Detox diets and guilt mark the Christmas season for many people. Experts warn that the problem is not what you eat these days, but the culture of dieting and the cycle of restriction that damages your relationship with food.
During the Christmas season, messages about miracle diets and detox plans start to creep into conversations, social media, and advertisements. For many people, this time of year brings not only celebrations, but also guilt, control and a tense relationship with food, even before they sit down at the table.
However, more and more specialists question this approach and propose a more realistic and healthy alternative: stop thinking of food as a punishment or a test of willpower, and start seeing it as part of self-care.
Christmas is not the problem; it's the culture of dieting
Nutritionist and entrepreneur Olga Alejandre, author of 'The beauty of being you' and founder of the Obylagom platform, argues that the problem lies not in what you eat during a few specific days, which is insignificant when compared to the food you eat for a whole year, but in the constant pressure to control your body and food permanently.
Alejandre, who specialises in eating disorders (ED) and relationships with food, sums up her approach with a clear idea: "We don't believe in diets or restrictions", but in "long-term" nutrition that also integrates factors such as rest, self-esteem and a relationship with sport.
As she explains, the festive season often triggers a well-known cycle: calorie restriction before Christmas, permissiveness during the celebrations and guilt or punishment afterwards. A pattern that, far from improving health, can deteriorate the relationship with food and increase anxiety.
"Restriction always leads to a positive feeling, a false sense of control", she warned, and this control ends up breaking more easily when the big days arrive.
How to take care of yourself without dieting or guilt at Christmas
Alejandre stresses that improving the relationship with food does not mean eating less or eliminating food, but rather learning to listen to the body, respecting hunger and satiety and reducing the mental noise around food.
One of the pillars of this approach is to stop labelling foods as "good" or "bad", a dichotomy that is especially intensified at this time of year. Nougat, sweet treats or family meals should not become an automatic source of guilt.
"Not everything is black and white", she said, and added that there may be more nutritious foods and others less so, but always within a context.
Avoid prior restriction so as not to get "out of control".
She warned of a common mistake: cutting out meals before a Christmas dinner in order to "arrive hungry". In her experience, this tends to produce the opposite effect: more anxiety and less enjoyment.
"If we restrict, then we get out of control", she sums up. And she focuses on a practical concept: satiety as protection. "Satiety is like a firewall," she said. When we arrive at a meal with accumulated hunger, we are more likely to eat quickly, with guilt and without registering what we really want.
Normalise foods and avoid holiday detoxes
Another strategy, she says, is to consciously and in a planned way normalise some of the sweets or foods that generate the most cravings at this time of year, rather than banning them until the day of the celebration. The aim is not to "eat for the sake of eating", but to "remove emotional weight" from that food so that it can be enjoyed without guilt or a sense of loss of control.
After the holidays, Alejandre advises against fasting, the famous 'detox' and extreme diets. The aim is to return to calm: regular meals, rest, some organisation and realistic routines that are easy to sustain over time. "The more normal you make it, the easier it will be to find balance," she says.
And remember the purpose of the season: "Christmas is a time for connection and enjoyment," she said. Reducing them to calorie counting, she warned, often takes its toll on mental health.
In addition, the nutritionist reminds us of the importance ofseeking professional help if necessary.
"If there is a very impaired relationship with food, no matter how much you try to enjoy it without guilt, it will be difficult to do so if you haven't worked on it beforehand," she said.
In such cases, professional support "is going to be key," she said.
