Be mindful of your microbes: Dietary recommendations for healthy indulgence over the holiday season

20 Dec 2019 --- The holiday season can easily lead to excess eating and drinking, with busy schedules and holiday feasts spurring opportunities for overindulgence on overly sweet and high-calorie meals. The British Nutrition Foundation (BFN) and the APC Microbiome Ireland of the University College Cork (APC) present their health-boosting dietary recommendations to help holiday enthusiasts navigate through the festivities from Christmas Eve to New Year’s Day without overstraining microbial or digestive health.

“When we feed, our microbes feed, when we feast on Christmas dinner, so should your microbes. We have to be mindful of what lands on the menu for microbes. The Christmas meal message should be to indulge intelligently over the Christmas period and balance out your meal with something beneficial for your gut,” Dr. Harriët Schellekens, Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience at APC, tells NutritionInsight.

A balanaced diet includes so much more than just healthy foods.Indeed, a diverse microbiome is essential for human health and wellbeing. With this in mind, the APC advocates for fresh, colorful vegetables, fermented foods and drinks, as well as alternatives to overly sweet snacks, such as nuts and fruits. 

“If we overindulge on unhealthy foods, we not only wreak havoc with our gastrointestinal system, immune system and metabolism, but also our brain. More and more evidence is showing that our gut microbes also help maintain a healthy functioning brain,” Dr. Schellekens says. 

While antibiotics have saved countless lives, the APC dissuades from them, as they have led to the global challenge of antibiotic resistance. It is more beneficial to stay updated with vaccinations and take adequate rest to recover when suffering from a viral illness, the research institute affirms.

Starting New Year’s resolutions right
Although many start the year with the best intentions to get healthy, following a complicated diet plan can often just be too time-consuming and too expensive to keep up. To make New Year’s healthy menu pledges last, people are encouraged to take a step back to consider the basics of healthy eating before overcommitting to complex diet plans.

“We know that it’s hard to keep up with New Year’s diets and so we want to promote making manageable changes that fit within your lifestyle and can be maintained in the long term,” a spokesperson at BNF tells NutritionInsight. 

 The foundation points out that healthy food doesn’t have to mean cooking absolutely everything from scratch. The term “processed foods” covers a wide range of different foods with varying nutritional qualities. Food manufacturers are increasingly finding ways to address the needs of consumers with busy lives who still seek nutrient-dense foods in their meals. Innova Market Insights listed “The Right Bite” as one of the top ten trends for 2020, pointing to a growing consumer interest in solutions for nutritionally fortified meals in a hurry. 

The BNF acknowledges that finding time to cook healthy, balanced meals during the week can be difficult – particularly for parents juggling work, school, and other clubs and activities. To what extent prepped meals can be healthy depends on the composition of the foods, the spokesperson says. 

The research institutes flags overindulgence during the holiday season can be harmful to our gut health.“It is really important that people have access to healthy, convenient foods, as many of us have very busy lives. This means it is not always possible to cook everything from scratch. It would be great to see health being taken more into account in cooking instructions for ready made foods, for example, encouraging adding plenty of vegetables to cook-in sauces and suggestions around serving with whole grains,” they say.

Putting the right foods on the plate is not the only thing people can do to healthily get through the festive winter period. Both the APC and the BNF promotes getting enough physical exercise, especially during the holidays. 

“It can be hard to get active when its cold and dark, but this is really worth doing as it has many health benefits in terms of both physical and mental wellbeing,” the BNF spokesperson emphasizes.

Dr. Schellekens echoes this sentiment, outlining, “We know that our microbes thrive when we stay fit and exercise, so it is good to wrap up warm and take a few long walks for you and your microbes. You can take your family along – or not.” 

By Anni Schleicher