HEALTH

Eat turkey, not ham

White meat turkey is naturally really lean, making it an excellent main dish for any holiday. While ham is certainly super-tasty (especially the honey-baked kind—yum!), it’s also on the fatty side. If you’re craving it, go ahead and have a small slice, but don’t go hog wild.

Eat homemade cranberry sauce, not the canned kind

Cranberry sauce that you buy is loaded with sugar. While it’s fine in small quantities, we’d rather get our sweetness in with Grandma’s pie. Just ‘cause you’re tossing the can, though, doesn’t mean ya can’t spoon up some sauce—just make it yourself! Try our healthy recipe, which replaces traditional cane sugar with healthier honey and orange juice.

Eat roasted winter veggies, not green bean casserole

Green bean casserole is a GL staffer Turkey Day favorite. But even its cheerleaders can’t hide the high sodium and fat content in the mushroom soup. Either substitute low sodium and/or fat free mushroom soup for one you might ordinarily use, or toss a tray of winter veggies (think: carrots, parsnips, squash, potatoes) cut into similarly sized pieces into the oven at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. Drizzle ‘em with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper before hand and you’re set!

Eat mashed potatoes, not candied yams

There’s something about the ooey-gooey goodness of marshmallows on top of brown sugar-baked sweet potatoes, but all that deliciousness has a price. A better starch option would be a baked sweet potato with a tab of butter and a sprinkling of brown sugar and cinnamon, or white potatoes mashed with low-fat milk and a smidge of butter.

Eat pumpkin pie, not pecan pie

Put these two classic desserts head to head, and we’re not sure we could choose! But if you take a peek at the nutritional ingredients, pumpkin kicks the pecan’s booty. Sure, pie is still pie, but at least with pumpkin, ya get tons of nutrients and antioxidants.

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by Brittany Taylor | 2/1/2016