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December 14, 2009
Putting Food Activists on Santa's “Bad” List
With loads of eggnog, Christmas cookies, and candy canes, ‘tis the season for merriment, especially at holiday feasts and parties. But not everybody thinks the holiday season is a time to be jolly. As we told readers of the Connecticut News-Times and Bucks County Courier Times over the weekend, naysayers at the Center for Science in the Public Interest and vegan radicals at the PCRM-affiliated “Cancer Project” are trying to make this a season of guilt and fear. (Our advice is to ignore them: Put what you want on your holiday menu. Enjoy your pot roast, cheese, stuffing, and pie.)
And today, we explain in the pages of the Boston Herald that consumers shouldn’t feel the heat this holiday season from self-anointed scaremongers who try to spoil the fun with guilt-trippy messages about weight gain:
It’s easier than ever to keep a handle on your calories-in vs. calories-out. The Associated Press compared the 1956 edition of the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook with the 2006 version and found that holiday recipes have actually gotten healthier. More dishes called for lower-calorie ingredients, and portion sizes are trending smaller as well.
As far as the exercise side of the weight equation goes, study after study underscores the importance of all kinds of physical activity in weight control. For those who welcome the first snowfall, winter sports abound: skiing, sledding, ice skating and snowshoeing are all fun calorie burners.
So go ahead and savor the Hanukkah latkes and Christmas cookies. Christmas comes but once a year, as the carol goes. Don't listen to anyone who tells you not to enjoy it.
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