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The Healthiest

A

Annabel Cohen
Food Columnist

46 November 17 • 2016

Photos by Jerry Zolynsky

Thanksgiving
Ever

ccording to Calorie
Control Council,
the average
Thanksgiving dinner with
turkey, sides and dessert will
weigh in at about 3,000 calo-
ries. That just about makes
Thanksgiving the highest-cal-
orie holiday meal of the year.
It isn’t the turkey you have
to worry about. It’s everything
else — including gravy made
with turkey fat — that drives
up the calories and fat.
And this is with some of the
healthiest ingredients in the
world.
Let’s start with the turkey.
Although fresh, certified-
organic, pasture-fed turkeys
are infinitely healthier in
terms of quality of meat, any
turkey breast meat (with-
out any skin) you consume
contains approximately 35
calories per ounce and about
¼ gram of fat. So 4 ounces of
meat (about 2 big slices) will
set you back about 125 calo-
ries and a gram of fat. If dark
meat is your pleasure, add
another 15 calories per ounce.
So far so good.
Envision your dinner plate:
turkey (about 4 ounces), sliced
breast meat with that little
sliver of skin on top. Spoon
a bit of gravy over that. Next
to the bird, add a big spoonful of mashed potatoes with lots of butter and
more gravy. And stuffing — bread cubes, oily sauteed onions and celery.
Then sweet potatoes, perhaps with a streusel of nuts or mini marshmal-
lows and maple syrup. Green bean casserole (the kind prepared with
canned soup and fried onions on top) is crammed on there somewhere.
Corn pudding or cornbread — lots of fat and calories with each little pat
of butter (adding about 30-50 calories alone) — teeters on top. Then finish
it off with a big spoonful of cranberry sauce — basically a fruit jam with

lots of sugar, because cranber-
ries are so tart.
And, oh, that slice of pecan
pie? Five hundred-plus more
calories — as much as eating
about a whole pound of tur-
key breast meat. If you’re not
scared enough, there’s all that
pre-dinner munching and
maybe even an extra slice of
pumpkin pie … with whipped
cream.
Before you even add a glass
of wine, this plate weighs in at
3,000-4,000 calories or more,
not including seconds. The
fat content alone constitutes
nearly half the calories for the
typical Thanksgiving meal.
This year, trim the fat (liter-
ally) and still have all your
favorite holiday foods without
sacrificing. In fact, you’ll actu-
ally feel better (emotionally
and physically).
Interestingly, many of the
foods that are the core of the
holiday meal are the healthiest
foods you can eat. Of Fitness
Magazine’s “10 Healthiest
Foods on the Planet,” many
are typical holiday ingredi-
ents: spinach, sweet potatoes,
green beans, walnuts and gar-
lic. I’ve added a few more on
the list: lemon and beans. Real
Simple magazine’s list is larger
and includes foods perfect for
Thanksgiving: quinoa, almonds, extra-virgin olive oil, black beans, pump-
kin and oranges. Add some of Time magazine’s “The 50 Healthiest Foods
of All Time” — tomatoes, onions, winter squash, rolled oats, cumin and
cinnamon. A few aromatics — herbs and fresh gingerroot — add amaz-
ing flavor to your foods. All these together and you are on your way to the
Healthiest Thanksgiving Ever.
The following recipes will get you started.