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The Lighter Side of Thanksgiving: to Gobble or Not to Gobble

From Thanksgiving to New Year’s most people celebrate with holiday parties. Holiday parties usually have delicious, but not-so-healthy food. The average person consumes 4,300 calories on Thanksgiving, which is about double what the average person should consume on any given day. It takes about 3,500 calories burned to lose a pound, which means that the 4,300 calories would be equivalent to about 1.3 pounds gained on that day alone!

Thanksgiving is usually an excuse to eat whatever you want (and end up feeling guilty afterwards), but it doesn’t have to be. You can switch out some of Thanksgiving’s worst offenders, dark meat turkey and apple pie, for some healthier, just as tasty options. Instead of dark meat turkey, go for white meat turkey and you’ll save yourself 50 calories. Also, if you swap apple pie for pumpkin pie, you’ll cut out a whopping 95 calories. A good rule of thumb, which should be applied to everyday eating, is that half of your plate should be always be vegetables. This rule is especially important on Thanksgiving in order to prevent you from eating too many starches such as rolls or stuffing. Another thing you can do to prevent yourself from overeating is eat a salad before your meal. It will fill you up so you won’t eat as much of the unhealthy foods. I would highly recommend a spinach, feta, and dried cranberry salad such as this one. It is healthy, delicious, easy to make, and doesn’t have many ingredients!

Wishing you a happy, healthy Thanksgiving with your family!

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