Thanksgiving is a day to savor every moment with friends, family, and food. But when you or a loved one is managing a chronic health condition like diabetes or heart disease, planning the holiday menu can cause more stress than joy.
Fortunately, with some mindful choices and a few healthy swaps, everyone at the table can enjoy a flavorful feast. Use these simple, healthy Thanksgiving recipes to create a meal everyone can enjoy.
Why Healthy Holiday Eating Matters for Seniors
Older adults often face digestive changes as they age, caused by conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, kidney disease, or heart disease. This can come with special dietary needs. Keeping a close eye on portion sizes, sugar, salt, and fat can make it easier to manage these and other chronic health problems.
At first, it may seem impossible to maintain healthy eating habits during the holidays — especially a food-centric one like Thanksgiving. But your favorite foods aren't off the table. With a few healthy swaps, you can make a tasty, traditional meal that's senior-friendly and evokes fond memories, comfort, and joy.
Lighter Takes on Classic Thanksgiving Dishes
The Thanksgiving table is often piled high with hearty potato dishes, sugary pies, and sodium-heavy casseroles. But these meals can be made just as easily with healthier ingredients that taste just as good.
Keep the Turkey (with Adjustments)
Turkey is a great choice for seniors, so there's no need to get rid of it completely. It's lean, low in fat, and high in protein, which supports muscles and immune health. For those on a low-fat or low-salt diet, try these recipe adjustments.
Seasoning Options
If sodium is a health concern, skip the salty brine and use dried, salt-free poultry seasoning or a mix of dried sage, thyme, marjoram, rosemary, ground pepper, and nutmeg for flavor. Loosen the skin all around the turkey and rub the seasoning mix directly onto the meat.
Also, instead of basting your turkey with butter or salty broth, rub olive oil over the skin before you put it into the oven.
Removing the Skin
To minimize fat in your main course, remove the skin before carving and serving the turkey. It's okay to roast the turkey with the skin on. It helps keep the meat moist while it cooks, and the fat doesn't soak into the meat.
Without the skin, a 3-ounce serving of white meat has only 2 grams of fat; the same size serving of dark meat has about 5 grams of fat.
Opt for Healthier Versions of Sides
The turkey might be the star of the show, but Thanksgiving side dishes are well-loved for a reason. Plus, classics like mashed potatoes or stuffing are soft and easy to swallow. But most side dishes are notoriously high in carbohydrates, which can wreak havoc with blood sugar and make it harder to manage diabetes. Try these recipe tweaks instead.
Mashed Potatoes
Lighten up mashed potatoes by swapping butter and cream for non-fat Greek yogurt. It replaces the saturated fat with creaminess and lots of protein.
For a lower-carbohydrate version of mashed potatoes, swap two medium parsnips or one cup of cauliflower florets for each large potato. Boil the parsnips or cauliflower with the potatoes, drain, and mash everything together.
Stuffing
Create a higher-fiber stuffing by using 100% whole-grain bread instead of white bread and adding vegetables. Sauté minced carrots, celery, onion, mushrooms, and parsnips with olive oil, then mix them into your stuffing.
You might also consider mixing in beans or nuts, which have healthy fats and are low in carbs.
Casseroles
Skip the sweet potato-marshmallow casserole and serve roasted sweet potatoes instead. Peel and cut sweet potatoes into bite-sized cubes, and toss them with olive oil.
Roast them at 400°F for about 30 minutes or until they're tender and start to turn brown in spots. Season them with garlic powder, ground pepper, a little salt, and fresh minced rosemary.
Vegetables
Add a bright pop of color to your table with a platter of roasted fall vegetables.
Use any combination of green, red, or yellow bell peppers, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, Delicata squash, carrots, parsnips, or other root vegetables, and roast them at 450°F for about 20 minutes or until they're tender.
Get Savvy with Sauces and Condiments
There are plenty of easy substitutions for sugar these days. By choosing healthy fats, you can still indulge in many of these Thanksgiving favorites.
Cranberry Sauce
Cranberries are a healthy seasonal fruit, full of vitamin C and fiber, but canned cranberry sauce usually has a lot of added sugar. Fortunately, it's easy to make homemade cranberry sauce with no added sugar:
- Combine one bag of whole, fresh cranberries, the zest and juice of one orange, ½ cup of water, and ⅓ cup of zero-calorie sweetener like monk fruit in a large saucepan.
- Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and let it simmer for about 15 minutes or until the berries pop and the sauce thickens.
Fresh cranberry relish is another tasty, low or no-added-sugar alternative to cooked cranberry sauce. It comes together in seconds by combining fresh cranberries, a whole orange, nuts, and zero-calorie sweetener in a food processor.
Gravy
If you make homemade turkey gravy, use a separator to remove the fat from the drippings. For a heart-healthy twist on homemade gravy:
- Whisk 2 teaspoons of olive oil, 2 tablespoons of water, and 3 tablespoons of cornstarch in a saucepan.
- Slowly add 3½ cups of drippings (or low-sodium turkey stock from a carton) and bring the mixture to a boil while stirring to avoid clumps.
- Simmer the gravy on low heat for about 10 minutes or until it's thick.
- Season it with ½ teaspoon of dried thyme, a pinch of ground pepper, and salt to taste.
Lighten Up Desserts
Everyone should be able to enjoy dessert at Thanksgiving in moderation. The key is to choose desserts made with less sugar and white flour. A few healthy baking substitutions can transform traditional recipes into sweet treats everyone can savor.
Apple Crisp
Traditional apple pie is high in fat from the buttery pie crust, and it often has large amounts of sugar.
Skip the pie and try a healthier apple crisp instead. It has all the apple pie flavor but with significantly less butter and sugar. It's also high in fiber from unpeeled apples, nuts, oats, and pumpkin seeds.
Pumpkin Pie
If your crowd is all about pumpkin pie, consider tweaking your favorite recipe to make mini pumpkin pies. Their small size provides built-in portion control.
Cut a sheet of pie dough into small circles and press the pieces into the wells of a greased mini muffin tin. Fill each well with the pumpkin pie filling and bake. Note that these will cook much faster than a whole pie, so check them after about 15 minutes.
Fresh Fruit
Fresh fruit is always a healthy dessert option. Serve cut-up fruit with pumpkin pie dessert hummus to dip. No one will ever guess there are chickpeas in this recipe that takes minutes to make in the food processor.
Almond butter, applesauce, maple syrup, and pumpkin pie spice mix make this dessert hummus tasty and healthy.
Smart Ingredient Substitutions for Thanksgiving Dishes
When planning your Thanksgiving menu, use these healthy ingredient substitutions to make your favorite recipes better for you.
Banish Butter
With its high saturated fat content, too much butter can raise cholesterol levels. Olive and avocado oils are heart-healthy fats that easily stand in for butter for roasting, sautéing, basting, and often for baking. Save a little bit of butter for where you'll really enjoy the taste, like on a homemade dinner roll.
Swap the Sugar
Large amounts of white or brown sugar raise blood sugar, making it harder to manage diabetes. In cakes, cookies, and quick breads, you can usually reduce the sugar by at least a third and up to a half, and they'll still turn out delicious.
Other healthy baking substitutions include honey, maple syrup, or applesauce for sweeteners. While these are still high in carbohydrates, they're sweeter than table sugar, so you can use less. For sugar-free and lower-carb baking, consider using a zero-calorie sweetener like monk fruit or stevia.
Cut Back on the Salt
Excess salt can raise blood pressure and cause swelling in older adults' legs, feet, or hands. To reduce sodium in recipes, use lots of fresh or dried herbs for flavor instead. Other salt-free flavor boosters include minced onion and garlic, lemon or orange zest, minced green chiles, and low-sodium chicken, beef, or vegetable stock.
BrightStar Care Is Your Senior Care Partner for Holidays
Thanksgiving is a time for good company, good memories, and good food. Planning delicious meals for seniors with dietary restrictions can be challenging, but with a few smart swaps and recipe adjustments, everyone at the table can enjoy holiday meals and moments that nourish the heart and soul.
The holidays are a busy time of year for everyone, but BrightStar Care® caregivers can help with the demands of planning healthy meals or managing a loved one's diet. Whether you're looking for in-home care services for your loved one or a reliable medical staffing partner for your organization, our experienced local care team members are ready to help. Find a location near you, contact us online, or call (866) 618-7827 to learn more about how BrightStar Care offers A Higher Standard®.