Nigella Lawson skips starters for her Christmas Dinner as she says over indulgence on the big day can leave people feeling like a "bloated wreck".
The Celebrity chef says she thinks we can go "too far" on the festive occasion when it comes to food, in podcast The News Agents, presented by former BBC stars Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel.
Talking about her own Christmas Day, 62, Nigella said: “I don’t know why people do starters for Christmas lunch. I never have – that seems a madness."
She went on: “But I also think there is a way in which for so many people it does become a sort of obscene over indulgence. So people are not eating because it is pleasurable; they’re eating because, somehow, people feel it is when they should be eating non-stop.”
The How to Eat author said she thought people went "too far" when it comes to festive food, adding: “You want to feel full up and grateful that you feel full up, but you don’t want to be a bloated wreck.”
Nigella is always on hand to offer handy advice and guidance for Christmas. In 2020, during Covid restrictions, she revealed she wouldn't having a turkey for the first time.
Speaking on BBC's Newcast podcast, the TV star revealed she would be having pork for Christmas lunch.
She said: "I actually - and I only made the decision a couple of days ago - for the first time ever, I am not going to do a turkey - and I always do.
"I'm doing pork. It's not going to be a normal family Christmas, therefore I think I will feel less sad doing something that is just a lovely lunch, that takes in a few Christmas traditions from elsewhere that interest me, but not... make me feel what's missing."
She continued to say: "One of the things I think we've all realised is how we miss having people round our table, and therefore all that worrying over 'is this perfect, should we do this or that', you realise that is actually secondary to the feeling of eating with other people."
The same year she said she enjoys a slice of cheese with her Christmas cake, which is a long-held Yorkshire tradition.
Food historian Peter Brears previously spoke to the Yorkshire Post about it.
The expert traced it back to Victorian England, when people began to serve up Christmas Cake as part of the feast.
He said: “It is definitely a Yorkshire thing which goes back at least until the 19th century, and I know that because my grandparents were born in the 1890s and it was very much part of their Christmas celebrations.
"People here recognised that when you have something which is rich and sweet it’s good to have something savoury with it.
