Ask the Expert: How to plan for a fulfilling and healthy Thanksgiving dinner

Welcome to Ask the Expert North Texas, here on News Radio 1080KRLD. I'm David Rankin. And I'm Kristin Diaz. You know, this could be maybe your tradition, or maybe you just got picked the short straw. But regardless, if you are hosting this year's Thanksgiving, you might be spinning your wheels a bit on how to accommodate everyone's dietary needs or restrictions. On today's Ask the Expert, we turn to Meredith Zurner, a dietitian with Cooper's Clinic in Dallas.

Meredith, how do we accommodate a table full of people without sacrificing a delicious meal? So maybe a three-step process. Step number one, don't panic. Don't panic. Step number two is going to be communicate because we really do need to know what the specific dietary needs are and are these allergies or are these preferences, right?

And then number three would be like Google. We're going for the Google recipe search for how to do your green bean casserole without the almonds or how to do the stuffing without utilizing, say, a broth or something that might be offensive to the vegetarian, right?

The other part of this is, this seems to be really recent. Because in years gone by, people really didn't need to worry about it. They just concentrated on making the dinner. If someone didn't like something, they just didn't have something. Why the change? Well, and I don't know if it's just this idea of needing to be the hostess with the mostest and to make people feel special and

and really try to respect their needs. But in my house, it was kind of like, what's for dinner was what's for dinner? And you either enjoyed it or you passed. Thank you, but no, thank you politely. And I think there's sort of a happy medium when you're trying to do well by your in-laws or you really wanting this to be a festive occasion. But I really don't know that people need to be cooking five separate meals.

Yeah, and you made a good point. Sometimes they're just preferences, but other times it can be like life or death. Yeah, if it's a nut allergy, certainly those with celiac disease can't do any kind of gluten. And so I do actually like to label some of what I'm making. If I've got folks that aren't family coming through, I'll put a little label and like, hey,

These are these delicious chocolate brownies with nuts, like really clear and obvious. And I have a guest coming over who is dairy free and gluten free and I'm making a concerted effort to have one.

of the four pies be a gluten-free sort of a berry pie as an alternative offering. At some point, there's a lot of people that are on different diet plans. At some point, do you just have to give yourself some grace during this time of year that you're not going to pile on 15 pounds between noun Thanksgiving?

Yeah, I'm actually always encouraged with the statistics in a way where we see that the weight gain through the holiday timeframe is really more like one to three pounds. Now, again, the challenge is we don't lose those three and we just keep accumulating them. So I think the strategy is to be mindful of enjoy the day, you know, give some thought to maybe having a salad alongside the turkey and the dressing and the gravy and the biscuits.

But you know, pick up your normal healthy behaviors the day after like get the family walk in and just so it doesn't extend into weeks of indulgent eating.

Absolutely. You know, being active is definitely a huge missing link, I think, but it goes hand in hand with wanting to have that balance, as you mentioned. You know, for a lot of people also, this might be their first time eating a Thanksgiving dinner while they're on semi-glutide.

I've started to see a lot of businesses now kind of cater their menus to people who are on those types of diets. What does that mean for people who are not on it? Can you explain it? Well, if folks are utilizing like a semagluetide or a terzepide, some of the GLP1 agonist medications that are helping with blood sugar, but also appetite and weight loss, they're not going to be exceptionally hungry.

We need to prioritize protein. And so the good news is that the Thanksgiving meal, whether you're serving the turkey or the pheasant, does anybody serve pheasant anymore? The ham, like you're going to have a wonderful protein offering for them. And the next priority would be fiber. And so whether that is green beans or a side salad, if you're trying to navigate a big Thanksgiving meal, those are the things that those folks are gonna need to prioritize.

One other thing that tends to add to weight gain, especially after Thanksgiving is the post meal grazing that we all tend to do. The post meal grazing could be an opportunity to recruit family members to say, here we go. We're going to zip lock up. We're going to Tupperware up several of these delicious items for you to take home. It's going to be out of sight, out of mind. So as soon as you can get them kind of packed up off the counter and into the fridge and out of line of sight,

You have a much better shot of knot grazing. Lastly, how long is too long on grazing on those leftovers?

So, so many of these foods can stay well and safe in your refrigerator for several days after. Kind of depends on what the food is. But, you know, after three to four days, most of that really needs to go. Meredith, was there anything else you'd like our listeners to know about Thanksgiving this year? Well, I'm already looking forward to the next holiday. So, you know, enjoy this one. Slow down and savor this one.

because the next one is coming hot on its heels. You got it. Meredith Zurner, our A dietitian with the Cooper's Clinic here in Dallas. We appreciate the time.