Nutrition Tip - Guilt Free Thanksgiving
Nutrition Tip of the Week
By Samantha McCarthy, Cedardale Registered Dietitian
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Enjoy Thanksgiving without the Guilt or Deprivation
Believe it or not, the holidays are upon us yet again. Another year of busy schedules, family events, cocktail parties, and gifts. Physical activity and healthy eating tend to head to the sideline for 6 weeks until the New Year arrives. Once 2016 arrives, we will all make new resolutions to lose the weight we gained during the holidays and join the masses at our local health clubs. But why wait until the New Year? Why should the health of yourself and your family suffer every year the holidays come around?
It all starts at Thanksgiving. The American tradition has created a holiday dedicated to mass amounts of unhealthy foods. But Thanksgiving is really about celebrating and giving thanks for all the wonderful things in our lives. It’s about spending time with family. It doesn’t have to be about food at all. A traditional Thanksgiving meal packs in the calories, fats, sodium, and sugar, all things we should be limiting in our diets. Let’s take a look at what a normal, American thanksgiving meal looks like.
First off, we start with the turkey. A typical serving size is about ½ pound of turkey, white and dark meat with the skin. This gives us about 470 calories. Then we add the gravy, about ½ cup and 60 calories by itself. We may also want some cranberry sauce with our turkey, about ½ cup, for 210 calories. Next we have the mashed potatoes and stuffing, about 1 cup of each, and an additional 590 calories. Don’t forget the casseroles. The popular green bean and marshmallow topped sweet potato casseroles come in at a whopping 770 calories for about ½ cup each. Most of us also grab a dinner roll with butter which is an added 180 calories.
A short few minutes after we finish the main course, dessert is served. One dessert? Most people grab two. For a normal slice of pumpkin pie and apple pie with ice cream, you take in another 1000 calories. After all of this, we have consumed approximately 3275 calories, 128 grams of fat, 172 grams of sugars, and 4470 milligrams of sodium. To put this into perspective, the average calorie consumption should be about 2000 calories with around 50-100 grams of fat, 25 grams of sugar, and 2300 milligrams of sodium, for the whole day.
It’s easy to see that our Thanksgiving meal goes overboard, but it doesn’t have to be that way. You can still have your holiday favorites without feeling deprived. Here is how we can modify the meal above. Start with just 6 oz. of turkey, white meat only, no skin. Feel free to add some gravy and cranberry sauce, but limit it to ¼ cup. Lighten your stuffing and green bean casserole recipes and use only a ½ cup. Instead of the high fat, high sugar sweet potato casserole, bake some sweet potatoes and top with a teaspoon of butter. Don’t forget your vegetables! Eat a cup of green peas and carrots with 1 teaspoon of butter. And of course, you can have dessert. Just cut a smaller slice of pumpkin pie and top with whipped cream instead of ice cream. For these small changes, your meal comes in at 1050 calories, 30 grams of fat, 55 grams of sugar, and only 1500 milligrams of sodium.
Make a change this year and set a goal to maintain your weight, instead of gain. Make it a priority to serve your family healthy meals and make physical activity apart of your holiday celebrations.