Dr. John Day, Cardiologist

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Top 10 Heart Healthy Thanksgiving Tips

Odds are that you will gain 1 to 2 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.  The problem is that most people never lose these 1 to 2 pounds.  Over time, 1-2 more pounds every year takes a toll on your heart.

I was no different.  Every year I started the holiday season by eating myself into a Thanksgiving food coma.  All I could do was park myself on the couch and doze off during the football games.

It all starts with Thanksgiving.  In this article, I share my top 10 heart healthy Thanksgiving tips so that you can start off your holiday season right.

Can you Exercise Off the Thanksgiving Meal?

At my wife’s gym, the Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving and the morning of Thanksgiving tend to be the busiest times of the year.

“Pedal faster if you want some pumpkin pie” or “don’t let the mashed potatoes and gravy turn into fat.”  Yells like these from her instructors motivate gym goers to work even harder.

Unfortunately, medical studies don’t support the commonly held belief that you can burn off everything you eat.  The more you exercise, the more your appetite is increased.

Top 10 Heart Healthy Thanksgiving Tips

As you can’t out train a bad diet, the goal should be healthy holiday eating.  To start you on the right path, here are my top 10 heart healthy Thanksgiving Day strategies.

1. Eliminate Thanksgiving Stress

Preparing for Thanksgiving can be stressful.  Every year you feel like you have to come up with something new.  The ultimate meal.

The real goal of Thanksgiving is to strengthen relationships.  Carefully review your Thanksgiving traditions.  If they don’t strengthen relationships then eliminate them.  Eliminating the non-essential is the key to minimizing stress.

For example, if no one wants to eat turkey then don’t cook the bird.  We learned this the hard way.  As our kids won’t eat turkey we now do a Thanksgiving stir fry instead.

If possible, see what you can prepare the day before.  If most of the work can be done the day before you can better enjoy Thanksgiving.  Definitely don’t stay up late preparing.

Trying to meet the requests of her children, my mom always made three different pies from scratch for Thanksgiving. While we all loved her pies, in retrospect it may not have been fair for us to keep her up most of the night preparing everything.

If the goal of Thanksgiving is to strengthen relationships, then make sure you get at least 7 hours of sleep. With a good night of sleep the little annoying things won’t bother you and your stress levels will be much lower.

Simplify your Thanksgiving traditions.  Focus on relationships not food.  Unnecessary stress will cause you to overeat the comfort foods.  Besides, stress only takes you down the path to dementia, heart attacks, and heart arrhythmias like atrial fibrillation or PVCs.

2. Have a Slow Thanksgiving Meal

Ever year it was the same.  My mom spent all day in the kitchen carefully preparing the Thanksgiving feast.

Then, like sprinters, the meal was devoured in minutes.  We were onto our second and third helpings before the required 20 to 30 minutes passed for our brains to get the message we were full.

Studies show that slowing down can allow us to feel full on less food.  As the first two to three bites taste the best, savor these bites.

My challenge for you this year is to slow down and see if you can make your Thanksgiving meal last one hour.  I am confident this will help you to avoid the Thanksgiving food coma.

3. Eat Heart Healthy Turkey

Turkey can be a lean protein, high in the healthy omega 3 fats, and loaded with most of the essential vitamins and minerals if done right.  It goes without saying that for a heart healthy bird you need to stay away from deep frying.  Here are my heart healthy tips when it comes to eating turkey.

1. Skip the skin.  Unless turkey skin is something you can’t live without, it is best to drop it.  Turkey skin is loaded with calories and saturated fat.  To learn more about the latest research on saturated fats and heart health, please read this article I wrote.

2. Choose white meat.  Once again, for a leaner meat stick with the white rather than the dark meat.  White meat has less saturated fat.

3. Choose organic pasture raised birds.  If you can afford it, an organic turkey can minimize the risk of contaminated feed, hormones, and antibiotics.  Pasture raised birds can enhance the nutritional profile with more heart healthy omega 3 fats.

4. Make Vegetables the Star of the Show

After turkey, the next critical step is to make vegetables the star of your Thanksgiving meal.  A heaping green salad and several other vegetable options are a must for a heart healthy Thanksgiving.

Countless studies have shown that vegetables prevent and reverse heart disease.  For some great salad and salad dressing options, please take a look at what we eat in our home.

Unless vegetables are ruined by sugar, excessive oils, or sauces, the caloric content is next to nothing.  For example, a heaping salad, minus the dressing and toppings, has less than 50 calories.  Better yet is that vegetables can be very filling from all of the fiber.

Make it a goal for your Thanksgiving meal to be at least 50% vegetables.  This simple act can help to prevent the Thanksgiving food coma.

If you have been invited to Thanksgiving dinner, volunteer to bring the salad or vegetables.  This way you will be sure to have healthy options.

5. Opt for Heart Healthy Mashed Potatoes and Gravy

Mashed potatoes and gravy may be the worst part of the meal for your heart.  Mashed potatoes are converted to sugar by your body faster than a Snicker’s bar.  Gravy could cause your coronary arteries to clog up.  Here are some simple tips for guilt free indulgence.

The first is to add pureed cauliflower to your mashed potatoes.  Your guests will never know you just slashed their sugar high while raising the nutritional profile of mashed potatoes.

Next is to use heart protective extra virgin olive oil, instead of butter, in your mashed potatoes. If your family likes sweet potatoes, consider mashed or a baked sweet potato.  Sweet potatoes are very nutritious and are packed with fiber, vitamins, and minerals.

When it comes to making gravy heart healthy, it is a bit trickier but still can be done.  Instead of a white flour or cornstarch thickener, try whole wheat, oat, or spelt flour as the thickener.  Rather than milk or cream in the gravy, substitute part with pureed cauliflower.  Lastly, try adding part vegetable stock, instead of the turkey fat drippings, with extra herbs and spices for flavor.

6. Make Heart Healthy Pumpkin Pie

A great trick that few will notice is to slightly alter your pumpkin pie filling recipe.  Instead of the cream or evaporated milk, try substituting at least half with almond milk.  Almonds lower your cholesterol and are one of the best foods to prevent heart problems.

The second healthy substitution is to use half the sugar and double the cinnamon.   Cinnamon prevents weight gain and blood sugar spikes.

For the pie crust, stick with whole grain options.  If you make your own crust, substitute almond flour for at least one third of the flour.

7. Enjoy Heart Healthy Stuffing

Stuffing is a must for Thanksgiving feasts.  Don’t even think of adding turkey fat drippings, bacon, or sausage to your stuffing.  Rather, here are some heart healthy ways to making this a nutritional powerhouse without sacrificing any taste.

1. Double the vegetables.  Whatever vegetables your stuffing recipe calls for, double them.  Consider new vegetables like kale or butternut squash.

2. Reconsider bread crumbs and croutons.  If you like the bread then whole grain options are best.  Rather than sticking with the bread, you could consider quinoa or brown rice in your stuffing.

3. Go nuts.  Nuts are heart healthy and add a nice mouth feel.  Your family will love the taste of walnuts, pecans, pine nuts, or almond bits in your stuffing.

4. Add fruit.  To sweeten your stuffing, consider adding small pieces of apple, cranberries, or Craisins.

8. Serve Heart Healthy Bread and Rolls

Bread and rolls are a staple at Thanksgiving.  While 99% of breads and rolls are converted to sugar by the body faster than a Snicker’s bar, it doesn’t have to be this way.

Fresh hot bread and rolls taste so good that people will never notice that you used whole grains rather than refined white flour.  We love almond and garbanzo bean flour in our bread.  Here is Jane’s bread recipe that we use in our home.

9. Go For Heart Healthy Drinks

Alcohol is high in calories and may cause overeating.  To increase your chances of eating healthy this year, try replacing the alcohol with a heart healthy drink.

Some great options include adding fresh squeezed lemon or lime juice and stevia to carbonated water.  Lemons and limes are extremely low in calories and lower the glycemic response of your meal.  This helps to prevent overeating and diabetes.

10. Take a Walk After Thanksgiving Dinner

The Chinese have a famous saying, “take 100 steps after dinner and live to 99.”  While 100 steps is probably not enough after a Thanksgiving meal, there is still wisdom in this Chinese saying.

Indeed, studies show that taking a walk after a big meal can help to prevent weight gain.  To learn more about the science of taking a walk after a big meal, please read blog #28 that I wrote on the subject.

My challenge to you is to invite your Thanksgiving guests to join you on a walk after your meal.  My experience is that at least one person will join you and this walk may be the most enjoyable part of your day.

Final Thoughts

Thanksgiving should be about relationships not food.  If certain foods strengthen relationships, then include them.  If not, eliminate.

Perhaps this is why our Thanksgiving traditions have changed over the years.  Our kids look forward to skiing together as a family more than anything else.  As such, we spend part of Thanksgiving on the slopes near our home.

After returning home from skiing, we all chip in and prepare a simple family Thanksgiving meal.  Rather than slip into a Thanksgiving food coma, we remain energetic.  The focus of our meal is for each person to share what they are grateful for.

How do you celebrate Thanksgiving?  What have you found that minimizes the stress and overeating?