How to Battle Holiday Desserts, and Win

Nov. 22, 2006 — -- Ah, desserts.

Thanksgiving is the one time of the year when people feel they have earned the right to eat dessert.

It also kicks off the holiday overeating season.

Indeed, Thanksgiving is the start of the all-out holiday attack on our waistlines that doesn't stop until brunch on New Year's Day.

Once upon a time, the average person could expect to gain between 5 pounds and 7 pounds over the holidays.

Today, that weight gain is only about 2 pounds. Averages aside, many people gain a lot of weight during the holidays, especially on Thanksgiving, when desserts are everywhere.

To anyone who really enjoys eating dessert but who is also watching his or her weight and/or health, desserts can be as challenging as they are pleasurable.

Perhaps it's no accident that "desserts," spelled backward, is "stressed." But desserts don't have to make you feel that way.

You can easily fit in dessert on Thanksgiving without going to war with the bathroom scale the next day.

The U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans acknowledge that Americans like dessert, and those guidelines consider most desserts to be chock-full of discretionary calories.

In other words, desserts are foods that aren't essential and supply mostly calories, and not much else.

Although we often think of desserts as sweets, at least half the calories are usually coming from fat and not sugar.

Pie crust, for example, is just flour mixed with one or more sources of fat (butter, shortening, etc.) The same goes for cookies and cake, and even though they have additional sugar, a good half of the calories are from fat.

Still, these calories can work into a balanced diet and on Thanksgiving. Let's do just that.