Four Tips To Serve Nutritious Food This Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving is around the corner and all of America is gearing up to celebrate the holiday in style. Gorging on your favorite platter and other delicacies is a part of the celebration. However, it’s important to stay healthy and avoid overeating. Many fail to strike a healthy balance and that’s where the main problem lies. Several experts are delineating the risks that are attached to unrestrained eating during the holiday season.

And it might be a challenge to serve a nutritious meal that sans the taste and flavor that Thanksgiving is all about. If you want to serve nutritious food during Thanksgiving, but still keep it with the spirit of the holiday, here are a few tips that could help you!

Choose Your Mealtime And Stick To It

Normally, people have their meal during Thanksgiving at various times of the day and this goes on to have a detrimental effect on your digestive system. You could also pick up a fitness routine during the holiday season and practice it before your mealtime.

Taking a break from eating before your largest meal of the day. Also, make sure you don’t hit the bed as soon as you’re done with your dinner. Give your body some time to digest the sumptuous platter that you had. That would also help you in avoiding abdominal discomfort as well as gastric reflux. Have your Thanksgiving meal at a time that’s reasonable enough i.e. either in the afternoon or early evening. In case you would have your holiday meal in between your regular mealtimes, consider having your previous meal in the form of a snack. If you don’t want to be excessively hungry and then overeat, follow this remedy.

Include Healthy Substitutions

Adding healthy substitutions to your meal such as appetizers. You can treat yourself with cocktail shrimp and a tray of green vegetables and fresh fruits, which are low-calorie and definitely, nice protein sources.

You can also add some other healthier alternatives like baked sweet potatoes and sautéed green beans to your regular diet. The conventional gravy is considered to have high contents of fat, sodium, and calcium. To bring the calorie consumption down, you can make use of dry herbs like thyme and sage. That would increase the flavor as well. As far as ingredients in a dessert are concerned, substitutions can be brought about with baking too. Replace oil with apple sauce. Pureed beets and other dry fruits can substitute eggs and oil which will eventually make the dessert a low-calorie one.

Finish Eating The Leftovers Within Three Days

If you moderate your Thanksgiving meal, the leftovers will be there for you to enjoy. However, make it a point not to store them for a prolonged period. It’s always recommended to finish consuming the leftovers within three days from the day of preparation.

Cool the cooked food as soon as possible and don’t keep it on the counter for long, since food shouldn’t be kept exposed to room temperature for over two hours or so. There is simply no pressure of having to complete food at one go. Don’t overburden your stomach. Put the extra portion in the refrigerator and savor them during the New Year. Experts say that occasional indulgence is fine during the holiday season since people are emotionally attached to delicious platters and of course, these foods have a special place in holiday traditions.

Smart Portions

The plate method is considered to be quite effective and holidays are no exception. Half of your platter should contain non-starchy vegetables. A quarter of the rest should consist of starch, while the other quarter should have protein.

A Thanksgiving meal is occasional and you can savor a dinner roll as a side dish. Alcohol is pretty common during the holiday celebrations, but you have to make sure that you don’t gulp down much of that as you will be piling on more calories. Try not to add tonic water or soda when you prepare a cocktail. Use plain seltzer instead. Enjoying a mocktail or a non-alcoholic beverage is preferable.

The aforesaid four tips are considered to be pretty effective by the experts and these are considered to go a long way in helping you maintain good health during Thanksgiving. Additionally, they would aid in the proper functioning of the digestive system. You can abide by them and experience the results for yourself.