Holiday stress isn’t all just about juggling the social commitments, traveling or picking out just the right gift.
Most people report that being surrounded by rich holiday foods, alcohol, temptation everywhere, impulse eating, and weight gain during the holiday season adds a significant amount of stress as well.
If there was ever a time that people worry about their weight, it’s during the holidays.
How to navigate this tricky but wonderful time of comfort food, decadent desserts, and celebratory toasts galore?
Today, I’ll tell you!
1. Protecting your liver at holiday parties:
Drinking wine occasionally has enjoyed mixed health reviews — with some studies reporting cognitive benefits from wine…
(although for those you can simply take resveratrol supplements!)
…and many more concerning studies reporting that alcohol increases cancer risk and decreases life span.
And because holiday parties typically mean a lot of driving out and about to attend these parties, my first recommendation is just not to drink at all!
But if you realistically are going to toast the holidays with friends and family and a drink or two… and you have a safe ride lined up… there is a way that you can help that drink be less toxic to your dear old liver.
Plus, we can’t ignore that even if the recommendation is not to drink at all, there are 140 millions folks in America alone that regularly drink and about 16 million of them have an alcohol abuse disorder.
So instead of ignoring a huge population of folks that need health support, I share this information in an effort to help their body stay as healthy as possible while they seek the help and support they need to stop drinking.
Alcohol is metabolized into acetaldehyde by your liver.
If acetaldehyde sounds familiar, you might be be thinking of it’s cousin, the more well known autopsy chemical:
formaldehyde.
Yep, they are related, and just like formaldehyde is well known to pickle human tissue, acetaldehyde isn’t very gentle on your liver or body either.
Both are harsh chemicals known to cause cancer.
If you are drinking one drink an hour or more, you can expect to feel cumulative effects of acetaldehyde build up as your body can’t metabolize the acetaldehyde quickly enough: heart racing, pounding, nausea, dehydration, dizziness.
How can we protect ourselves from this dangerous metabolite?
Our body can use l-cysteine to protect against the acetaldehyde effects until our liver can further break the acetaldehyde down into carbon dioxide and water.
You can also add on Vitamin C to help keep the l-cysteine activated and working more efficiently as well.
A combination of l-cycsteine and vit C — taken before you start drinking and continuing with a dose of about 200 mg per ounce of alcohol consumed — to help block the toxic effects of the acetaldehyde can help your body recover more easily from those holiday gatherings.
These supplements are not a recommendation to make drinking safe… rather to make drinking less toxic. Remember, no supplement can make drinking safe.
And no supplement can make drinking and driving the slightest bit safe… or morally correct… or legal. If you are going to drink… don’t drive.
And of course, no pharmaceutical company out there has poured money into researching how to reduce harm from alcohol… so there are no large human medical studies to back this up.
(There are animal studies that show that having l-cystiene on board was protective and prolonged the life of rodents who were fed toxic doses of acetaldehyde. Only 10% of animals initially survived the acetaldehyde challenge without supplementation but 80% initially survived with L-cysteine on board! That is an 800% increased survival! )
Because these supplements are safe, cheap, and readily available to humans everywhere, Big Pharma knows they are unlikely to make a huge profit from pour large amounts of funding into examining how these vitamins might help us preserve and protect our health.
But on the upside, exactly because they are safe and inexpensive and readily available, this means you have easy access to these supportive healing supplements too!
Be sure to stick with very high quality supplements made in fantastic, reputable pharmacy grade nutraceutical facilities.
To help, I’ve added these supplements in the Detox category of my online pharmacy dispensary so that you can be sure you have pharmacy grade, super pure quality supplements on hand to protect your body if you do decide to drink this holiday season.
Taking a dose before drinking,
a dose with each round of drinks,
and another dose after you finish all alcohol consumption completely
might help spare your body from some portion of the the ill effects of the toxic acetaldehyde.
In addition to navigating holiday drinking, sometimes what is even more tricky to be around are all of the party foods! What if you want to stick with foods that are healthy for your body… or at the very least, don’t undo all of the benefit from the exercise and deep sleep and good supplements you take?
You absolutely can, if you know what party foods to look for.
So today, I offer you some of my 5 favorite holiday party foods that I never ever restrict. You are almost guaranteed to find at least one of these four treats on any holiday party spread:
2. Protecting your diet at holiday parties:
1) Chocolate!
Shown to support heart and brain health, women who consume chocolate on a regular basis have a lower body mass index then those who don’t!
2) Caffeine
Warding off dementia, Alzheimers and depression, even decreasing your risk for developing diabetes… a warm cup of coffee or tea is the perfect way to indulge at a party, guilt free, especially if you can skip the sugar and whipped cream.
(image courtesy of https://www.ketogenicsupplementreviews.com/)
3) Berries
Super-powered antioxidants that decrease inflammation throughout your body, enjoy the fresh fruit party platter! Best dessert yet? Snag that chocolate covered strawberry and enjoy every single luscious bite!
4) Nuts
Medically proven to lower heart disease risk and boosting energy without causing any weight gain, find the nut bowl and dig in!
5) Deviled Eggs
I saved the best for last. My favorite party food of all time is deviled eggs.
I truly believe in eating eggs regularly… the protein and healthy fats are second-to-none. Although traditional recipes for deviled eggs double their calorie content, it’s still so much less calorie dense (at about 160 calories per deviled egg) than almost anything else that you can find at a holiday dinner. And the protein is sure to keep you much more full and decrease your desire to fill your stomach with empty carbs and inflammation-inducing sugar.
If you are truly concerned about keeping calorie counts low, you can always offer to be the one to bring deviled eggs to the party! Using this recipe for a skinny deviled egg (which uses only some of the yolks and swaps out mayo for greek yogurt) each deviled egg is only 37 calories and has 3.8 grams of satisfying, delicious protein!
You absolutely can (and will!) successfully navigate holiday eating this year, and armed with these tips, you’ll feel your best while doing so!
xoxoxo, Laura