Top 5 Holiday (Christmas, Hanukkah) Nutrition Presents

Gifts are an important part of the Holiday Season and if you’re going to spend an absurd amount of money on them, why not make them actually count. There are plenty of gifts you can buy that can help your family and friends improve their diet and overall health.

1. Cookbooks. One of the best steps someone can take when trying to lose weight or even get healthy is to start cooking their own meals. Unfortunately, not everyone knows how to cook. If one of your friends wants to be healthy but is a horrible cook, get them a beginner’s cookbook that will help them refine their skills. Before you know it, you’ll be over their house begging for a delicious home cooked meal.

2. Cookware. Learning how to cook is nice but having the proper tools to cook is also a must. If you try and cook with low quality cookware, you’ll end up burning or making horrible tasting food. Buying your friends and family a good set of cookware, even if it’s just a pot or pan, can go a long way in creating healthy and tasty meals.

3. Herbs and Spices. A great way to add flavor to food without adversely affecting its nutritious properties is to add spices and herbs. Sometimes these ingredients can cost more than other unhealthier flavor boosters (for example salt) so instead of taking the healthy route, most people take the easy one. A good holiday fix for this is to buy them an herb and spice rack that contains all the popular ones. Flavorful and healthy food increases the chances that a diet will succeed.

4. Supplements. Though many of the supplements on the market are worthless, others can help. Multivitamins and protein powders can help even the average person get stronger and see better results. If you’re uncomfortable picking out supplements as gifts, you can buy a gift card instead.

5. Calorie Counter. Weight loss (and even weight gain) is all about calorie intake. If you’re eating less than you burn, you’ll lose weight. Unfortunately, keeping track of calories isn’t always the easiest thing to do, especially when you’re eating out a lot. This is where a calorie counter can come in handy. There are calorie counters apps for mobile phones, some that look like dictionaries and others that look like PDAs. Any one of these can be useful for someone who is trying to lose weight.

The Bottom Line

If you’re going to spend a lot of money on presents, they should at least be helpful to the person you’re buying for rather than end up unused in the attic or garbage. The gift ideas outlined above will help most people jumpstart a healthy diet yielding positive results for years.