Healing Holiday Foods: Level Up Your Thanksgiving Day Meal Plan
Food is central to so many celebrations. Eliminating inflammatory foods from the diet is central to healing the gut, and healing the gut is healing the Grand Central Station of our body. Being unable to participate fully in a celebration because of following a therapeutic dietary guideline can result in people feeling isolated and lonely.
The holiday season poses unique challenges to maintaining a therapeutic diet. I generally discourage women from starting food eliminations in November and December. Feeling isolated and lonely, particularly through the holidays, can absolutely outweigh any potential gain from avoiding inflammatory foods.
Nonetheless, typically there’s a group of women who feel like it’s worth their while to not wait to start to heal their gut, holidays or not. There IS a way to eat well and avoid inflammatory foods during the holiday season. Here are 5 tips to keep in mind as you plan your menu:
1. Serve vegetables and dip as an appetizer. Eating vegetables is to everyone's advantage as they are high in fiber, rich in phytonutrients, low in calories, and satisfy the desire for crunch!!!
2. Eat Turkey! High in protein, low in fat, rich in tryptophan (the precursor to serotonin, the anti-depressant neurotransmitter), turkey is all good so no need to be concerned about this main course.
3. Fill the table with brassicas. Brassicas are a group of vegetables that belong to the mustard family. Brassicas include cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, broccoli, collards, rutabaga, mustard, kale, and turnip to name a few. It’s the brassica time of year, so indulge! They’re really good for supporting hormone toxification, resulting in better hormone balance, too!
4. Minimize the carbs. In my family, we refer to the carbs - the potatoes and stuffing - as the ‘beige food group.’ Skip them entirely or have just a taste. Better choices would be sweet potatoes or winter squash. The color alone of those foods indicates they have good nutrients to offer! Sweet potatoes are a great source of fiber, vitamins, and minerals. The orange and purple sweet potatoes are also rich in beta carotene which is a potent antioxidant.
5. Dessert, oh, dessert... Let seasonal fruit like apples, pears, and cranberries, or seasonal vegetables, like pumpkin, be the stars. Try a baked apple with coconut creme, a fall fruit gluten-free crisp (a crisp will be lower in carbohydrates than pie), or a pumpkin trifle with coconut whipped cream for dessert. These desserts are easy to make both gluten- and dairy-free. Sub in maple syrup for white sugar as a sweetener. Maple syrup is rich in prebiotics which is good for our gut!
Thanksgiving occurs at the end of the harvest season. There is an abundance of beautiful food to eat for Thanksgiving that tastes delicious and is good for us, too. Focus on the bounty of the harvest. Consider a 15-minute walk after eating, as well. Not only is it good to indulge in some fresh air, but exercising (gently) after a big meal helps stabilize our glucose and insulin levels.
Share your favorite healthful Thanksgiving recipe in the comments below!