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You eat a healthy diet, you exercise and you don't smoke - so how bad can pigging out once a year at Thanksgiving really be?
It is much worse than you think. Studies have shown that a single meal loaded with fat can harden your arteries by 25 percent. Hardening of the arteries is the underlying cause of high blood pressure and can ultimately lead to a heart attack.
Cut the fat
Two steps can be taken to counter the fat attack:
- Cut the fat.
- Walk it off.
The turkey is usually not the worst offender at the Thanksgiving table, especially if you don't eat the skin. Most of the fat is found in the gravy, the buttery mashed potatoes, the stuffing and the desserts. You can take simple and tasty steps to trim the fat without throwing away taste.
Skim the fat off the meat drippings before you use them to make gravy. Cook the stuffing separately, not inside the bird. This has two benefits: the stuffing does not absorb all the fat from the bird and the inside of the bird gets cooked more thoroughly, killing any salmonella that may be present. Mashed potatoes are also flavorful when prepared with chicken broth or fat-free sour cream instead of butter.
Most of the fat in pies is found in the crust. Make single-crusted pies and roll the crust a little thinner if you use a store-bought crust. Fruit pies are lower in fat than a pecan pie. The fat in pecans is the highly unsaturated "good fat," so you can get away with eating a slice.
Walk it off
Several studies have shown the benefits of moderate exercise after a fatty meal. Hardening of the arteries reaches a peak four hours after a high-fat meal. A 45-minute walk two hours after a high-fat meal - or three 10-minute walks over a three-hour period - helps prevent the fat from affecting your arteries. After exercise, your arteries are even healthier than before the high-fat meal!
So, enjoy your meal, but prepare it with less fat and walk it off afterwards. Your arteries will thank you.
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External Sources
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Paul J. Nestel, Hideki Shige, Sylvia Pomeroy, Marja Cehun and Jaye Chin-Dustiny. Post-prandial remnant lipids impair arterial compliance. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 2001; 37:1929-1935.
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Jaume Padilla, Ryan A. Harris, Alyce D. Fly, Lawrence P. Rink and Janet P Wallace. The effect of acute exercise on endothelial function following a high-fat meal. European Journal of Applied Physiology. 2006; 98:256-262.
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This article was reviewed and updated June 2007.
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