The days when people used to store up saturated fats at this time of year are long gone. In fact the opposite is now true, writes Haydn Shaughnessy.
Gone are the days when the majority of people looked forward with a sense of entitlement to cleaning up the season's accumulated fat and protein reserves, as stored inelegantly by the waddling duck, the migrating goose and the unfortunate pig. The likelihood that more than a small minority of people indulging themselves this Christmas actually needs to is as remote as a native turkey.
Given the certainty of excess, it might pay to ask where the real values of the Christmas break lies. It could be a time to give our bodies a break, perhaps to abstain.
Heaven forbid.
For those who have half an eye to balancing excess with a little wisdom, the diet still needs a good helping of essential fatty acids (those Omega 3s principally), pulses for the flavonoids and cholesterol reduction, five to nine helpings of fruit and vegetables for the sterols, fibre, vitamins and minerals, sweet potatoes perhaps for especially beneficial proteins, cooling foods like oats and chocolate to counteract the dehydrating effects of alcohol, probiotics to keep the gut happy, and a few wholegrains for the Vitamin B complex.
Somebody who believes in eating from a position of knowledge rather than in ignorance does not need to know the science to indulge wisely but does need a commitment to a balanced diet and more importantly to a balancing diet. Balanced meals are kind to a tortured gut as well as offsetting the broader effects of indulgence.
After too much alcohol and protein a breakfast of mango and papaya has the dual benefit of calming the stomach and providing a good proportion of the day's five to nine F+V (fruit and veg). Most people think of five as a maximum but the National Cancer Institutes in the United States has long recommended nine helpings a day, especially for men. It's partly about downsizing from meat to F+V in order to negate the body's erratic hormonal functions.
Alternatively when excess meat has imbalanced the diet towards saturated fat, seek a good source of polyunsaturated essential fatty acids. Fats can be dangerous in excess but imbalance is as much a problem as sheer quantity. Game helps the Christmas go with a sense of indulgence without saturating the body in fat.
Because oats are anti-inflammatory, and help when the body is dehydrated, they can be eaten with cracked flax seeds (for Omega 3) and yoghurt to cool down and balance the fats. Adding mango is a bonus.
My wife won't touch kippers but I blame that on the mass producers using dyes and on many of the niche producers backing off the bacterial risks of fish preservation by using too much salt.
Somewhere over the holiday a plate of kippers (the new West Cork Smokehouse has the lowest level of salt in any preserved fish I've ever tasted - tel: 087 280 9368) on rye is good for the fat balance and the Vitamin Bs and of course kippers are absolutely wild whereas the more widely available smoked salmon is predominantly farmed, even at this time of year.
The right kind of chocolate is now thought to be a great anti-oxidant, as well as anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial. A miracle food.
Pierre Marcolini produces the world's best partly because he sources intelligently. The Ecuadorian 72 per cent is as devoid of bitterness as the West Cork Smokehouse's kippers are of salt (it is available online at www.pierremarcolini.co.uk).
There is hardly any probiotic that can compete with sauerkraut but I've been mocked often enough for recommending it. The Alsatians prefer choucroute but what's in a name? It might form part of one early evening meal along with a little pork but once cooked the main benefit is its digestibility rather than healthy bacteria.
Combining aubergine (sliced, salted and soaked for an hour and then sautéed) with a tin of tomatoes, a few leaves of basil, black pepper, and a pack of feta cheese, topped off with mozzarella and either cooked in the oven or under the grill, is also one of those foods that won't place huge demands on a hammered digestive system, and fulfils the F+V requirement.
Keep up the pulses with supermarket hummus if you must or use a little of the festive pork as a base for a cassoulet - a stew with chickpeas. A relieving dish of raw food for the snacking hour might include that hummus and an avocado dip with carrots and celery - it doesn't need to be fancy. Chickpeas also work well with a vegetable stew (started off with sautéed onions), adding in diced sweet potato, regular potato, carrot, and greens, cooked in coconut milk and rounded off with grated lime zest. It's just easy on the day after St Stephen's.
Thin and low in gluten pitta bread, toasted on each side and sliced down the middle, is a good base for original pizzas. For a comfort meal that the kids can nonetheless snack on, try it with sautéed onions and garlic mixed with a small amount of lamb, a tin of chopped tomatoes, ground allspice, black pepper loaded on and toasted. Add a couple of fistfuls of coriander leaves.