Super dark chocolate, vegetables as a ‘shield’ against overeating and no to fasting before or after the big Easter and Easter Monday meals. These are the watchwords of the nutritionist biologist Gemma Fabozzi, of the B-Woman center for women’s health in Rome, who draws up the slimming (and liver!) menu without, however, losing the taste of the festivities.
Let’s start with the undisputed star of Easter, chocolate. If ordinary chocolates and various snacks, the nutritionist explains to time.news Salute, “do not have any beneficial effect, on the contrary, they can only tire the liver and pancreas due to the high sugar content, dark chocolate is a real ‘super food’. To make it so are the innumerable properties of cocoa beans, rich in vitamins and minerals and, what is even more relevant, in antioxidants, flavonoids and polyphenols which act as protection against free radicals, responsible for cell aging, but also for some Golden rule: the chocolate must be dark, with more than 80% cocoa – he underlines – So pay attention to the label: there must be only cocoa paste-cocoa butter. Raw chocolate is also excellent!”.
Even the mood gains. Let’s not forget that “the intake of chocolate, thanks to the presence of phenylethylamine, dopamine and serotonin in the cocoa beans – adds Fabozzi – allows our body to produce endorphins, helping us to counteract negative moods”. For a delicious and healthy snack, you can “melt the chocolate in a bain-marie, wet half a strawberry in it or create bars with blueberries, leaving them to cool in the fridge, creating ready-to-use snacks that combine the antioxidant properties of red fruits with those of cocoa “.
At the table, on holidays, it is good to follow some precautions. “Starting the meal with raw vegetables is a useful stratagem to facilitate the sense of satiety – suggests the nutritionist – As an appetizer we can therefore prepare a pinzimonio of fennel, celery, cucumber or mixed, seasoned with simple Evo oil and lemon or, more delicious, blend an avocado with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and squeezed lemon and use it to accompany these vegetables to fill up on good anti-inflammatory fats”. Make way then for bitter vegetables, “rich in inulin, a substance not only important for the health of the intestinal microbiota, but also very effective in detoxifying the liver, which in this way will be able to better manage the sugars that we will introduce during Easter or Easter Monday lunch “.
“If we opt for a meat-based lunch, we can consume the vegetables bitter and raw – advises Fabozzi – choosing between rocket, chicory, Belgian or curly endive, radicchio, or opting for a carpaccio of raw artichokes, but only the heart, to avoid having abdominal swelling as a side effect”. If the main dish is a first course, such as the classic lasagna, “choose vegetables that are always bitter, but sautéed in a pan with oil, garlic and a pinch of raw chilli pepper on the plate, to take advantage of the vitamin C and capsaicin, with documented anti-inflammatory and metabolic stimulation capacities, which would otherwise be inactivated by heat”.
Particular attention must be paid to carbohydrates, Fabozzi recommends: “We should choose between pasta or bread, fruit or dessert. In the latter case, you can prepare a large cup of strawberries with drops of lemon, rich in vitamin C and iodine, an aid for digestion, facilitating both the functionality of the liver and the pancreas.If instead you prefer something sweeter, you can always use strawberries accompanying them with 2-3 tablespoons of unsweetened fresh whipped cream, which slows down absorption of sugars and lowers the insulin index or almond cream or melted dark chocolate.
Finally, the nutritionist rejects fasting. “In the evening after Easter lunch – he underlines – dinner should not be skipped, so as not to suddenly pass from a condition of hyperglycemia to one of hypoglycemia. It is much more useful to have a ‘unloading’ meal for the liver and kidneys, with a combination of foods that support their work, so as to make them work better at night: if you happen to wake up thirsty it means that our liver is overloaded and needs water to work after our excesses”.
To avoid this, Fabozzi recommends “structuring the meal following super-lunches by combining two vegetables, one cooked and one raw: for example, fennel salad dressed with oil, lemon and 10 green olives and a pan-sautéed chicory with oil, garlic and raw chilli pepper on the plate. Finally, we can conclude the meal with an herbal tea that helps our liver such as that of thistle leaves, or alternatively a decoction of thistle seeds, to be boiled for 10 minutes”.