So how much should you be eating this holiday season? And which Christmas treats are the healthiest?
Play Like Mum have looked into the recommended portion sizes and nutritional value of some of the UK’s favourite Christmas treats to find out.
Christmas Chocolates
Product | Full Size | Recommended Portion Size | Portion as Fraction of Full Pack | Number of Individual Pieces | Calories per Portion |
Toblerone | 360g | 32.7g | 227/2500 | 1 triangle | 175 |
Terry’s Chocolate Orange | 157g | 31.4g | 1/5 | 4 segments | 164 |
Chocolate Coins | 70g | 23g | 1/3 | 2.6 coins | 119 |
Quality Street | 650g | 19.69g | 3/100 | 2 sweets | 89 |
Quality Street Mint Matchmakers | 120g | 15g | 1/8 | 4 sticks | 72 |
After Eight Mints | 300g | 16.6g | 11/200 | 2 mints | 72 |
According to the recommended serving sizes, a 650g tub of Quality Streets should contain approximately thirty-three servings, which works out as just two sweets per serving! Whilst another Christmas favourite, Toblerone, recommends just one individual triangle per serving, with each one containing 19.5g of sugar.
Christmas Snacks
Product | Full Size | Recommended Portion Size | Portion as Fraction of Full Pack | Number of Individual Pieces | Calories per Portion |
Pringles Sour Cream & Onion | 200g | 30g | 3/20 | 13 crisps | 152 |
Tesco Scottish Shortbread Assortment Tin | 500g | 18.5g | 1/27 | 1 biscuit | 94 |
Cadburys Festive Friends | 150g | 16.6g | 111/1000 | 4 biscuits | 83 |
Bip 10 Pack Peppermint Candy Canes | 125g | 12g | 12/125 | 1 cane | 49 |
Overindulging is easy to do when the recommended serving size of Sour Cream and Onion Pringles is 13 individual crisps, Tescos Scottish Shortbread is 1 biscuit and Bip’s Candy Cane is 1 cane!
Christmas Cakes
Product | Full Size | Recommended Portion Size | Portion as Fraction of Full Pack | Number of Individual Pieces | Calories per Portion |
Christmas Pudding | 400g | 100g | 1/4 | 1/4 pudding | 301 |
Tesco Mini Topped Christmas Cake | 150g | 75g | 1/2 | Half cake | 284 |
Chocolate Profiterole 12 Stack | 260g | 65g | 1/4 | 3 profiteroles | 238 |
Strawberry Trifle | 600g | 150g | 1/4 | 1/4 trifle | 213 |
Mince Pies | 324g | 54g | 167/1000 | 1 pie | 209 |
Yule Log | 260g | 33g | 127/1000 | 1 slice | 134 |
If you’re looking to keep the calories down this Christmas, you might want to avoid the Christmas pudding, as 1 portion contains 301 calories. A more diet-friendly option for Christmas dessert is an (admittedly small) slice of yule log at only 134 calories a slice or a quarter of a strawberry trifle for 213 calories.
You can view the research in full by clicking here.
FOLLOW BESTFIT