Q: As someone living with coronary artery disease, I’m very
conscientious about my heart health. I watch my diet, exercise
regularly and take a statin. But, I’m also really looking forward
to the upcoming Thanksgiving meal. Is there any way to slice it so
the meal is a healthy
– and not a guilty – pleasure?
Q: As someone living with coronary artery disease, I’m very conscientious about my heart health. I watch my diet, exercise regularly and take a statin. But, I’m also really looking forward to the upcoming Thanksgiving meal. Is there any way to slice it so the meal is a healthy – and not a guilty – pleasure?
A: With Thanksgiving just around the corner, it’s a good time to pay homage to the bird that Benjamin Franklin championed as our national mascot. Franklin and other turkey aficionados thought of the large bird as wild and courageous. We’ll add another excellent quality – turkey meat is easy on the heart. Come to think of it, so are other mainstays of traditional Thanksgiving feasts.
If you are looking for a lean cut of meat, turkey is hard to beat. A 3-ounce serving of skinless white meat contains 25 grams of protein, barely 3 grams of fat, and less than 1 gram of saturated fat. A 3-ounce serving of prime rib has almost the same amount of protein but a lot more fat – 13 grams of total fat and more than 5 grams of saturated fat, or 25 percent of the recommended daily amount. (See accompanying sidebar.) Turkey has fewer calories, too.
Dark meat has more saturated fat than white meat, and eating the skin adds a hefty wallop of these bad fats.
Turkey is also a good source of arginine. Arginine is the raw material for making nitric oxide, a substance that relaxes and opens arteries. Whether foods rich in arginine help keep arteries open is an issue that has prompted both research and debate.
We tend to think of Thanksgiving dinner with a guilty smile. Yet several traditional foods are essentially healthy:
• Cranberries
The fruit that provides the base of this traditional side dish deserves to move from holidays to every day. Cranberries are packed with dozens of different antioxidants – chemicals that prevent injury to cells that can increase the risk of cancer and heart disease. Among fruits and vegetables, the cranberry is near the top of the list for being rich in antioxidants (along with its cousin, the blueberry, as well as blackberries, artichokes, beans and prunes). The natural mix of antioxidants found in cranberries and other foods is what matters, not the high doses of single antioxidants found in pills. If you make your own cranberry sauce from whole berries, you’ll get a tastier and less sugary sauce than you’ll get out of a can. The sugar added to canned cranberries is the main concern with this otherwise healthy Thanksgiving dinner food.
• Sweet potatoes
These un-potatoes – they’re related to the morning glory, not the white potato – are an excellent source of vitamin A, beta carotene, vitamin C, potassium and fiber. And if you don’t add too much brown sugar, butter and marshmallows to them, they are heart-healthy food.
• Pumpkin
Before this orange squash is made into pie, it’s just plain good for you. Pumpkin is low in fat, low in calories and loaded with potassium, vitamin A, beta carotene and vitamin C. Of course, pumpkin pie has a good deal of fat and sugar. Depending on how you make it, a slice can have 200-450 calories, and 8 to 20 grams of fat.
• Pecans
Most nuts are great sources of heart-healthy fats. Pecans are no exception. Twenty pecan halves contain about 20 grams of unsaturated fat. Studies from around the globe show that people who routinely eat nuts are less likely to die of heart disease than those who don’t. Just as with pumpkin pie, of course, pecans in pie are accompanied by a fair amount of unhealthy fats and relatively high calories.
In other words, how healthy or unhealthy Thanksgiving dinner is depends a lot on how you prepare the food. You can have a traditional dinner that is pretty heart healthy. Many typical Thanksgiving foods are healthy on their own, without the added cream, eggs, butter and sugar. Look for alternative recipes for healthier stuffing, vegetables and desserts. You can also start your own traditions. After all, today’s Thanksgiving dinner bears little resemblance to the original feast.
One final tip: Don’t get carried away focusing on fat. Calories count just as much as fat. Controlling your portions so you don’t end the meal feeling as stuffed as your Thanksgiving turkey will go a long way toward protecting your heart and your waistline.
– By The Faculty of Harvard Medical School
E-mail questions to the Harvard Medical School Adviser at www.health.harvard.edu/adviser. Unfortunately, personal responses are not possible.
