Watching your carbs? Fat? Calories? Here's a Thanksgiving Dieters Guide
10:47 PM CST on Monday, November 22, 2004
By MICHELE CHAN SANTOS / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
Valerie Norniella said she's worked too hard to lose her weight to gain any of it back over the holidays.
Ms. Norniella, 45, is a Weight Watchers member in Plano who has lost more than 48 pounds during the last two years, through controlling her portions, eating healthier and exercising.
This is the first Thanksgiving that Ms. Norniella will face since reaching her weight-loss goal.
The stay-at-home mother of twin 16-year-old boys and a 5-year-old girl has a plan for the holiday: Have company over, but offer plenty of vegetable dishes, including baked yams and a lighter green bean casserole. Enjoy the company more than the food.
"I used to write off the whole week," Ms. Norniella said of previous Thanksgivings, "and then the whole month. This time, I'm going to be thankful for what I don't put in my mouth."
To help get you through the annual nutritional minefield, we're offering a Dieter's Guide to Thanksgiving, with calorie info and suggestions for celebrating but also staying on program. Happy holidays!
Michele Chan Santos is an Austin freelance writer. E-mail her at
[email protected].
The Big Splurge
Your grandma's been cooking for days, and you wore your loosest clothes in preparation for her candied sweet potato casserole and mouth-watering pumpkin pie. "It's just one meal," you think. "It couldn't throw my weight-loss plans off too much."
Well, think again.
Lona Sandon, an assistant professor of clinical nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, and the spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, spoke with us about overindulging on Turkey Day.
Question: How much damage can you do with one big splurge on Thanksgiving Day?
Answer: You could do a lot of damage. I calculated a typical meal of turkey breast with no skin, one half-cup scoop of green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy and stuffing, cranberry walnut relish and a slice of pumpkin pie, comes to 1,500 calories with about 50 grams of fat. That's a very conservative calculation, and doesn't include a second helping. So if you switch mashed potatoes for sweet potato casserole and pumpkin pie for pecan pie, you have about 1,800 calories and almost 70 grams of fat.
Question: So for a dieter trying to lose weight gradually, how bad is it?
Answer: Say you are trying to lose a half a pound a week. You cut out 250 calories a day. If you suddenly eat 2,000 calories in one meal, you have just undone all those savings for the last week.
Question: Could you make it up with exercise?
Answer: You would have to work out a lot more the week before and the week after. A woman of average height and weight, 5 feet 5 inches and 130 pounds, would need to walk briskly, at 4 miles per hour, for almost nine hours to burn off 2,000 calories.
Question: What holiday foods can you eat a lot of and still be healthy?
Answer: Before you dig in, start with a big green salad with lots of fresh vegetables and a light dressing. Have a second serving of the salad! Go for the turkey breast without the skin. Eat mashed potatoes but avoid the gravy. If you do sweet potatoes, instead of the casserole, just do a baked sweet potato with a touch of cinnamon and a pat of butter. Cranberry sauce can be very high in calories. Use it as a topping. If you put a tablespoon of cranberry relish and mix it in your mashed potatoes, it's really quite good.
Question: What are some ways to make customary dishes healthier that won't upset traditionalists?
Answer: There are sneaky things you can do. Make the gravy from turkey drippings, but pour it into a bowl and then refrigerate it. The fat will separate out. Remove the fat from the top and use the broth to make the gravy. Do a lighter pie. A fruit pie would be lighter than pecan pie. Leave off the whipped cream. Or do a pumpkin mousse instead of a pumpkin pie. The crust is where a lot of the fat is.
Question: What about the nuts and cheeses that are frequently set out as appetizers? What about wine and beer?
Answer: I would say skip it. There is enough food on the table; do you really need appetizers? And one glass of wine or beer is 150 calories. That adds up if you have two or three with your meal.
Question: What about the day after?
Answer: Be careful of leftovers. Send them home with your relatives or guests so you are not tempted to nibble.
DIETER'S GUIDE TO THANKSGIVING
Are you on the Atkins diet? Doing Weight Watchers? Trying a whole-grains, lots-of-veggies approach? We talked with several weight loss experts for their Thanksgiving suggestions.
ATKINS
Expert: Christine Senft, the executive editor of Atkins Health and Medical Information Services in New York
What would be an Atkins-friendly Thanksgiving dinner? Deviled eggs or plates of cheese, nuts and olives, as appetizers. Turkey or ham. (Or turkey AND ham.) Creamed spinach made with fresh spinach, heavy cream, salt, butter and a little nutmeg. Butternut squash soup. Stuffing made with low-carb bread. Pumpkin cheesecake made with Splenda. Berries with whipped cream. If you are in the later phases of Atkins, baked sweet potatoes. What you definitely can't have off the traditional menu: stuffing made with regular bread, candied sweet potato casserole, pecan pie made with regular corn syrup.
Other Atkins-friendly holiday treats: Low-carb biscotti or spiced nuts; recipes at
www.atkins.com
What about alcohol? After the induction phase, you can have alcohol in moderation; one or two drinks with the meal are fine.
And remember: "You can enjoy the holidays for what they are," Ms. Senft said. "You can really live your life. Enjoy turkey. Ham. Rack of lamb. That's all perfectly OK on Atkins."
WEIGHT WATCHERS
Experts: Bernice Matthias, a Weight Watchers leader in McKinney who lost 140 pounds and has kept them off for 16 years; Lori Goodman, a Weight Watchers leader in North Dallas who lost 25 pounds and has kept them off for eight years
What you can do to make traditional dishes lower in calories and fat: Mix fat-free chicken broth with mashed potatoes instead of butter. This adds lots of moisture and flavoring, and no one will be able to tell. Use low-fat cream of mushroom soup in the green bean casserole and reduce the amount of fried onions. Use milk instead of heavy cream. Use fat-free cream cheese in cheesecake. Use three tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa instead of one ounce of baking chocolate.
How to survive holiday buffets: Peruse the buffet – "snoop before you scoop" – and don't be the first one in line. Make a decision about what you will have. Serve yourself fruits and vegetables before anything else.
And remember: "If you will leave the table sad and depressed about not having the pumpkin pie, have the pumpkin pie," Ms. Matthias said. "But decide how much you will have." Said Ms. Goodman, "Try saying, 'Nothing tastes as good as thin feels.' That helps me through the holidays."
"WHOLE FOODS" LOW-CARB
Expert: Katherine Chauncey, associate professor and nutritionist, Texas Tech School of Medicine in Lubbock, and author of Low Carb Dieting for Dummies
The basics of her diet, which is described in her book: "My philosophy is that any low-carb diet that restricts fruits and vegetables is not healthy. With the whole foods diet, we get back to nature, keep the processed starchy stuff to a minimum. I really don't talk about calories."
Ms. Chauncey's Thanksgiving tips: Offer a vegetable dish that's not a layered casserole. Use sugar-free Jell-O for fruit salad. Cut up some fresh fruit. Offer shrimp cocktail; it's low in calories but very tasty. Marinated mushrooms are good. So is spaghetti squash. Cook it and serve with a little Parmesan cheese.
When you are serving yourself: Mentally divide your plate into quarters. Three of the quarters should be lean protein sources, salad or vegetables. For the fourth quarter, you can have starchy food or a little rich dessert. And remember: "Be more conscious of how foods make you feel," Ms. Chauncey said. "And be more mindful of what you choose to eat. We live in a food-laden society. Just because there is food doesn't mean you have to eat it."
We gather together to ask for less dressing
