Stay trim at Christmas with some alternative festive fare

If you don’t want your diet derailed by Christmas foods, follow Superfooduk. com nutritionist Shona Wilkinson’s top tips for a healthy Christmas diet with these nifty food swaps...

1. Swap: Roasted potatoes in goose fat for roasted parsnips with paprika

Potatoes are classed as root vegetables, but they don’t count towards your 5-a-day as they mainly contribute starch to the diet. Also 100g of roasted potatoes in goose fat contains 316kcal and 13.5g of fat.

Parsnip is also a starchy vegetable, however, it still counts towards your 5-a-day because it’s a source of vitamins and minerals. Adding the paprika gives an extra nutritional boost as well as making them delicious. It is very high in beta carotene, which the body converts to vitamin A.

One tablespoon of paprika will give you 70% of the recommended daily allowance of vitamin A.

A 100g serving of roasted parsnips is approximately 135kcal with 5.1g of fat – almost three times less than the roast potatoes!

2. Swap: Pigs in blankets for Parma ham and asparagus

Pigs in blankets are sausages wrapped in bacon. They are then generally fried, making their fat content quite high, 19.3g of fat per 100g. They also contain 289kcal. Why not swap this unhealthy dish for Parma ham wrapped asparagus? The fibre content of the asparagus helps support healthy digestion and 100g of it only contains 13kcal.

Add in around four slices of Parma ham and you are still under 10g of fat and around 136kcal.

3. Swap: Mince pies for Pavlova

One mince pie can have up to 350kcal, almost 17g of fat and a whopping 20g of sugar (five teapsoons!).

A Pavlova with fruit and cream has slightly fewer calories, with 288kcal and 13.2g of fat. It is however much higher in sugar, so a suggestion would be to ask for the fresh fruit with a little bit of cream (as the majority of the sugar is coming from the Pavlova base).

4. Swap: Stilton and port for goats cheese and grapes

Stilton cheese has a high fat and calorie content; 100g contains 362kcal and 31g of fat. Adding a glass of port to this snack bumps up the calories another 165kcal.

Swap this for goats cheese, which has slightly less calories and less fat; 100g contains 320kcal and 25g fat. Add some grapes instead of the port and it’s less than half the calories – and it’s better for your liver.

5. Swap: Eggnog for prosecco

Eggnog is higher in calories; 145kcal and 9g of sugar per serving. Prosecco per glass (approx. 125ml) has only 75kcal and around 1g of sugar. Either option should be drunk in moderation as they both contain alcohol.

6. Swap: Chocolate log for panettone

Chocolate log is calorie-rich, with 100g having 453kcal and 22.8g of fat. Swap it for panettone (287kcal and 5.3g per 100g).

7. Swap: Honey glazed ham for smoked salmon

The calories and fat content are similar between these two products. However, smoked salmon is a better choice as it’s rich in omega 3 essential fatty acids.

8. Swap: Stollen for roasted chestnuts

One slice has 254kcal, and is high in fat and sugar. Eating 10 roasted chestnuts instead will provide just over 200kcal, and only 1.85g of fat, less than 9g of sugar, and almost 3g of protein.

Clockwise from left: smoked salmon; panettone; baked parsnips; and some roasted chestnuts.