The average American will consume about 2,500 calories at Thanksgiving dinner. What’s the best way to prep your body for the biggest feast of the year? Nutritionists have several tips — but, they say, don’t forget that the bottom line is to enjoy the day with family and friends.
Lace up your running shoes, hit the gym, crank up the Zumba DVD. Exercise seems to help people handle the energy from the meal, said Mark Haub, a nutrition professor at Kansas State. Most research has focused on how the body processes pre-mixed concentrations of carbs and fats, not real food, but Haub thinks the general principle would apply to turkey and mashed potatoes, too. And it can’t hurt — just don’t go sprint a 5K if you’ve never done one before, he advises.
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Don’t skimp. “Not eating for a few days would be a bad idea — you’d end up feeling worse,” said Joanne Slavin, a nutrition professor at the University of Minnesota. “Eating up to it would be better.” Competitive eaters stretch out their stomachs before an event by downing gallons of water, or eating huge amounts of watery vegetables, like entire heads of boiled cabbage.
However, nutritionists tend to frown on treating Thanksgiving as a competitive event.
“I’d want to know why they're wanting to do that,” Haub said. “I’m not sure Thanksgiving is a reason to stretch your stomach from a health outcome.”
Plan. View your calories as a budget. If you’re going to spend more at the feast, eat less upfront, Haub said — especially if you’re attending two gatherings. If you’re hosting, make sure people are aware of what’s in your recipes, so guests can avoid gluten or dairy or anything they’re sensitive to, Slavin said.
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Eat mindfully. These are current buzzwords in the nutrition realm, Haub said, and for good reason. If you approach your holiday feast as free reign, you’ll likely overgorge. Instead, “Why don’t you get a smaller plate? Have one scoop of everything.”
Sensors in the stomach remind us when we’re physically full, so be present to that reflex, experts advise. Food reaches your stomach quickly — within minutes — so for some people, having to loosen a belt may be an obvious cue. Hormones will also signal fullness — but that takes time, so slow down.
“Even when you take in a huge excess of calories, your body has such extra capacity it all gets in,” Slavin said. “If we were starving, that would be good. Digestion and absorption, even when you eat a large meal, are very efficient and complete — 95% of carbohydrate, 94% of fat, and 92% of protein is digested and absorbed. So even if you eat a huge amount of food, it will get digested and absorbed.”
Nap? The sleepiness associated with post-Thanksgiving dinner may stem from a combination of the tryptophan in turkey, and the amount of energy and insulin being processed from the meal. Your body is pretty drained after spending so much energy on digestion.
It takes two hours for the stomach to empty, so nap first and then get your body moving.
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“A friendly game of touch football will increase your metabolic rate — both while you are playing and for a time afterwards — so that will help burn some of those calories you just put down,” Slavin said.
Sign up for a Turkey Burner. Many gyms offer festive post-feast workouts the day after Thanksgiving.
“If that kind of notion gets people to be more physically active, great,” Haub said. “It’ll lead to a positive outcome.”
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Don’t stress. One feast is unlikely to have any long-term consequences, Slavin said. Many of our Thanksgiving favorites — sweet potatoes with marshmallows, green beans topped with onion rings, casseroles high in fat and sugar — are not nutritional gems, but “for one day, it’s not the time to obsess over everything,” Slavin said.
Haub agrees.
“I think it's fine to eat maybe a little more than what you probably need,” he said. “Finding a balance between enjoying the food, not stressing and not overeating is like a three-legged stool. But it's festive — it’s supposed to be joyous.”
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This article originally published at Discovery News here
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