MyDomaine: How a Nutritionist Avoids Holiday Weight Gain (Without Skipping Dessert)

I was interviewed for this piece on MyDomaine, along with my writing partner Silvia Barban, about how to avoid weight gain during the holidays:

During the holidays, it can seem like hearty, flavorful meals and healthy dishes exist in different spheres. If you’re craving traditional dishes like stuffing and mashed potatoes, you’ve got to put your diet on hold, and if you want to be healthy it means forgoing favorites and opting for salad.

That’s exactly the mentality that nutritionist Maya Feller, MS, RD, and CDN of Maya Feller Nutrition, and Italian chef Silvia Barban want to change. “Spending the holidays without these main staple dishes can be hard. So why do we need to avoid those meals when we can make them healthier?” says Barban, a Brooklyn-based foodie who starred in Top Chef.

The duo has teamed up to pen a cookbook in 2018, marrying Feller’s expertise in weight management and nutrition and Barban’s knack for flavorful Italian cuisine. The result? A collection of delicious recipes that don’t elicit next-day guilt, including holiday favorites. “We chose some of the more conventional side dishes and wanted to offer up alternatives that increase the non-starchy vegetable intake, as the average American diet is centered around a high intake of refined grains,” Feller says of their go-to holiday side dishes below.

Read the full piece here.