories and weight gain. But alcohol fuels your appetite. So when you drink, we're going to want to eat more, and then we may want to drink more alcohol, right? So then it's a very cumulative effect. So a couple tips would be choosing very simple alcoholic beverages like a wine, a champagne, red or white wine is great, or dry champagne, a basic light beer. Or if you're going to do a cocktail, make sure you look up some lighter skinnier versions to be able to cut back on sugar. And a big one would be for every alcoholic beverage you have, hopefully you're just having one, but if you choose to have multiple, I would make sure you're having an eight ounce glass of water in between each beverage.

Scott Steele: Fantastic advice. So I got maybe a tough one for you. Truth or myth, which is better for nutrition or healthy eating during the holidays, hosting a holiday gathering or simply attending a holiday event?

Julia Zumpano: This is a tough one, but I would say hosting. And the reason is because you are in control of what you choose to serve. So you can choose to serve healthy dishes and some classic traditional dishes as well, but you have the ability to choose whatever healthy dishes you'll like and you'll enjoy. And you can also make adjustments to those traditional dishes by cutting out some calories and cutting out some extra fat. So that's another great tip. And when you're hosting, you're moving, you're working, you're cleaning, you're cooking, you're actually quite active, and you burn a lot of calories that way. So I think hosting would be better.

Scott Steele: Absolutely. It comes with a caveat, unless you just crush all of the leftovers that are out there, which I've sometimes been known to do. So how-

Julia Zumpano: Well you can send them away, send it all off with everyone. Pack it up.

Scott Steele: Yeah, absolutely. So how can someone balance their healthy eating goals with some of the things that we all have, family traditions and special holiday foods that they love?

Julia Zumpano: I mean, I think that's the benefit and the joy of the holidays. I think everyone wants to have joyous events in the holidays. They don't want to feel restricted. So I think again, that kind of picking one food you have a day or picking some of your favorite routine holiday dishes and knowing you're going to have those, but maybe make healthy alternatives for some of the others, or making sure you're filling your plate with other food choices that are a little lighter, like a salad or a fruit salad or some grilled or roasted vegetables, et cetera. So any type of little swaps you can make will make a big difference, but then you kind of stick to those ones you really, really enjoy and are very traditional. They won't make as much of an impact.

Scott Steele: So what are some simple swaps that people can make to kind of lighten up their favorite holiday recipes without sacrificing flavor?

Julia Zumpano: Sure. So when we're looking at savory dishes, we want to look at cutting back on maybe some fat and some extra calories in the oils. So a couple of things would be opting out of creamier casseroles and looking for things like roasted vegetables, roasted carrots, any kind of salads, winter type salads, something like a mashed potato. You could do a mashed cauliflower, maybe doing a lighter stuffing like using a quinoa or wild rice, whole grain bread. Instead of something like a candied yam, you could do baked sweet potatoes with a little drizzle of honey and cinnamon. So there's ways to make some of these traditional meals lighter.

When we're looking at our sweeter treats, we can do a lot of simple things. We can revise the types of things we have. So we can even do things like serving like a chocolate pudding or a mousse that's made with maybe some avocado and cocoa powder and some milk and a little honey. We do a chia seed pudding. We could do some no bake energy balls that are sweet but may have more oats and flaxseed and chocolate chips.

Or you could use your traditional recipes and reduce the sugar and reduce the butter. And if you just reduce those things by 25%, you won't necessarily change the dynamic of the actual baked good, but you will significantly make a reduction in the calories. So I usually say, instead of a stick of butter, let's try three quarters of a stick or two thirds. Instead of a cup of sugar, let's try three quarters of a cup or two thirds of a cup. So making little changes there, swapping out almond flour for white flour or a whole grain flour. Using applesauce instead of butter or oil. So there's a lot of little swaps you can make.

Scott Steele: Kind of dovetailing onto that question, and you kind of got to it a little bit there, but can you suggest some healthy alternatives to the traditional holiday treats that still feel festive and special?

Julia Zumpano: Yeah, I did mention a couple of things like looking outside the box with whether or not you're looking at just modifying the recipe to allow it to have a little of a healthier flair or if you're looking for an alternative, because that's kind of where you would start. If you're looking for an alternative, I would say definitely increasing vegetables as much as you can, that will help decrease carbohydrates. So anything you can do with a vegetable, so roast, steam, salads, veggie trays, anything like that. Anything you could do to throw in vegetables to traditional dishes. So like adding vegetables to stuffing. So when you're maybe using a little less of that bread or whatever your base is for the stuffing. Choosing leaner meats, things like that can really cut.

Scott Steele: Fantastic. And so stress is often kind of a trigger for many people out there about eating. So what's your best tip for managing stress eating during the holidays when things get hectic?

Julia Zumpano: Well, taking time for yourself. So I think this is the time of year where we think about everyone else, we're running around, purchasing gifts, et cetera. So I think most importantly is just set aside 20 minutes to yourself every day, and that can just look like whatever you want it to look like, right? So whatever will relieve your stress. So it can be meditation, it could be a hot bath, it could be exercise, it could be yoga, it could be... Not that you could get a massage every day, we would love that, but it could be a massage once a week. So setting aside time for yourself is key. Anything you can do to create gratitude as well, because I think we get very busy and we forget that the holiday season really is about gratitude.

We are all so very blessed. So making sure you write down all the things that you're very thankful for and kind of focusing on those, those can also turn stress off pretty quickly because then it puts in perspective maybe what we're stressed about, whether it might be a dinner we're making or a long list of groceries we have to buy or whatever is the stressor. I think we can put it in perspective, but definitely taking time for yourself.

Scott Steele: Fantastic. And so now it's time for our quick hitters. This will be the holiday edition. A chance to get to know our guests just a little bit better. So first of all, what is your favorite Thanksgiving food?

Julia Zumpano: Oh, favorite Thanksgiving food? So this is very specific to my family, but my aunt would make a peanut butter pie, and it was amazing. She made it every year.

Scott Steele: Sounds amazing.

Julia Zumpano: Non-traditional but amazing.

Scott Steele: Well, most holidays there are a time when you're away from school or classes. So what was your favorite subject in school that you missed while you were out on break?

Julia Zumpano: Oh, I know this is not going to be a crowd pleaser, but I loved anatomy and physiology. Loved that class. I thought it was amazing.

Scott Steele: Me too. So what's your favorite holiday?

Julia Zumpano: Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.

Scott Steele: Absolutely. And then finally, can you tell us, maybe if you can think of it, what is one of, if not the best holiday gift that you had ever been given?

Julia Zumpano: Okay, so my husband bought me a boat for Christmas, and it was a wonderful gift because it's been a lot of great memories as a family that we've been able to share.

Scott Steele: Amazing husband you have. So give us a final take home message for our listeners on day-to-day tips to manage healthy eating during the holiday season.

Julia Zumpano: I think everyone should definitely focus on whatever can bring them joy this holiday season. And when you really look at the average... Americans are only gaining one to two pounds over the holiday season. It may seem like a lot more, but the average weight is a couple pounds. So to be honest, just enjoy yourself. That means indulgence one day, but it makes you happy and you're spending time with family and friends. I say don't allow yourself to feel guilty. Just really take gratitude in what you have and find as much joy as you can in the holiday season.

Scott Steele: That's fantastic. And so to learn more about nutrition therapy at Cleveland Clinic, please visit clevelandclinic.org/nutrition. That's clevelandclinic.org/nutrition. You can also call us at 216.444.3046. That's 216.444.3046. Julia, thanks for joining us on Butts & Guts.

Julia Zumpano: Thank you so much for having me. Happy Holidays.

Scott Steele: That wraps things up here at Cleveland Clinic. Until next time, thanks for listening to Butts & Guts.