Grape juice, spinach, oatmeal, almonds and cocoa.

James Painter, chair of the school of family and consumer sciences, said these five ingredients can help make the holidays a little tastier – and healthier.

During Wednesday’s Healthy Lifestyles: Eating Through the Holidays presentation, Painter and Dawn Wilcox, nutrition education coordinator, explained the benefits of these foods and showed how to incorporate them into holiday dishes.

Faculty and staff who attended the session were able to sample the recipes, while Wilcox demonstrated how to prepare them.

Many participants were surprised to find hot cocoa among the health foods.

Painter said cocoa, when prepared correctly, can be just as beneficial as red wine.

He explained that the pre-packaged hot chocolate mixes most people buy at grocery stores are processed with alkali. This is done to take the bitter taste out of the cocoa. But when cocoa is processed with alkali, it loses its benefits.

Plain cocoa, not processed with alkali, provides higher amounts of antioxidants than black tea, green tea and even red wine.

Painter said cocoa causes blood vessels to dilate, which reduces the risk of clogged arteries and chronic heart disease.

Wilcox shared a healthy recipe for hot cocoa that uses natural cocoa, skim milk, water, vanilla and Splenda. She said the same recipe can be found on the side of the box of Hershey’s Natural Cocoa.

Painter said drinking red wine also opens up the blood vessels.

“If you drink only four ounces of red wine you will get similar benefits,” Painter said. “But if you drink more than that, you just become lush.”

During the session, he also dispelled common misconceptions about nuts.

Many people avoid eating nuts because they are high in fat. But Painter said bodies need fat to function, and nuts provide bodies with “good fat.”

Painter said when it comes to eating fats, food consumption is a balancing act.

“Butter is not evil,” he said. “You can eat butter and live to be 150! Having some saturated fat is perfectly healthy, but we have to balance it off with more monosaturated fats.”

In order to balance these fats, Wilcox said healthier ingredients can be substituted for some fatty items in recipes.

When baking, Wilcox said applesauce can be substituted for oil to cut back on fat. She also suggested using whole wheat flour instead of white flour.

But for most people, the hardest part of the holidays is not preparing food, but consuming it. And overeating at parties is where most people fall off track.

In order to avoid overindulging at gatherings, Wilcox suggested having a small snack before arriving. She said going to a party on an empty stomach will likely cause one to overeat.

Wilcox also said to alternate back-and-forth between alcoholic beverages and water. She said people do not realize how quickly the calories add up when they are drinking.

Nanci Newstrom, Eastern faculty member, said she anticipated trying out the recipes from Wednesday’s session.

Newstrom said she has tried to cook healthier foods during the holidays, but never made it a routine. She said attending the presentation gave her some fresh ideas and motivation for this year’s holiday season.

“I like that the session focused on only five different ingredients,” Newstrom said. “It won’t be too overwhelming to try and incorporate those things into more foods.”