Carb counting your festive favourites
Wednesday, 2 December 2020
Christmas is a season full of food. Wonderful luscious summer fruit – stone fruit, cherries, mangoes and more! Plus all the treats of traditional Christmas eating – turkey stuffing, Christmas pudding, cakes and fruit mince pies. Be still my beating heart!
I personally try to keep many Christmas foods to Christmas and Boxing Days so they remain extra special, and to ensure I can enjoy them. However, many Christmas foods come in bulk – like Christmas cake – consider freezing these foods in single serve portions sizes for other social occasions.
Here’s a guide to the carb content of some Christmas time foods. I’m not suggesting you should attempt to eat all or any of these, but just in case you choose to…
Remember, though, if your food has a label the nutrition information panel will provide a more accurate guide for your specific choice.
Food | Serve size | Amount of carbohydrate per serve |
Brandy flavoured custard | ¼ cup, 70g | 12g |
Candy cane | 1 small, 15g | 15g |
Christmas dark fruit cake, uniced | 1 slice, 90g | 47g |
Christmas light fruit cake, uniced | 1 slice, 80g | 43g |
Eggnog | 1 cup, 265g or 250mL | 23g |
Gingerbread man | 1 average, 35g | 24g |
Mince pies | 1 small pie, 60g | 38g |
Panettone | 1 serve, 50g | 27g |
Pavlova, not including cream or fruit | 1 serve, 13g | 11g |
Rum balls | 1 ball, 24g | 12g |
Summer pudding | 150g | 32g |
Traditional Christmas pudding | 100g | 50g |
Turkey stuffing | 1 heaped tablespoon, 25g | 6g |
Yorkshire pudding | 1, 90g | 27g |
White Christmas | 1 slice, 25g | 10g |
Fruit | Serve size | Amount of carbohydrate per serve |
Apricots | 1 large, 60g | 4g |
Cherries | 50g | 6g |
Grapes | 1 cup, 170g | 26g |
Mango | 1 medium, 295g | 37g |
Nectarines | 1 medium, 150g | 12g |
Peaches | 1 medium, 145g | 10g |
Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas, everyone!
By Dale Cooke APD