Summer holidays bring with them many moments of pure recreation and escape, positive for well-being and mood, but not always the same for the diet. Picnics, barbecues, and dinners on the terrace: in summer the line can be put to the test. Here are some little ‘tricks’ that can help to reduce calories, especially after the holidays, without too many sacrifices. They were listed by the University of Alberta, Canada, and we saw them together with Dr. Martina Mura, dietician at Humanitas.
Tips for keeping the line
The Canadian University of Alberta has coined four principles to follow especially after the holidays.
These include the 80/20 rule:
- Prepare the dishes yourself. Ready meals often abound in salt and fat, which among other things help their preservation. But this can harm your health in the long term, for example by increasing the risk of high blood pressure.
- Change the ingredients. When preparing your own dishes, use lighter, healthier fat and salt substitutes. Instead of mayonnaise in your favorite dishes, you can use Greek yoghurt or create a light oil and vinegar dressing. Salt can be replaced with herbs and spices such as cumin, thyme and curry. To prepare beef, chicken or turkey burgers, it is best to use lean minced meat. Instead of chips, vegetables and whole meal bread and instead of cakes and ice creams, bananas, peaches, pears or pineapples, which can also be grilled? The natural sugar of the fruit makes everything so sweet when it is grilled, that it is not necessary to add anything. Homemade smoothie fruit popsicles instead of packaged ones are also great for children.
- Drinking alcohol while always keeping to the principle of moderation, the trick is to add water. Beer and wine are diuretics; they make you lose more fluid than you drink, so they could be potentially dehydrating. According to experts, if you can’t help but drink one or two alcoholic drinks for women and two or three for men, the best thing is to alternate them with glasses of water that will help to prevent dehydration and dilute the effect.
- Follow the 80/20 rule. If you really can’t give up calorie dishes at certain times, a good rule is the 80/20 rule: allow yourself some tears 20% of the time and follow a healthy and balanced diet for the other 80%
