Niki Bezzant: Have yourself a guilt-free little Christmas

Christmas Day is a celebration, not a day to spend angsting about food.

Christmas Eve is here. The menu is sorted; the presents are wrapped. Last-minute bits and pieces are on the agenda today, before we go to bed anticipating a day of feasting and celebration.

Food — usually in large amounts — is a huge part of Christmas day for almost everyone. A British study a few years back found the average person consumes about 7000 calories on Christmas Day — about 3 times the recommended amount.

That seems plausible here, despite our Kiwi summer menu instead of the northern hemisphere winter feast. Consider a more-decadent-than-usual breakfast; grazing on treats; a large meal of multiple dishes, desserts and a fair whack of alcohol.

Obviously that's not ideal. But you know what? It's Christmas Day. It's a celebration after a long and stressful year. It's not a day to be angsting about eating too much.

Likewise, it's not a day to stress about sticking to any one particular diet or way of eating. Yes, you might be feeling good on your sugar-free, low-carb, paleo or keto diet. But don't bring down the mood of the party by being picky about the potato salad or pav.

The point is, it's one day. And how we eat on one day of the year doesn't really matter in the big scheme of things.

It might do if you did that every day for a month, but even the most decadent among us would struggle to keep that up.

As nutritionist Tara Leong wrote recently in a Facebook post: "One meal on one day doesn't reflect people's eating habits or how healthy they are. I know this now, after a lot of self-reflection, further education and embracing the non-diet approach to health.

"Food is to be enjoyed with family and friends, not scrutinised or a source of worry."

As it happens, plenty of Christmas food is pretty healthy. It's summer, so there are lots of gorgeous vegetables around, and they'll be on most tables tomorrow.

You can still, if the mood takes you, make up an "ideal plate" scenario featuring half a plate of veges, quarter carbs and quarter protein. Whether or not you have several such plates is entirely up to you.

Lots of lovely fruit is appearing now, too — we're being treated to bumper crops of cherries, strawberries and stonefruit thanks to the hot weather.

They look stunning and taste amazing, whether they're topping a pavlova or are part of a beautiful platter.

These are delicious foods that also happen to be healthy, rather than the other way around.

And so as you sit down at the table with loved ones and friends tomorrow, keep in the back of your mind that food is one of life's great joys.

It's a way we connect with others, it's a giver of life, it's a source of pleasure.

It's a pleasure we're lucky to be able to share.

Enjoy it.