Thanksgiving Does Not Mean Unhealthy Eating – A Nutritionist’s Guide To The Holiday

You Can Still Be Healthy Even At Thanksgiving

What do brussels sprouts, apples, butternut squash, cranberries, nuts, and pomegranates have in common?  They are all healthy foods that can be implemented into a nutritious and delicious Thanksgiving Day meal!  As you invite your family to Thanksgiving this year, at least one nutritionist, Julie Upton, is encouraging you to be daring and balance your turkey and mashed potatoes with plenty of colorful vegetables and fruit.

Healthy Does Not Mean Boring

Trying to be healthy on Thanksgiving does not require abandoning your favorite foods.  Upton notes that many Thanksgiving staples are inherently good foods that can simply be tweaked to avoid empty calories.  By modifying what we already love rather than abandoning classics to have healthy meals, you are increasing the chances that these modifications can be sustained over the course of time.

Try This At Home

Some simple decisions also help to eliminate empty calories, such as not drinking alcohol over the holiday.  You also don’t have to resort to just eating the foods raw — that can be unappealing and make your feast seem more like a task.  Upton gives examples on how to prepare each healthy food and suggests having sauteed apples over greek yogurt, roasting your brussels sprouts (or sautee with bacon!), using broth to make soup out of your butternut squash, adding dried cranberries to your mashed sweet potatoes, garnish your green beans with toasted almond slices, and tossing pomegranate arils in your salad.