The streets are sparkling with twinkling lights, shops are filled with gift ideas and grocery aisles are stocked with holiday baking and cooking essentials. It’s really the most wonderful time of the year.

However, the holiday season comes with a wave of indulgent and calorie-packed meals, drinks, and of course, desserts. All in all, it’s quite close to impossible to stick to a balanced diet.

But don’t worry, we’re not here to be the Grinch of the group and tell you to not eat all your holiday favorites. By all means please enjoy them, but in moderation, so you won’t have to deal with long-term effects on your health.

With that being said, digging into Grandma’s holiday cookies alongside a mug of spiked eggnog every night in December might do a number on you.

As a dietitian, there’s a series of popular and beloved holiday foods that aren’t worth the effort (the post-Holidays effort, obviously). Are you curious to know which ones?

Holiday cookies

Holiday cookies seem to come in endless batches this time of the year, and we have to admit that there’s truly nothing like a warm, gooey chocolate chip cookie. I

f you have ever been gifted a box of cookies or even stood around the dessert table long enough, you probably know just how hard it is to eat only one. But pound back to all the cookies we can actually have in one sitting, there’s still a daily recommended amount of added sugar and saturated fat we need to keep in mind.

They can lead to blood sugar spikes and put your cholesterol levels at risk. The majority of cookies are made with plenty of butter, sugar, and refined flour.

All these ingredients have little to no nutritional value. Besides, many cookies are so big, that they contain more than one serving, at least calorie-wise.

Crumble cookies, for instance, pack anywhere from 600 to 800 calories per cookie. To maintain some healthy boundaries, we recommend you watch portion sizes.

If you love baking, you should try to reduce the sugar by a third and then swap the butter for healthier fats such as canola oil and nut butter. You can also use another magical ingredient, which is whole-wheat flour for all-purpose flour for added nutrients and fiber.

Eggnog

A drink that makes an epic comeback every single time after hibernating for 11 months is the famous eggnog. This super sweet, thick, and classic holiday drink has plenty of milk, cream, sugar, egg yolks, and at times a splash of liquor like rum or even brandy.

However, eggnog packs a hefty amount of empty calories and also has as many calories as a meal, if not more. A one-cup serving has 400 calories, 20 grams of fat, 12 grams of saturated fat, and 48 grams of sugar. It’s also quite high in saturated fats and has a day’s limit of added sugar.

Eggnog is also made with raw egg yolks, which can easily increase the risk of contracting a food-borne illness. Ultimately, if your carton of eggnog includes alcohol, then we have yet another layer of empty calories.

Bacon-wrapped appetizers

Bacon makes quite an appearance this year on the holiday table, whether it is savored with breakfast or simply wrapped around appetizers like mini hot dogs in a blanket.

Of course, you could also see bacon wrapped around a hunk of cheese, a buttery croissant, or even a piece of fruit. But bacon is extremely high in fat, and not necessarily healthy; oh please have some kind of fat. If you ever had cooked bacon, you’ve probably seen the amount of oil that ends up in the pan.

Only a 3-ounce serving of bacon has more than 400 calories, 30 grams of total fat, and 10 grams of saturated fat with 1,430 milligrams of sodium.

Along with its less-than-heart-healthy fat content, bacon also brings a high amount of sodium to the table, which can be quite worrisome for balanced and healthy blood pressure.

Well, if your bacon slice is nicely wrapped around a hot dog, a hunk of cheese, or even a croissant, you probably know by now that the calories, total fat, saturated fat, and sodium will only go higher. For instance, one pig in a blanket has 264 calories, 17.7 grams of total fat, 16 grams of carbs, and 602 milligrams of sodium.

Fudge

I know, this one is hard for me too. The sweet and delicious fudge that often comes boxed up with a bow is yet another popular sweet treat gifted by many around the holiday season.

All the way from the peanut butter-swirled fudge to the crushed candy canes on top, there are countless variations to this tasty treat. In fact, you might think that the fudge is a chocolate-based treat, which makes it healthy in the grand scheme of things. But, in reality, fudge is mostly made from sugar, cream, milk, and butter.

If you eat only a few squares of it, you might rapidly hit the discretionary calorie limit for the day, as only one ounce of fudge has 123 calories, 3.8 grams of fat, and 20 grams of sugar.

Moreover, since it’s packed with sugar and fat, it easily provides very little nutrition to you. So the best you can do is keep the portion sizes in check at all times and consider breaking off a piece of dark chocolate instead of giving in to a chocolate craving.

Pecan pie

Well, no shame to the pecans, but they are a heart-healthy nut packed with the best trio of nutrients for you. We have in pecans unsaturated fats, dietary fibers, and proteins. We love them.

But, if you mix them into a huge pie filling loaded with plenty of butter, sugar, and a liquid sweetener like corn syrup or even molasses, things are changing. Just to get a better understanding, only one slice of pecan pie has as many calories as an entire meal.

If you get yourself a slice of pecan pie the size of the Pentagon, which you will (I mean, WHO WOULDN’T?), then maybe even more than a meal. Only one slice has 541 calories, 22.2 grams of total fat, and 3.5 grams of saturated fat, with 79 grams of total carbohydrates and 33.5 grams of sugar.

To make matters even worse, it’s housed in this buttery, refined flour crust (which is delicious), and oftentimes topped (God-bless) with whipped cream and a scoop of ice cream.

At the end of it, it’s a full-blown calorie bomb of a dessert. If pecan pie is your favorite holiday food, you shouldn’t completely eliminate it from your Christmas Eve dinner. Just skip the extra toppings to keep discretionary calories in check.

What to do if you have indigestion after the Christmas dinner?

If you’re feeling sick around the Holidays, you should stock your drawer with commercially available antacids. They are the most used treatment to efficiently get rid of indigestion pain super quickly.

Since they help increase the pH of your stomach, you can easily use antacids to ease indigestion discomfort that might be caused by excess stomach acid. Whether it’s acid reflux, upper GI pain, gas, bloating, or even heartburn, they all respond very well to antacid medications.

Alternatively, we recommend you have plenty of peppermint tea on hand. Peppermint tea is known to be a wonderful natural remedy for reducing abdominal pain associated with indigestion.

You can simply sip the tea as the warm water will alleviate the stomach pain. Or, if you have mint essential oil, that can work quite nicely too.

Chamomile tea also helps ease indigestion, because it naturally reduces inflammation and spasms, which also lessens the stomach pain. If you take blood thinners, make sure you check with your doctor before using chamomile to fix your indigestion.

If you found this article useful, we also recommend checking: 6 Salad Dressings That Make Bacon Look Like a Diet Food