How to Stay Healthy This Thanksgiving

Let’s continue our discussion about consuming foods or substances (water) that will help your body. This week, we are going to talk about foods and nutrients you get from Thanksgiving. That way you can “carve out” some extra space for your favorites that are good for you, while limiting the things that you may regret the next day.

First Course: Cottage Cheese and Fruit

Leading up to the main course, we start out with one of my family’s starters, Cottage Cheese and Fruit. The ideal way for this dish to be healthy is with a medium fat percentage (2%) cottage cheese and fresh fruit. Cottage cheese is one of my personal favorites because it is very high in casein protein. Casein protein is a widely talked about form of protein derived from milk, so if you are trying to eliminate animal products you can skip to the next section. Casein protein is a long digesting or slow release protein. It forms a gel in the stomach which takes longer to digest. Who cares, right? Wrong. This has serious implications on your state of hunger. Because of the slow rate of digestion, it helps you feel full and satisfied longer. This is used by many body builders to help sustain their metabolism while sleeping without eating away at their precious gains! I personally will have it sweet with fruit in the morning or savory with my eggs at night after a hard workout session. Cottage cheese is a great food and should be utilized as part of a healthy diet for those without milk sensitivities. That being said, it has about half the lactose content compared to milk. 

Food to Avoid: Bread

Next we are going to discuss a not so good food that is part of dinner, rolls, biscuits, bread, etc. Bread in and of itself is not an evil food, but the way we process and refine it creates a very unstable food group. Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, bread was good. We used all parts of the wheat plant to produce a food high in fiber that when ingested allowed people to trek through the desert or ride elephants across ancient Europe, etc. Now however, we use refined white flour as the major source of our bread products. This has almost no fiber which means that it is very high on the glycemic index.

There are many studies (email us for a great list) that show inflammatory markers increased from eating bread, increased blood sugar levels, higher risk of cardiovascular disease, increased likelihood of cancer, lower life expectancy, and the list goes on. Furthermore, rolls and biscuits can have a carcinogen (cancer causing substance) in them that makes them “delicious,”. It’s widely perceived as butter but is actually just an oil that tastes like butter and filled with trans fats. Trans fats are known to cause cancer and increase your risk of heart disease due to their TERRIBLE omega-3 vs omega-6 ratio. Omega-6 is known to cause increased risk of heart disease, cancer, inflammation, and lots of other bad things. Butter isn’t bad, but oils like corn oil with lots of trans fats are.

Speaking of oils, I never want to discourage my patients from eating healthy vegetables, and Thanksgiving is a great time to get a ton on your plate. However, like bread and anything else, the production process matters. Go for roasted vegetables with a little olive oil, salt, pepper and other seasonings over sweetened or fried versions.

The Star of the Show: Turkey

Turkey is a great source of protein and very lean for those of you still living in the 90’s with worrying about fat content. Turkey has roughly 7 grams of fat per 100 grams of breast meat, while a Ribeye Steak has roughly 22 grams of fat per 100 grams of meat or 3x as much fat per gram compared to turkey. If you are watching your weight this can beneficial only because fat has more calories per gram than protein. Red meat isn’t bad for you, but since this is a Turkey Day discussion, we’ll demystify steak another day.

Turkey is also high in a substance known as tryptophan. This substance is a precursor or stem cell to other neurotransmitters we use on a regular basis. Most people blame turkey for the after feast nap that occurs. It is the turkey, but more specifically it is the tryptophan–> melatonin lineage. Tryptophan gets converted into serotonin which is a neurotransmitter responsible for being in a good mood and is widely used in treatment for depression. More tryptophan means more serotonin is created, happy us! From there it is a quick jump to be converted into melatonin, or the sleepy chemical. Melatonin is commonly used as part of sleep deprivation problems or insomnia. It is melatonin that is responsible for the sudden onset of napping that occurs around 4 or 5 pm on the last Thursday of November in America every year. All in all, turkey is a very brain healthy  food and should be consumed much more often than just Thanksgiving. So feel free to take some of your leftover bird and freeze it for another day!

We here at Madigan Family Health Center and all the people that help this place run want to wish you and your family a VERY HAPPY THANKSGIVING!