The Real Deal With Thanksgiving Eating
We all know that Thanksgiving has been labeled the least healthy eating day of the year. If you are on a diet, you will most likely blow it, or make yourself crazy trying to stick with it. With Thanksgiving's tradition of eating until you're ready to burst, it seems pretty logical to be scared.
So, Thanksgiving stands accused as the least healthy holiday. Like your mother used to say, "Don't hang out with the wrong crowd." Thanksgiving, as far as its effect on health, is just another day in November, it's just guilty by association. More specifically, its association with food, lots of food! Well, this is a free country, we are free to do, or eat what we want, and we are innocent until proven guilty. So let's give Thanksgiving a fair trial and see what our final verdict is.
The first offender, Turkey, the centerpiece of our Thanksgiving meal.
5 ounces of Turkey (White Meat): Total Fat: 11.8g Saturated Fat: 3.3 Trans Fat: 0 Cholesterol: 107.7 mg Sodium: 89.3 mg Carbs: 0 Protein: 40.5g
Well, it looks like Turkey has a little fat, but not saturated or trans fat, but healthy unsaturated fats. It has relatively small amounts of cholesterol, sodium and no carbs. It is loaded with protein. Protein from turkey is an excellent source because it is a complete protein with all of the necessary amino acids. It appears that turkey is not only not bad for you, but actually healthy. The Verdict: Turkey is innocent.
Next Up, Sweet Potatoes.
Sweet Potatoes, Dark Orange, Fresh, 5" long, Total Fat: .1g Cholesterol: 0mg Sodium: 71.5mg Carbs: 26.2g Protein: 2g
It seems that sweet potatoes are fat free and cholesterol free. They are nearly free of sodium as well as protein. This vegetable, or root, has good carbs as well. These good carbs are complex, which means your body breaks them down slowly providing you with energy over time, instead of going straight to your hips or stomach as fat. It would appear that sweet potatoes are innocent also.
Now let's look at canned, sweetened cranberry sauce.
Cranberry Sauce, Sweetened and Canned, 3 slices: Total Fat: .3g Cholesterol: 0mg Sodium: 49.6mg Carbs: 66.5g Sugars- 64.5.g Protein: .3g
It would seem like cranberry sauce is fat free, but think of the rules the FDA puts on fat, preservative or even trans fat free items. If an item has less than .5g per serving, then it can claim to be free of it. Just keep that in mind. Imagine that it all has .49g and that is how much fat you are consuming. Cranberry sauce has no cholesterol and a limited amount of sodium. There are tons of carbs, 64.5g from sugar to be exact. Why don't you just measure out 65g of sugar and attach it to your waistline, we can cut out the middleman that way. It would appear that cranberry sauce is guilty! At least the canned sugary kind is.
Up next, stuffing:
Stuffing, bread, prep/dry mix 1/2cup Total Fat: 8.6g Saturated Fat: 1.7g Cholesterol: 0mg Sodium: 543mg Carbs: 21.7g Sugars: 2.1g Protein: 3.2g
Stuffing has a bit of fat, but not bad fat. It has negligible amounts of cholesterol and protein, but a boatload of sodium. This tasty treat has a lot of sodium, but less than one can of most canned goods. So compared to most people's diets, stuffing is low in sodium. The carbs are a little high, but the sugar isn't. That means that the carbs are actual food and not sugar. Now these carbs are from the white bread found in the mix, so they aren't the best, but 21g of it isn't enough to worry about, it's less carbs than a 20oz Gatorade. The Verdict: Innocent!
The results speak for themselves, turkey isn't bad, but actually healthy. Sweet potatoes aren't bad, but healthy, cranberries are healthy if you prepare them yourself, and stuffing isn't healthy, and isn't bad.
So, is Thanksgiving innocent or guilty? It's innocent. Think about it, if we eat a serving of turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberries (not the canned sugary kind), and stuffing, we actually have a pretty healthy meal made of real, natural food. For some, it would be the healthiest meal they have eaten in a while.
So if Thanksgiving dinner is basically a healthy meal, who is guilty?
No matter what you eat, whether it's turkey or a hamburger, if you eat too much you will gain weight. If you eat more calories than you burn, you will gain weight.
So what's the problem with Thanksgiving? We overeat. Not only do we overeat on healthy real food, but we gorge ourselves on desserts. I'm not even going to go there, we all know what we should and shouldn't be eating when it comes to dessert.
Let's stop accusing Thanksgiving, and get real with ourselves. How about this year we take responsibility for ourselves and call it quits when we know we should. We won't feel guilty, or miserable and actually enjoy our time with family. This year let's be thankful for our family and that fact that we have so many leftovers.
Have a great Thanksgiving. - 17273
So, Thanksgiving stands accused as the least healthy holiday. Like your mother used to say, "Don't hang out with the wrong crowd." Thanksgiving, as far as its effect on health, is just another day in November, it's just guilty by association. More specifically, its association with food, lots of food! Well, this is a free country, we are free to do, or eat what we want, and we are innocent until proven guilty. So let's give Thanksgiving a fair trial and see what our final verdict is.
The first offender, Turkey, the centerpiece of our Thanksgiving meal.
5 ounces of Turkey (White Meat): Total Fat: 11.8g Saturated Fat: 3.3 Trans Fat: 0 Cholesterol: 107.7 mg Sodium: 89.3 mg Carbs: 0 Protein: 40.5g
Well, it looks like Turkey has a little fat, but not saturated or trans fat, but healthy unsaturated fats. It has relatively small amounts of cholesterol, sodium and no carbs. It is loaded with protein. Protein from turkey is an excellent source because it is a complete protein with all of the necessary amino acids. It appears that turkey is not only not bad for you, but actually healthy. The Verdict: Turkey is innocent.
Next Up, Sweet Potatoes.
Sweet Potatoes, Dark Orange, Fresh, 5" long, Total Fat: .1g Cholesterol: 0mg Sodium: 71.5mg Carbs: 26.2g Protein: 2g
It seems that sweet potatoes are fat free and cholesterol free. They are nearly free of sodium as well as protein. This vegetable, or root, has good carbs as well. These good carbs are complex, which means your body breaks them down slowly providing you with energy over time, instead of going straight to your hips or stomach as fat. It would appear that sweet potatoes are innocent also.
Now let's look at canned, sweetened cranberry sauce.
Cranberry Sauce, Sweetened and Canned, 3 slices: Total Fat: .3g Cholesterol: 0mg Sodium: 49.6mg Carbs: 66.5g Sugars- 64.5.g Protein: .3g
It would seem like cranberry sauce is fat free, but think of the rules the FDA puts on fat, preservative or even trans fat free items. If an item has less than .5g per serving, then it can claim to be free of it. Just keep that in mind. Imagine that it all has .49g and that is how much fat you are consuming. Cranberry sauce has no cholesterol and a limited amount of sodium. There are tons of carbs, 64.5g from sugar to be exact. Why don't you just measure out 65g of sugar and attach it to your waistline, we can cut out the middleman that way. It would appear that cranberry sauce is guilty! At least the canned sugary kind is.
Up next, stuffing:
Stuffing, bread, prep/dry mix 1/2cup Total Fat: 8.6g Saturated Fat: 1.7g Cholesterol: 0mg Sodium: 543mg Carbs: 21.7g Sugars: 2.1g Protein: 3.2g
Stuffing has a bit of fat, but not bad fat. It has negligible amounts of cholesterol and protein, but a boatload of sodium. This tasty treat has a lot of sodium, but less than one can of most canned goods. So compared to most people's diets, stuffing is low in sodium. The carbs are a little high, but the sugar isn't. That means that the carbs are actual food and not sugar. Now these carbs are from the white bread found in the mix, so they aren't the best, but 21g of it isn't enough to worry about, it's less carbs than a 20oz Gatorade. The Verdict: Innocent!
The results speak for themselves, turkey isn't bad, but actually healthy. Sweet potatoes aren't bad, but healthy, cranberries are healthy if you prepare them yourself, and stuffing isn't healthy, and isn't bad.
So, is Thanksgiving innocent or guilty? It's innocent. Think about it, if we eat a serving of turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberries (not the canned sugary kind), and stuffing, we actually have a pretty healthy meal made of real, natural food. For some, it would be the healthiest meal they have eaten in a while.
So if Thanksgiving dinner is basically a healthy meal, who is guilty?
No matter what you eat, whether it's turkey or a hamburger, if you eat too much you will gain weight. If you eat more calories than you burn, you will gain weight.
So what's the problem with Thanksgiving? We overeat. Not only do we overeat on healthy real food, but we gorge ourselves on desserts. I'm not even going to go there, we all know what we should and shouldn't be eating when it comes to dessert.
Let's stop accusing Thanksgiving, and get real with ourselves. How about this year we take responsibility for ourselves and call it quits when we know we should. We won't feel guilty, or miserable and actually enjoy our time with family. This year let's be thankful for our family and that fact that we have so many leftovers.
Have a great Thanksgiving. - 17273
About the Author:
Klint Newton has released his 7 Part Muscle Building Guide that you can pick up, if done before Thankgiving, for free. Klint Newton is a certified expert in teaching others how to gain muscle fast. Get your copy of his 7 Part Muscle Building Guide Now.
posted by X - Men at
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