Holiday eating a staple of annual traditions

On this episode of the Post Podcast Fort Hays State University's Glen McNeil stops by to talk about holiday eating habits. 

 

Transcript

 

Glen McNeil 

In the McNeil house. Usually prime rib and then either ham, or sometimes a turkey that goes along with it. My wife likes really likes Turkey. But usually and that started with my mother years ago. I mean, I remember growing up that was Christmas dinner and so we've kind of my family side of the family has kind of stayed with that. So we generally have prime rib and either mashed potatoes, real mashed potatoes, not dried mashed potatoes, which are real mashed potatoes, but you know, yeah, it's not the same or twice baked. I love that really preferred twice-baked that takes a little more time and these days times important because family comes home our Christmas is gonna be this weekend. So our kids get to spend actual Christmas with all their in-laws. Last year we got him to share you know, it's kind of one of those trade-off things. They were all here for Thanksgiving. So you know we did that. So we have usually a primary oven then ham. Like I said mashed potatoes or twice-baked potatoes, or my wife makes this really list cheesy casserole, which I kind of liked that more so than anything else. But you know, you always have to remember that. I am the lessor in this when it comes to deciding what we have because the grandkids tell Grandma What they like now. And that's the main one there. We usually have like a seven-layer salad that Terry has made for years and it's lettuce and peas and salad dressing, Manny's based salad dressing and cheese and it's very good from that process. And of course, green bean casserole. You can't have a holiday without green bean casserole.

 

James Bell 

See, I'd fight you on that one. I can't stand this stuff. I can't I can't do it. It's one of those things. I can't even look at it. It makes me kind of cool.

 

Glen McNeil 

See, I love mushrooms.

 

James Bell 

And that's the trick, I think.

 

Glen McNeil 

Yeah, my favorite soup is mushroom soup. So has those in there. The green beans are okay, too. But we generate that and then we do freshly baked rolls. We've always done a fresh-baked bread that goes along with it. And then it kind of depends on you know what, what Terry's thinking about what she may want to do. A lot of times it's fresh broccoli seems to go well and my family likes fresh broccoli sometimes and broccoli cauliflower, carrot mix. You know, we we do that. The kids all get grape juice it also I'll get a glass of wine. Of course, you know how that part goes. And then leading up to that, of course, you know that you're doing all that preparation leading up to that we do like many families do is, is we sort of have our hors d'oeuvres, we don't really lunch, we middle the day, middle of the afternoon Christmas Day, so about 10 o'clock in the morning outcomes the what I was thinking about this morning, which is the summer sausage that sliced the cheddar cheese, the pepper, jack cheese, couple different varieties of cheese, crackers, you know all of those good things. And then of course, you feel guilty. So you also have you know, he also we also have some vegetable plates out and we make a taco dip, we kind of do all of the things around Christmas, based upon and Thanksgiving is pretty much the same way and so's Easter the foods that the family likes the kids like and the foods that my grandkids like It's like most people holiday season tends to congregate around the kitchen. You know and you and you visit while you're fixing meals and doing those types of things. So we try to be reasonable in what we do. And like we've talked about in here a lot moderation. Try to include some of those favorite holiday things that are a little bit high in saturated fat and cholesterol, balanced those out with some of those healthy alternatives. And then throughout the day, I try to work a little bit of all of that into my daily intake. But I think it's important that the holidays that we focus on the foods that bring us together and keep us together and the memories that are around that particular food. My mother's recipes, Terry's mom's recipes, recipes, Terry and I've built together for different things and so it just makes a friendly environment to build the food around. That's the holidays, I think. And we'll slip a little bit in there and we'll use that word moderation. You know, some of the secrets about holiday eating, and I'm sure like most people holiday eating has started for me last week, you know, you go somewhere, and there's snacks out and beverages out. And so it's Christmas. Yeah, and all the parties and all the events and those things and, and so you have to practice that, those little keys that we talked about that when you go somewhere, you know, you, you want to show your appreciation for Westerners. So you want to sample the things that are made. So you start with a small plate, okay, you know, if you had a choice of sizes, you know, different planets, pick the smallest one, and then fill the smallest one, one layer and take your time, support it with a beverage, you know, non-alcoholic beverage is good, you know from that. But if you do that with a small plate, there's less of a tendency to eat large amounts. Because you feel psychologicaly you feel more satisfied as whatever you put on your plate, that you've consumed them, and that plates empty, it's empty. And if you take a large plate, or if you graze, so to say, without a plate, you tend to consume more. And so that plate can help you in that process. Yeah, and what

 

James Bell 

You mean there is your you actually want to put the food on, not just stand there and kind of Munch because then you don't really, your brain doesn't know how much you had.

 

Glen McNeil 

Right? If you've, we've talked about this before, and I'm a watcher, right? I likey nobody will do that. But I also like to watch other people, you know, whether it's in the grocery store, or you go somewhere and, and there's an event and people are eating, you're snacking. And what you really notice is the people that don't use, in essence, a little bit of a crutch, like a plate, or something to put their food on, they eat considerably more, and they continue to eat constantly. It's not like they take a plate and they move away, but they stand there and it's a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and then they're back to this or back to that they're always in action around the food. So you can help yourself with your holiday eating by fixing a plate and then moving away from where the main component of the food is, you can always go back. But a lot of times that moving away helps you feel a little more satisfied, and you're less likely to eat lots of food, so a large amount of food. So you can go back and eat a greater variety throughout the day when you do those types of things. And, you know, we talk about this time of year that we have a responsibility as hosts to offer healthy choices. So

 

James Bell 

You don't feel that responsibility to my house. You're just gonna whatever junk I've got,

 

Glen McNeil 

All right, some of us some of the responsibility. So we generally make sure that we have a great variety of fresh fruits and vegetables and, and, you know, different varieties of crackers or chips to offer. And you know, like I said before, yeah, summer sausage is great, the cheeses are great, the dips are great. You know, if we have one dip that may be somewhat fatty and rich, we have another one that maybe a salsa bass dip or something like that. So there are always those alternatives that you can offer. I doubt if anybody else, or very few people really ever think of that. When they come to our house, they think oh, yeah, just lots of food. In that process, so I think the holidays in relationship to food are, are very important, and especially what it brings to us in terms of memory and family and friendship.

 

James Bell 

Yeah, and I think too, and maybe you want to speak a little bit to this for for folks that are so health-conscious, and I know some of these folks in my world, you know, they need a rogue cookie without counting it and tracking it and how much do I have to run to burn that off? It's okay during the holidays to maybe not be so conscious, cuz you can always pick it back up in a couple of weeks, you know, New Year new resolutions and, and burn all that off and get back in that prime shape. You know, without experience, throw caution to the wind.

 

Glen McNeil 

Okay, it's it's the time to notice the wind a little bit more so to say which, you know, we had plenty of that yesterday. That was a terrible. But the fact is, yeah, if you're very, very health conscious about what you do, this is not the time to be doing that. Yes, remain health-conscious. Okay, and maybe you do a little bit of the calculations in your head or something, but it's not something to bring up in a group. And it's not a reason not to eat things. You can also do it a lot of times as what we refer to as sample, you can take a small plate, you can put small amounts of things on them. And because typically you don't have to eat the whole cookie. Right? Now you want to be careful in doing that, that you don't take a plate of food and take tiny little bites of everything and throw it all the way in front of your host. That's not a good process, you know, but the fact is that you can take smaller portions you don't have to eat everything you take, you can sample. And this is a time to relax a little bit. And I think what you're saying is relax a little bit and enjoy it. Don't worry so much about, you know, it's got 132 calories versus 108, it's got six grams of added sugar versus three grams of added sugar and all those, this is not really the time to do that. And you're only doing it for a very short period of time. Okay, and you're not going to come back after two weeks of Christmas, and deny yourself all this and exercise extensively hard to burn off everything you consumed. You want to come back after that period of time, continue your exercise the way it was, right, and maybe you for a very short period of time, you watch what you eat very closely to balance yourself back, most people are going to gain one or two pounds over the holidays, it's not going to take very long to get rid of those one or two pounds, once those extra holiday foods are not there anymore. So enjoy the season, enjoy what's put in front of you. Even though you know when you come back at the first of the year or after the first of the year, you're going to really focus on your life plan again. But it's a time to enjoy what's out there. And we should we really need you to know from a health aspect from a food and nutrition aspect with the stresses that have been around in the last year and a half. This should be a time to really sit back and relax and enjoy the types of things that we have always enjoyed. And to me foods at the top of that. You know that it brings in so many memories and so many aspects of comfort. It's really important to take some time to do that.