How to throw a healthy (but fun) Christmas party

Julie asked: "I’m throwing a Christmas party next week. What food and drink will leave my guests feeling treated, yet (fairly) guilt free?"

Here's Anita's advice:

Here's what Anita said:

"Hi Julie,

If you really want to look after your guests, still have your wonderful food but try to cut down on the calories.

Let's look at the options that you can actually do. Starting off with mulled wine – normal mulled wine is full of sugar, full of calories- about 250 a glass. Swap it for champagne where a 150ml glass will be 80 calories. If you're going to opt for sherry, opt for the dry sherry instead of the cream sherry for fewer calories.

Turkey, again if you can serve turkey with no skin on and again there'll be a calorie loss. Try sweet potatoes instead of roast potatoes because they're full of antioxidants and much less calories and much better at balancing the bloody sugar levels as well.

For desserts, think of offering them fruits like figs. Whereas figs are 60 calories per serving, profiteroles are 600 calories so there's a vast saving there.

Double cream, for a 60g serving which is about two table spoons and will have about 297 calories, it also has 32 grams of fat. Sorbets are a great option. A sorbet with a fresh coulis is very easy to do and makes a good dessert and your guests won't feel so heavy on them. Therefore they can afford to still enjoy their food and be naughty but cut the calories."