Last year Americans consumed around 736 million pounds of turkey on Thanksgiving[i], which was likely served with several favorite holiday side dishes and courses. This belt busting MEAL can have up to 3,450 calories, which is astounding when you consider that the average amount of calories consumed PER DAY for males is 2,475 and for females is 1,833[ii].

Though your traditions and recipes may make some of your Thanksgiving foods non-negotiable—such as a family recipe for gravy, or maybe this year it is your turn to get one of the savory dark meat legs— perhaps you just didn’t realize how many calories are in some foods, or you never thought to consider other options. You never know, you just might end up loving sweet potato pie, but never considered having anything else but pumpkin pie.

Below is a table with the most popular Thanksgiving Day foods and some healthy options for you to consider. Who knows, maybe this year will be the beginning of some new Thanksgiving dinner traditions that have you feeling energized and invigorated instead of sleepy and uncomfortable.

Food	Portion Size	Calories	Healthy Option (same portion size)	Healthy Option CALORIES	Healthy Option Calorie Difference
Turkey, dark meat w/skin	4 oz.	249	Turkey, light meat no skin	189	60
Mashed Potatoes w/ sour cream and butter	1 cup	313	Mashed Potatoes w/ milk and butter	212	101
Stuffing (Bread)	1 cup	404	Stuffing (Cornbread)	358	46
Gravy, made w/meat drippings	1 cup	271	Gravy, made w/out fat	71	200
Green Bean Casserole	1 cup	276	Cooked green beans	44	232
Bread Rolls (white)	Medium size (about 2.5” across)	147	Bread Rolls (100% whole wheat)	96	51
Cranberry Sauce	1 cup	418	Fresh Cranberries	51	367
Candied Yams	1 cup	293	Baked Yams	165	128
Apple Pie	1/8 of 9” pie	356	Sweet Potato Pie	265	91
Pumpkin Pie	1/8 of 9” pie	374	Sweet Potato Pie	265	109
Pecan Pie	1/8 of 9” pie	464	Pumpkin pie	374	90
Soda, cola	12 oz.	136	Diet Soda, cola or Water	0	136
Beer	12 oz.	155	Skip it	0	155
Wine	5 oz.	125	Again, skipping the alcohol is the healthiest option	0	125
Squash w/butter and brown Sugar	1 cup	154	Squash w/salt and sugar, no butter	121	33

[iii]

If none of these options work for you, you could just make sure to keep your portions reasonable, but keep in mind that you are having more courses during this particular meal than you may be used to.

Some of you may have noticed that today’s article was not our normal Monday post of REAL STORIES, and was instead a TOP TIP. We wanted to make sure you had this information before the holiday since TOP TIPS posts every Thursday. So look for another great TOP TIP on Thanksgiving day, and REAL STORIES about real people accomplishing their health and fitness goals will resume on its regularly scheduled day again next Monday.

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HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

[i] Information was obtained from http://www.eatturkey.com/consumer/history/history.html

[ii] Information was obtained from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhanes/databriefs/calories.pdf

[iii] Information for this table was obtained from https://www.supertracker.usda.gov/foodapedia.aspx