 In the studio for tonight's health segment, Caroline Meehan, she is a dietitian and nutritionist with University of Maryland Medical Center. Caroline, it's a pleasure to welcome you here to our studio. Thank you, it's great to be here. So you're the bear of all bad news. I mean, is it true that people can gain as much as 10 pounds from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day? Yeah, unfortunately this time of year there is a lot more sweets around, heavier foods, we see a lot more heavy cream and butter and sugar. So it can happen. So what is it about this time of year that makes us over-indulge, eat a little extra pie more than we should? So I think it's a couple things. We certainly have more of the heavy foods around, but I think people also might not be getting as much activity, they're not sleeping as much, stress can increase this time of year. And then often during the holidays we see people kind of lose track of their consistent schedule. So the meal patterns might be off, people are skipping meals, saving their calories for the end of the day, but really we shouldn't be doing that. We should be living a consistent meal pattern and sleep schedule as often as we can throughout the week. So is there such a thing as a food hangover? So that can happen if we do over-indulge for that celebratory meal and often it has to do with a lot of added sugar. I mean there are times when I just I wake up in the morning and I'm like I mean not even having a glass of wine will make me feel as bad as like the three extra pieces of cake I had, but so that is something normal that we experience. Yeah it can happen and what I would recommend is going for a walk that'll help improve blood sugar a bit and hopefully help people feel better. So is it the excessive sugar? I mean how do you avoid it when it's everywhere during the holidays? So I recommend building a balanced plate and I think that'll help prevent overeating. That means including a little bit of protein and some fiber and then definitely getting those vegetables on your plate. And when you're eating your meals make sure you're having water with your meal and not drinking some type of sugary beverage like soda or tea or juice. And then if you're having a piece of pie go for it and just stick to one and know it'll be there maybe the next day if you want to slice again. So are there any particular foods that you say we should just all out avoid sugar obviously in moderation? Yeah. But I mean the fried stuff too many carbs I feel like I'm a carb girl. So I really think moderation is key and if you are going to have something that's maybe on the heavier side it's not the healthiest thing in the world be sure again you're getting those vegetables on your plate to your choosing a little bit of lean protein and then with your starch you're keeping it to about a quarter of your plate or the size of a fist and really just practicing good portion control with those heavier types of starch foods. The portion control the other the other tip that I learned was to try to fill your plates you mentioned this a little veggies. Yes. And everything that's like mostly green and not yeah we went lots of color on the plate. Not good tasting. Yeah. But I mean that's helpful do you get full are you satiated if you eat that and then maybe be less. Okay. Yes we want to try to start with the vegetables because veggies and fruits give us good fiber and fiber keeps us full so the more fiber in our diet the more likely we're going to feel satisfied protein also helps us keep satisfied so that's things like chicken and fish eggs beans and then if we go towards the starch last we tend to not eat as much as if we go for it first. So you mentioned earlier about not skipping a meal why is that so bad during the holiday season like I find myself okay I won't have lunch because I'm going to the holiday party. Yeah so that's going to lead to overeating later on in the day. Okay there you go. Yeah that's the big no-no so we definitely recommend still having breakfast and lunch maybe even a couple snacks practicing good hydration during the day getting to walk in and then going to that meal and just acting like it's any other meal and again practicing good portion control and enjoying yourself. What about the idea of going back for seconds perhaps thirds all of that I mean we all know it's not what you should be doing but how bad is that for us to do during this time of year. So if you are going to go back for seconds I recommend going back for the veggies or maybe some fruit and you know again if you really want that slice of pie a second slice if you have it try to go for a walk after dinner and you'll probably feel a little bit better. What about some other tips because oftentimes I'll find myself kind of eating what I have and then waiting do you feel a little more fuller if you talk to me about that. Yes that's a really good point mindful eating is super important so sit down at the table when you're eating your meals making sure you're taking your time ideally we want to give ourselves about 20 minutes for meal times and then again taking it slow so just sitting down relaxing maybe laying a candle having friends and family over and that you'll probably slow down a bit and feel more satisfied. So with the new years right around the corner obviously that's the big thing for everybody to lose the 10 pounds they gained over the holidays right but you do want to be more physically fit health and wealth we talked about that anything we should do forward thinking about the new years about keeping ourselves together. So this time of year definitely want to make small goals so they should be small and realistic nothing too lofty or big kind of take it one step at a time so maybe creating maybe one to two goals to work on and again making them specific so that could mean I'm gonna walk 15 minutes a day Monday Wednesday and Friday during my lunch break or on Saturday and Sunday I'm gonna make sure I cook a healthy meal for myself trying to make your goals that are centered around lifestyle versus weight and I think that is a really good way to go about it. So what happens if we sort of get stuck in a rut you know we're trying to do these things and then we you know fall back and very regressive nature of like gotta have those salt and vinegar vinegar potato chips like what do you do at that point? So one thing to keep in mind is you know that can happen it's all normal and part of the process of making changes but reach out for help there's so many so so many supportive communities out there that can help you whether it's your health care team or a friend or a family member that's also trying to make changes having a buddy alongside when you're making lifestyle changes can really help just make this a lot more fun and easy the accountability factor yeah exactly yeah that does make a difference so do you see any food trends in 2019 things that we might be eating more of or seeing more in the grocery store shelves? So I think one thing that I have noticed the nutrition facts label now has added sugar on the the label so I think food companies will start to rebrand their products to have less sugar which is great I also think there's a big push towards more sustainable and environmentally friendly packaging and products in the supermarket so we might see more farm to table products more local and third I think we'll see a mix of all different types of plant-based proteins and alternative proteins that are coming onto the market and I think this goes hand in hand with trying to make more environmentally friendly products available to customers. Did we talk in the we talked in the green room about food being produced in labs what's that about again? So that is one thing that I have seen in the media lab-based protein and meat and who knows if we'll see this in 2019 but it could be out there another thing I've seen is bug and insect-based protein powders so that could be another exotic kind of weird food trend we will see but more yeah stay tuned stay tuned on that one so when your clients come to you what exactly is it a wide range of issues that they're trying to resolve to use a dietitian? Yeah so I see patients that are coming for diabetes or weight management heart disease and we primarily work on making small changes in the right direction making lifestyle changes focusing on long-term no 21 day fixes or 30 day changes it's all sustainable lifestyle changes well since you brought that up let's let's cover that there's a lot of like lose weight quick fast programs that are going on you said those are really the worst that you can do mainly because why? Yeah so we normally don't recommend that they tend to be very restrictive and we find that people if they do embark on these restrictive diets they tend to regain the weight or maybe gain more back and it doesn't set the tone for long term sustainable lifestyle changes when we're thinking about diets and dieting we really need to stick to a plan that we're going to stick to for our entire life and it shouldn't be just kind of a quick thing and then we go back to our old ways and you and I were talking about making adjustments along the way like I crave diet coke but it's really the carbonation from the diet coke yes so a good alternative is the flavored sparkling water or sparkling water is a really good alternative so you have to find those kinds of options for you yeah what do you do during the holiday season to make sure you don't over indulge? I so I keep a consistent meal pattern I think that again is super super important to making sure you're having breakfast and lunch and maybe a couple snacks and then enjoying your your dinner meal activity is very important so getting in walks and maybe getting some fresh air it's a really good way to go about it sleeping well and stress management so it's really multifactorial just taking a little bit of everything and working on it and know that we're all a work in progress so you know if I slip up that's all normal and and and part of it we've only got a minute or so left I want to ask you a little bit more about the carb thing because I am curious about that you hear all the time about stay away from anything white how bad is that yeah so to be eating bread and pasta and rice is that as bad as they're saying it's all about the type of carbohydrate so when it comes to the white grains as long as we're primarily doing those in moderation and more so choosing the whole grains so those are our brown grains like whole wheat pasta whole wheat bread brown rice and oatmeal for choosing those it's it's much much better more fiber a little bit more protein and more heart health benefit the last 30 seconds anything that you would recommend I mean if it's cold outside do some things in the house to compensate for that bag of chips you just ate right yeah cleaning dancing um whatever it might be in the house you could you could do something like that but um yeah staying active it's it's not too bad out I think getting some fresh air is still realistic yes absolutely all right caroline me and it was a pleasure to speak with you thank you so much for your time and I'm gonna have to think twice now when I see that pumpkin pie or you know what it is for me it's actually it's a red velvet cake that happens to be the thing that I can never say no to but thank you very much your health segments are a co-production of Maryland public television and the University of Maryland medical system