Thanksgiving Goodness

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This is my favorite holiday of the year. It’s all about family, friends, and one of my favorite subjects, food. Unlike other holidays, there’s no commercialism telling you that to “show how much you care you should buy them this.” Thanksgiving is just a chance to catch up with long-lost cousins and chow down on some of the best foods from the fall harvest. It’s also a perfect chance to eat some of the world’s most sugary foods, completely blow your diet, and start a downward slope that continues with Christmas cookies, Christmas parties, New Year’s parties, and a New Years resolution to lose those 10 pounds.

So in the spirit of good food and good nutrition, let’s discuss the good points of a few of the foods around the Thanksgiving table. A few weeks ago, the Food of the Week from World’s Healthiest Foods was The Sweet Potato. I love sweet potatoes and use them as an occasional starchy carb after workouts. I thought I’d go through some of the information that I found on WH Foods. First, the obvious, sweet potatoes are starchy and as such are high in carbohydrates. They do however have blood sugar-stabilizing properties and can lower insulin resistance, both good things earning sweet potatoes a moniker of “anti-diabetic” food. Compared to the white potato, sweet potatoes are powerhouses with double the fiber and nice doses of vitamin C and beta-carotene (a vitamin A precursor). Add in some copper, iron, and potassium and you have a healthful addition to your diet. Of course, the Candied Yams at Thanksgiving generally bear little resemblance to a nice baked sweet potato with cinnamon, coconut oil, and coconut flakes. And here’s another tidbit: they’re not really potatoes (they’re from the same family as Morning Glory flowers, rather than the nightshade family).

Cranberries are also a staple of most Thanksgiving meals. Unfortunately, too many people have that can-shaped gel rather than real cranberries. But if you’re one of the lucky ones, have a bite. Here’s one of the benefits:

researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) have found that compounds in cranberries are able to alter E. coli bacteria, which are responsible for a host of human illnesses (from kidney infections to gastroenteritis to tooth decay), in ways that render them unable to initiate an infection.

Here are some more health benefits, courtesy of World’s Healthiest Foods.

Cranberries have long been valued for their ability to help prevent and treat urinary tract infections. Now, recent studies suggest that this native American berry may also promote gastrointestinal and oral health, prevent the formation of kidney stones, lower LDL and raise HDL (good) cholesterol, aid in recovery from stroke, and even help prevent cancer.

And if you’re in charge of the cranberries, try this Cranberry-Avocado recipe from Mark’s Daily Apple.

So try to focus on the less damaging foods at the table: green beans and other vegetables, salad, and of course turkey. Now let’s be real. It’s Thanksgiving and this holiday is also about enjoying life and family, so I fully intend to have some of my mom’s Sweet Potato Casserole with the brown sugar and walnut crust. I don’t think it has marshmallows or stuff like that; just a nice bit of added sweetness to complement the sweet potatoes. I will have some pumpkin pie as I only get it once a year. Don’t be so dogmatic that you can’t enjoy the day. Letting loose a little bit for one day isn’t going to destroy you so long as you can get back on track tomorrow. If you truly don’t want any of the sweet potato casserole, homemade stuffing, and pumpkin pie, more power to you. But if you do, allow yourself a few bites and then get back to meat and vegetables tomorrow.

So the keys to Thanksgiving are:

Enjoy time with family
Eat the foods you don’t get year-round
Don’t overindulge in the super sugary or carby stuff (but do try a few bites to satisfy yourself)
Don’t let Thanksgiving become a 6-week pig out

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