Weekend Plate: Get Thanksgiving Healthy!

By Carlene Helble

If you’re still working on those leftovers from Turkey day, or even if your Thanksgiving meal looks a lot like Christmas dinner, here are a few of the great qualities and healthy suggestions to make your plate healthy.

Turkey

Positives: High in protein, and B-vitamins

Negatives: Dark meat is higher in calories and fat so limit the amount you serve yourself.

Stuffing:

Positives: This dish has protein, B-vitamins and numerous additional vitamins and minerals depending on what other veggies you toss in.

Negatives: Stuffing is notoriously high in calories and fat.

Get Healthy: Omit the extra butter and use a fat free broth. Instead of Italian sausage, opt for turkey or chicken sausage, or cut it all together. As always portion size is key.

Sweet potatoes:

Positives: Sweet potatoes are a rich source of beta-carotene, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, potassium and fiber!

Negative: Casseroles can be high in fat and sugar, especially with those sugary toppings.

Get Healthy: Leave out butter and excess sugar to enjoy the already great taste of a sweet potato.  If it’s your favorite, just limit your portions

Mashed potatoes and gravy:

Positives: High in many vitamins and minerals, mashed potatoes are only high in fat and calories if you load them up with cream, butter, and salt.

Negative: It’s all about what you add: the more butter and cream, the bigger the ‘negative’.

Get Healthy: Don’t use butter and heavy cream. Instead, opt for fat free milk and low fat sour cream, or fat free chicken broth for flavor. Keep the portion size to an accurate ‘serving’ of ½ C.

Cranberry sauce:

Positives: Cranberries are a good source of Vitamin C, and naturally healthy!

There’s no need to modify, but to get more Vitamin C, try eating real cranberries instead of the canned sauce.

Green bean casserole:

Positives: Green beans are high in fiber, Vitamin A, K, C and many other nutritional goodies.

Negatives: The fried onions on the top are the highest calorie and fat product in this dish.

Get Healthy: Top with toasted almonds or walnuts instead of fried onions. You could also use low-fat cream of mushroom soup or flavor with a vinaigrette dressing.

Pumpkin pie:

Positives: Pumpkin is a great source of beta-carotene and fiber.

Negatives: The crust and filling are high in sugar and fat.

Get Healthy: Modify the filling by using egg whites and fat-free evaporated milk. To change up the crust try a low-fat graham cracker crust.