If you’re trying to watch your diet, you can still enjoy a fabulous Thanksgiving meal with a lot of the traditional dishes you’re already familiar with.
We’ll look at some of the most popular foods prepared on this holiday and will show you which choices are healthiest for this year’s Thanksgiving.
Between the most two popular proteins served on Thanksgiving, turkey is the far better choice. Although you can find lean portions of ham, whole hams bring along a ton of saturated fat with them. The glaze that is generally applied to the whole ham also adds a ton of unnecessary sugars.
Turkey is the healthier choice, but you still must keep it healthy during preparation. By no means does this mean you have to serve a bland, flavorless turkey though! Season and stuff it with fresh herbs, apples, onions, rosemary and sage. Opt for olive oil instead of butter.
We know, we know… everyone loves that green bean casserole! But between the butter, cream of mushroom and fried onions, you are literally scooping up a spoonful of fat with each and every bite. Choose the other popular side instead, Brussels Sprouts. You can even saute it in some bacon and add a little cheese to make it more desirable, and it will STILL be healthier than the green bean casserole!
If you haven’t bothered trying whole-grain stuffing, you should! It is a ton more flavorful than the traditional boxed stuffing made of white bread. This is due to the nuttier flavor that whole wheat brings with it, not to mention it isn’t packed with all the sodium that white bread needs to add flavor.
You don’t have to skip the sweet potatoes, but instead of sweet potato casserole filled with butter, pecans, sugar and marshmallows – opt for roasted sweet potatoes. Roasting the sweet potatoes will bring out the natural sweetness in them, reducing the amount of butter and sugar needed.
Thanksgiving wouldn’t be complete without at least one pie to devour! Of the two most traditional Thanksgiving pies, pumpkin pie is the clear winner over pecan pie. Pecan pie is one of the unhealthiest pies on the planet.
