Ever wonder how many calories are consumed in the traditional Thanksgiving dinner? Well - making allowances for food choices and preferences - more than 2000 is average for Americans. Yes, that's in one meal - not the whole day! And that's with good old "healthy" turkey as the centerpiece of the meal.
Click here to find out how far you'd have to walk to burn off the calories in your Thanksgiving meal - I did and found out my meal of choice weighed in at 2130 calories: requiring about 20 miles of walking to burn it all off! As you can imagine, I am not likely to do that after cooking, and consuming the feast.
Remembering that 2000 calories is the daily recommendation for young healthy weight adults (and 1600-1800 is the recommendation if you are older, a middle aged woman or overweight), the trick is to figure out how to enjoy the flavors and goodies that we love during the holidays without taking in twice the calories, fat, and sugar that we want to.
Simple swaps and changes to lighten up the turkey dinner include:
- Choose white meat instead of dark and save almost 200 calories.
- Make stuffing with whole wheat bread and olive oil instead of butter.
- use fat-free mushroom soup to make your green bean casserole and sauteed onions instead of the canned fried ones.
- Make gravy with canned fat-free broth instead of the drippings from the bird.
- If you are having bread stuffing, skip the dinner rolls.
- For dessert, have a slice of pumpkin pie instead of pecan pie and save 140 calories.
- Watch portion sizes! Having a small serving of your very favorite dishes instead of heaping your plate with everything offered will leave you feeling unstuffed, but satisfied at the end of the meal.
MSNBC has even more ideas in this video http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/21870864/ns/today-today_holiday_guide
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