5 Tips For Happy, Healthy Holiday Eating

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Worry Less; Enjoy More

The holidays are almost here, and that invariably means there are plenty of cookies and massive meals shared with family and friends in your future. But the "more is more" attitude of holiday eating doesn't have to involve overdoing it on empty calories and giving up on your food ethics until the New Year. If you get your planning and research done ahead of time, you can celebrate with (conscious) abandon later on. Here are a few tips to help you get started.

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Don't Feed an Army

According to the environmental research organization World Watch Institute, we waste three times more food between Thanksgiving and New Year's than we throw away during any other time of year. But getting carried away in the kitchen is practically a holiday tradition, so rather than cutting back on side dishes, put a little more thought into planning your menu and you can avoid extravagant waste. Need advice? Plan your grocery list with LoveFoodHateWaste’s portion planner tool.

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Love Thy Holiday Roast

According to Farm Forward’s estimates (based on U.S. Department of Agriculture data), factory farming accounts for more than 99 percent of all farmed animals raised and slaughtered in the United States. If you watched the videos of animal abuse at Butterball factories this year, chances are you’d prefer to not place that widely available bird at the center of your holiday table. You don’t have to forgo meat on the holidays altogether, however, if you put in the extra time to search out healthy, well-treated animals. You can find ethical options in your area with the help of Local Harvest’s food searching tool.

If a local farmer is not an option for you, pay attention to labels when you go to the grocery store. For poultry, you don’t have to worry about hormones—it’s illegal to feed them to poultry, so labels claiming birds are “hormone free” are redundant. But turkeys and chicken are regularly fed antibiotics, so look for labels that say “antibiotic free” to avoid bringing any unprescribed medicine to your meal. For beef, look for the label “grass fed.” Feeding cattle grass instead of corn, the standard diet on factory farms, has both a lower environmental impact and is prefered by the cows themselves, as their digestive systems don’t process corn well.

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Snack Healthy

When stocking up on holiday snacks, take a tip from Michael Pollan and keep to the perimeter of the grocery store—where the fruits, veggies, and nuts are stocked—instead of heading into the aisles lined with processed, high-calorie, high-sodium foods. More than one-third of U.S. adults are obese, says the Centers for Disease Control, and curbing the calories in holiday snacks can help avoid any excessive seasonal weight gain.

We all know that not eating cookies and other baked goods in December is practically sacrilege. By baking at home instead of stocking up on high-fructose-corn-syrup-sweetened cookies from the grocery store, you can treat yourself with naturally sweetened baked goods.

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Cheers to Good Health and Sustainability

Avoiding super sugary drinks like soda, which can contain as many as 200 calories in a single can, is the simplest way to make your holiday beverages a healthy part of your feast.

For kids, juice is the obvious substitute for soft drinks, but staying away from bubbles doesn't completely solve the sugar problem. So take the same approach as you do with snacks: Look for organic brands and stay away from high-fructose corn syrup. Also, pay attention to the serving size, because many drink containers base the nutritional information on a miniscule glass of juice.

As for the suds, pick beers from breweries that consider both alcohol and ethics as important elements of their businesses. Check out our list of organic, sustainable, and locally made brews to get a sense of what brands to look for.

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DIY Holiday Magic

More and more food companies are putting good practices into place, from using cage-free eggs to sourcing ingredients ethically. But it’s not as widespread as we’d like it to be. Organic food, for example, accounts for just four percent of food sales, according to The New York Times. And even with a slew of new companies committing to commendable practices this year, it will take some time to see that change on our plates.

That leaves doing it yourself as one of the best ways to be sure the food you eat aligns with your values. You pick what goes into your food. You decide where the ingredients come from. For ideas for DIY presents, you can take inspiration from TakePart’s list of Homemade Holiday Food Gifts.

Photo: TakePart

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Everyone loves the holidays. Right? Okay, don't answer that. We all know the holidays can be stressful, especially if you have to buy gifts for a dozen or more people. If you fall into that category, here's one way to take some of the pressure off: make your gifts instead of buy them. It's cheaper, fun, and you can show your relatives the thought that goes into some homemade pomegranate vodka.

Go through the videos in TakePart.com's Better Than Store-Bought series, and then take the pledge below to make as many gifts as possible, instead of rushing off to the mall.

Now, when Cousin Barry asks, "What store did this come from?" you can answer "I hope you enjoy your homemade honey sugar body scrub!"

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Homemade gifts are more sustainable, can be simple to make, and often show more thought and effort than purchasing a gift card. I pledge to watch TakePart's Better Than Store-Bought series and, whenever possible, make holiday gifts for my friends and family instead of purchasing them.

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A sucker for sustainable agriculture and a good farmers market, Megan likes writing about food almost as much as eating it. If you don't want to know what's in your fruit/milk/meat, don't invite her to lunch. @babybokchoy | TakePart.com