Caregiver Challenge: Enjoying the Holidays on a Restricted Diet

The holiday season is fast approaching, and so are plenty of visits with loved ones and countless delicious meals and treats. But if you’re on a restricted diet for a medical condition, enjoying a traditional holiday meal with your family might seem off limits. It’s hard enough to stick to a diet the rest of the year, are you really supposed to deny yourself holiday goodies, too?

Finding Balance
Margery Kirsch, a Diabetes Clinical Nurse Specialist at Partners in Care, says the solution is not to avoid your favorite dishes completely, but instead to find a healthy balance. “Research has shown that dietary patterns are some of the most difficult behaviors to change in adults,” she says. “We have much more success showing people how to adjust the amounts of traditional foods for the holidays as opposed to changing the actual foods.”

Partners in Care Home Health Aides are trained by nutritionists and can make small tweaks that incorporate traditional food into a healthier meal plan by altering both portions and preparation methods, depending on each.

Healthy Holiday Strategies
For diabetics, the general goal is to choose recipes that are lower in fat and sugar and incorporate whole grains when necessary. Here, some other helpful tips for those on restricted diets:

• To make a plate more diabetic friendly, take the skin off the turkey and opt for sides that don’t have a lot of starch, such as spinach, carrots, broccoli or green beans.
• Low-sodium dieters should stay away from cured meats in favor of grilled or roasted turkey, without the skin.
• Gravies should be unsalted, or if they're packaged, labeled “low sodium.” And mashed potatoes should be seasoned with garlic or ground pepper.
• To keep your holiday recipes low fat, opt for low-fat plain yogurt over sour cream for your mashed potatoes. Try roasted yams instead of the candied variety.
• And satisfy your sweet tooth with a mini-pumpkin pie, a relatively low-cal dessert that’s packed with fiber.