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‘Tis the season for smart eating

After last week's Thanksgiving celebration, the season of festive food has officially begun. Thanks to foods like Thanksgiving's holy trinity of turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes; Hanukkah's sour-cream- and-applesauce-drenched latkes; buttery Christmas cookies and the sundry salty snacks of New Year's Eve parties, the last six weeks of the year are a great time to be alive and eating.

Unfortunately, because these foods are so very delicious, we often find ourselves eating more than enough of them. Since most holiday foods are very energy-dense — that is, they have a high number of calories for their size — this can very quickly lead to weight gain.

The phenomenon driving this is something nutritionists call "energy balance." Everybody has a certain energy expenditure — the number of calories burned per day, determined by genetics, body composition and physical activity level. So, if a person eats fewer than this number of calories, he or she will lose weight.

During the holiday season, however, most of us find ourselves eating significantly more than our energy expenditure. Our waistlines expand, our belts loosen and those holiday sweaters suddenly seem much more stylish than tighter clothing in our wardrobes. Some people estimate they pack on five or 10 pounds during the holiday season.

Encouragingly, modern research has shown these figures grossly overestimate the average American's holiday weight gain. Articles in last week's New York Times and Los Angeles Times cited recent studies showing most people gain much less weight than they think during the period from Thanksgiving to New Year's. One of the most oft-cited studies in these articles is one published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2000, which claimed that fewer than 10 percent of the participants in this study gained more than five pounds. On average, people gained less than a pound.

These statistics are encouraging, but it is important not to develop a complacent attitude toward holiday weight gain because of them. The National Institute of Health is quick to point out the gains that take place around the holidays contribute to steady weight gain during the year. The average American adult gains about 1 1/2 pounds every year, and some scientists think this kind of unchecked steady weight gain may be one of the root causes of the nation's obesity epidemic. With more than half of that annual weight gained during the holiday season, keeping holiday waist augmentation in check could contribute to reducing the nation's annual fattening.

Furthermore, certain individuals seem to be more at risk of holiday weight gain than others. A study done at the University of Oklahoma last year suggests that individuals already overweight gain much more than their normal weight counterpart during the holidays.

However, setting the goal of weight maintenance around the holidays is important for everybody, not just those who are overweight. By not overeating around the holidays, people can set themselves up for much healthier lives by staving off the chronic weight gain that many experience at this time of year.

Even if the holiday season does leave you with some unwanted pounds, shedding that excess blubber is not impossible. One doesn't need to resort to fad diets to drop post-holiday weight. Small steps like cutting back on soda, sweets and the traditional beginning-of-the-semester partying that takes place in January can go a long way to converting the muffin tops of the New Year into something resembling a healthy human form.

In the meantime, though, the holidays are a time to eat, drink and be merry. As long as you keep the holiday food and drink in moderation, you can enjoy the fruits of the season and avoid the immense gains of holiday lore.

Jason Engelhart is a senior majoring in economics and history. He weighs 150 pounds, but it says 140 on his driver's license. You can e-mail him at jengelhart@badgerherald.com.