Festive Season has begun

Last week as I was doing my regular grocery shop at Tesco, I noticed they had already started stocking their Christmas Selection Boxes. This signalled to me that the festive marketing season has now begun, with Christmas treats hitting the shelves a good 4 months before Christmas.

While we all enjoy the occasional chocolate or sweet around Christmas, seeing all these sugary foods prominently displayed made me think about how so many of the foods associated with the holidays aren't exactly healthy choices. Most Christmas treats are loaded with sugar, fat, and calories from ingredients like chocolate, sweets, biscuits, sugary alcoholic liquors, and more.  

This got me thinking that there's probably an opportunity for companies to market some more nutritious foods using festive holiday branding and packaging. We live in a time where obesity, diabetes, and other diet-related diseases are on the rise. The NHS is also facing record waiting times.

Wouldn't it be great if we could encourage people to make slightly better food choices during the festiveseason, when overindulgence tends to be common? Promoting healthy, festive recipes and treats could potentially help people develop improved lifelong eating habits, rather than just going on fad diets every January.

Better diets lead to better physical and mental health in the long run. They also reduce people's likelihood of developing chronic illnesses down the road. As we enter another run in to the Christmas season, I think there's room for festive marketing to highlight some more nutritious options, rather than just confectionary and sugary foods. Our health and wellbeing could benefit from the shift.