The healthiest Christmas dinners around the world revealed

The American Christmas dinner comes below the UK for featuring fewer vegetables and desserts that are often much higher in sugar, such as pumpkin pie. Photo / 123RF

If you want a healthy Christmas dinner this year, you'll have to head to Poland, a dietitian has revealed.

Christina Merryfield, lead dietitian at Bupa's Cromwell Hospital in London, has ranked the world's traditional dinners against each other - and the UK and US don't come off well, the Daily Mail reports.

The countries rank right at the bottom of the global leaderboard of the world's healthiest Christmas meals for their traditional, and very fatty, turkey dinners.

Poland meanwhile has the world's healthiest Christmas meal, as a traditional dinner there is borscht - a red beetroot soup - and carp.

Christina explained: "Christmas dinners in the UK feature steamed vegetables which are high in fibre and low in fat, but this is often the only part of the meal from the fruit and vegetable group.

"All other elements like roast meat, stuffing, gravy and Yorkshire puddings are high in fat or have added saturated fat, particularly if the skin and fat from the meat are included."

She gave the UK's traditional Christmas dinner a score of 3/10 for healthiness - just one point above the US, which ranks bottom of the pile.

The American Christmas dinner comes below the UK for featuring fewer vegetables and desserts that are often much higher in sugar, such as pumpkin pie.

Christina says: "While alcohol isn't a big focus, the main Christmas meal is high in calories and doesn't cover most of the main food groups, particularly fruit and limited vegetable varieties. Red meat is favoured over vegetables."

Poland meanwhile is handed a rating of 7/10, as its traditional meal contains a wide variety of vegetables, fish instead of red meat, and fruit-based desserts.

Australia and New Zealand are next healthiest with a score of 6/10 for featuring a Christmas meal of cold meats, and seafood, reflecting the warm and sunny weather in the southern hemisphere at Christmas.

But those countries' traditional meals are the only three which Christina could define as "healthy".

France gets a rating of 5/10 for its typical fare of fois gras, roast capon (a cockerel), cheese, salad and a buche de Noel - a French version of the classic yule log.

Tied near the bottom of the leaderboard is Spain and Germany. Their traditional meals both get a 4/10 rating for healthiness from Christina.

It's no surprise that the German tradition of eating roast goose or carp, sausages such as bratwurst, potato salad and lots of marzipan sees it slump down the leaderboard.

But it may come as a surprise to see that Spain ranks poorly, as the Mediterranean diet is often touted as healthy.

Christina explains that its low score is due to the country's love of sugar-laden desserts.

"While the main course in Spanish culture is often healthy and balanced, the same can't be said for desserts," she explains.

"Traditional sweets like almond candy and cookies are loaded with sugar and carbohydrates and alcohol is also a focus throughout the day.

"This seriously ups calorie intake and alcohol is also linked to an increasing the appetite, which means we eat more even if we're not hungry."

TIPS FOR A HEALTHY CHRISTMAS
1. Go easy on the alcohol - this is just empty calories and alcohol is linked to increasing the appetite
2. Fill up on vegetables and salad first rather than meat and fried foods
3. Avoid high fat and sugar nibbles before dinner such as crisps and chocolate
4. Once you feel full, stop eating
5. Have a small portion of sweet desserts, and opt for whole fruit if available, as this will help you feel less bloated