The best way to enjoy a chocolate Easter egg this weekend is without guilt or shame but with a dollop of moderation, dietitians have advised.<\/p>\n
Aoife Deane, a registered dietitian at Happy Weight in Cork, summed up her advice as \u201ceat it and love it, or don\u2019t eat it\u201d when it comes to chocolate at this time of year.<\/p>\n
\u201cChocolate is only invented for pleasure,\u201d she said. \u201cSo if you’re in your head thinking how bad it is for you, or eating an amount that leaves you feeling physically uncomfortable afterwards, you’re missing the point.<\/p>\n
“When kids are eating chocolate, that is not the time for a nutrition talk.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
It can be confusing to give young children something to eat while also telling them it is unhealthy, she said.<\/p>\n
For adults or older teens she encourages people to focus on the texture or the aroma of chocolate to avoid snacking mindlessly on too many eggs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t deserve to be uncomfortable by 6pm, we deserve to use chocolate as a positive,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Sandra Wilkinson, a CORU-registered dietitian and communications manager with the Irish Nutrition & Dietetic Institute, added: “We often get asked \u2018is chocolate bad\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I would never say that about any food, that it\u2019s good or bad, because it\u2019s really the context of how much of it you have and what effect it has on the rest of your diet.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She advised managing the treats, saying:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n It\u2019s teaching them about moderation, but don\u2019t feel guilty. You\u2019re not talking about it being a bad food, enjoy it.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what chocolate is about, it\u2019s about pleasure and family and celebrations. Then it\u2019s putting it in that context and knowing when enough is enough.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In large families, children could end up with multiple gifts of eggs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She advised saving these for a rainy day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could use half an egg as a dessert bowl so maybe after dinner chop up a bit of strawberries or bananas and have that fruit in the chocolate bowl.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s a bit of a novelty and they eat the bowl afterwards,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Alternatives such as dairy-free or gluten-free eggs are also available for children with allergies.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The best way to enjoy a chocolate Easter egg this weekend is without guilt or shame but with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[249857,47341,299,97,269],"class_list":{"0":"post-564691","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-easter-food","9":"tag-easter","10":"tag-food","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-nutrition"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}