Easter eggs and chocolate indulgence
Easter is the perfect time for a spring refresh and eating some chocolate!
This week I was caught red-handed, with 20 easter eggs in my trolley in a local, well-known budget supermarket. These were not 70-85% cocoa chocolate easter eggs, and not the sort of thing I usually advocate in this column or elsewhere with my nutritional advice, of course!
High days and holidays are usually celebrated with festive foods and if you can’t eat chocolate eggs at Easter, then when can you?
I will emphasise that none of the chocolate eggs were for my consumption, but I know 20 little people (and some big adults) who will love their eggs and for whom a dark chocolate equivalent would not be appreciated quite so much as a high sugar, milk chocolate one packed with little mini eggs.
Over the Easter weekend most of us will indulge in something sweet or sinful, but so what? The important thing is that we strike a healthy balance and keep things in perspective.
Here are some hot tips to see you through the Easter weekend.
Remember that healthy eating should never be brown, bland or boring. If you are not enjoying your food, then shake things up a bit. Think about colour, texture and flavour. Add more herbs and spices, get creative with a new recipe or two and change your palate to meet the season.
Enjoy your food. Set the table and take a little time to sit down, relax and enjoy your meals, rather than rushing from one thing to the next. Eating in a more relaxed way will aid digestion, enhance nutrient absorption and you’ll probably feel a lot more satiated at the end of your meal.
Swap things up. Easter is a great time to hit the refresh button. It’s time to move from soups to salads, stews to stir-fries and welcome lighter foods and recipes into our diets. Get creative with seasonal vegetables like cauliflower, kale, chard, leeks and watercress. Try roasted cauliflower with lemon zest added just before serving, or use tender, early kale as the base for salads with apple, carrot, walnuts and a decent dressing.
Focus on balance. If most of your diet is packed full of nutritious food – plenty of vegetables and fruit (5-7 portions a day), oily fish (2-3 portions a week), protein at each meal, fibre-rich wholegrains, herbs, spices and as much variety as possible, then indulging in a little chocolate, cake, sweets or treats will do no harm. Healthy eating should never be all-or-nothing. When we see food as sinful, we set ourselves up for disappointment. Good nutrition is more than just the sum of calories on your plate. Variety and balance are just as important.
Eat chocolate! Back to those 20 Easter eggs…
Of course, it is preferable to choose lower sugar, antioxidant-rich, 70-85% cocoa solid chocolate and it is ok to eat chocolate every day if you get the good stuff. The darker the better. There is research to link a healthy, daily chocolate habit to brain health, skin health and vascular health, but those Easter eggs aren’t going to do the trick. Go as dark as you dare and build your palate to enjoy the more bitter notes in dark chocolate. You’ll find that less is more and that way you get to eat chocolate every day – what’s not to love?!