The Turkey
The leanest poultry is white meat from the breast with no skin As for the portion, it should be the size of your palm, or slightly bigger than a deck of cards. This serving size of dark meat is 286 calories versus white meat at 124 calories.
And if you cannot do without the dark meat you can still reduce the calories by removing the skin, reducing your turkey potion by an extra 35 additional calories and three grams of fat. Also, if you choose a low-fat cooking method, such as grilling, broiling, roasting, sautéing and baking, that allows for even more fat to drip away.
The Gravy
We all love the gravy so don’t leave this out. Have one to two tablespoons of gravy this is OK at only 6-18 calories. Be sure to use an actual tablespoon instead of using the spout of the gravy boat because you’ll use less.
It is very easy to load up on the calorie, we usually don’t realize how quickly calories can add up when we pile it on, and start pouring gravy all over our plate. Gravy is mostly composed of fat and salt so we should use it in very small amounts.
However, if you absolutely need more then two tablespoons and can’t go without, then when preparing the gravy, reduce the amount of fat by refrigerating the turkey drippings and skimming off the hardened fat.
The Stuffing
This is a favorite for most of us so definitely don’t go without, there are ways you can reduce the calories while making it healthy. The trick is to go the homemade route, instead of white bread use whole wheat, or high fiber grains like wild rice and cook outside the bird where it won’t absorb fat-laden drippings. And make sure that the ingredient label on the whole wheat bread reads whole wheat or whole gain not enriched wheat. Enriched wheat is really white bread. Also, instead of butter use some olive oil and chicken broth. This will save you up to 400 calories.
The Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes are very healthy, and most of us love the traditional sweet potatoes & marshmallows recipe. Sweet potatoes are packed with Vitamin C and A, and fiber, so this is a great vegetable to include in your daily meals. And the marshmallows really don’t add that much more calories so don’t do without. But if you want to reduce some more calories you can scrape off the marshmallows this Thanksgiving, you will eliminate three grams of sugar and 30 more calories. Instead, you can add cinnamon sticks, and nutmeg, which are plentiful in antioxidants and delicious flavor.
It is better to skip the regular mashed potatoes and enjoy the sweet potatoes because of the cream and butter mashed potatoes have in it. You can mash sweet potatoes without worrying about adding the cream or butter because of its natural texture and sweetness sweet potatoes have.
Click Here for some more Thanksgiving Day tips to reduce calories.
Have a happy and healthy Thanksgiving day. And if you have some tips and tricks on reducing calories, please share them, it is all about giving back and helping others cut calories and lose weight.
Let us know what you think of the above tips it helps eveyone?
