Christmas is one of my favourite times of the year. I love the traditions, baking, decorations, movies, and cozy vibe. Over the years I found easy ways to make Christmas healthier for my family. I hope you enjoy this week’s blog and can take some of my tips to have a healthier Christmas for you and your loved ones.
Have A Happier Healthier Christmas
Christmas is filled with so much love and joy, but it’s also filled with things that make our bodies sick. I’m not here to preach or take away your treats I only want to share my love and knowledge. Christmas can be just as decadent and delicious without all the garbage that makes our bodies sick. Our diet contributes to our mood and with depression and anxiety at an all-time high, I’m excited to share swaps that will keep the flavour of your favourite holiday treats without making you feel gross.
Healthier Baking Swaps
- Grass-fed butter instead of regular butter: Grass-fed butter is overall higher in all vitamins and nutrients than regular butter. I stock up when it’s on sale. Community natural foods usually have grass-fed butter on sale in the fall and around the holidays.
- Olive oil, avocado oil or Coconut oil instead of seed oils: This is an article in itself, so I’m linking a great article for you on this. But a quick breakdown is Canola oil, soybean oil and vegetable oil are cheap and highly processed. They are used in literally everything and cause inflammation. We steer clear of these oils in our home (with a few small exceptions). I encourage you to do your own research on this topic. Mind and Body Green Seed Oil Article.
- Good quality chocolate with less sugar: I swapped out regular chocolate chips and I have never looked back. There are so many great options out there. There are vegan options, sugar-free, low sugar etc. My favourite is Lily’s chocolate chips and bars they are sweetened with Stevia and work really well in baking. Enjoy Life offers great options too they are allergen friendly and some are vegan.
- Gluten-free flour: Gluten isn’t something we totally avoid, but if I can make something gluten-free without compromising the flavour I’m all for it. Oat flour is my favourite. You can either buy it ready-made or make it yourself by adding oats to a high-power blender. We also like almond flour and cassava flour. Or skipping flour altogether. It will take some experimenting, but baking and desserts can be just as yummy without gluten.
- Coconut sugar, dates, stevia, maple syrup, monk fruit sweetener: All of these are great refined sugar replacements. I use them all in different recipes. Coconut sugar and maple syrup are my top 2. Dates I use more in smoothies but I wanted to include it anyway. Again, try them out for yourself. You will naturally find the ones you like more than others.
Cleaner Christmas treat Swaps
- YumEarth candy canes: These are allergen and dye-free. We love Yum Earth, I use them at birthday parties, Halloween, Christmas, and Easter.
- Dandies vegan marshmallows: They offer vegan marshmallows free of the nasty chemicals that are in regular marshmallows. They taste just as good if not better than the typical marshmallow brands.
- Yum Earth gingerbread house or homemade: I decided to look at the ingredients in Costcos Gingerbread mansion and was horrified! Chemicals, dyes etc. Most of the ingredients I can’t even pronounce. Yum Earth makes a cleaner choice free from dyes and allergens. You could also make extra effort and attempt to make one homemade. I might try this considering Yum Earths is sold out in Canada or buy the Costco one and use my sweets of choice. We don’t eat the actual house anyway 🙂
- Light Cellars Hot Chocolate: Have you ever read most store-bought hot chocolate ingredients? It’s sooo high in sugar and additives that are so unnecessary. Pure chocolate is delicious!! The light cellar makes delicious and healthy hot chocolate with real nourishing ingredients. They have salted caramel, candy cane and chaga hot chocolate elixir pods. I mix them with their stone-ground coconut butter, maple syrup and my homemade cashew milk. It’s kid approved too!!
- Light Cellar Inhouse-made chocolate: OMG this chocolate is so good! They make chocolate bars, little individual chocolates, peanut butter cups, and truffles. It’s hard for me to leave without buying one for a snack and I’m not a huge chocolate fan. It’s that good!!
Christmas Can be Nourishing
Christmas doesn’t have to leave you feeling run down and icky because you overindulged in food your body doesn’t like. You can have a holiday season leaving you feeling nourished and vibrant. I encourage you to give some of my swaps a try. Let me know in the comment section what your favourite healthy Christmas swaps are. I am not here to make you feel bad or shame you. I’m not perfect and I don’t eat perfectly all the time. I do 90/10 or 80/20. Because I know how good it feels to be nourished. I just want to share my love of health and show you that treats can be just as delicious and nourishing without all the chemicals. Sending you all a big hug and a very peaceful and nourishing Christmas.
xo Alayna
