How To Plan a Healthy Low Sugar + Sugar Free Thanksgiving
#SugarBalancedLiving
Whether you’re simply cutting the amount of sugar you eat or recovering from sugar addiction, holiday meals can be tricky to navigate at best, but Thanksgiving is particularly hard as it’s so centered around food. Here are my top tips for planning and celebrating a low sugar or sugar free Thanksgiving celebration that is both easy, and delicious!
Thanksgiving is almost here – which means it time for us to start making plans for all that thanksgiving food you’ll be serving.
During most of the Thanksgiving celebrations we host, we serve foods filled with highly processed ingredients, chemical additives, added sugar and refined carbs (like white breads and chips) that can wreak havoc on your body, affecting everything from our important immunity to the digestive system.
We can’t let Thanksgiving wreck our health goals and priority!
However, Thanksgiving hosting can be very stressful at the best of times, let alone when you have to think about how to make something healthier. If you’re the one in charge of decorating and cooking, thanksgiving stress can be taken to a whole other level if you’re trying to eat healthily and eat less sugar or no sugar at all.
Whether you’re simply cutting the amount of sugar you eat or recovering from sugar addiction, holiday meals can be tricky to navigate at best, but Thanksgiving is particularly hard as it’s so centered around food.
We can’t go eating binging on cheesecake, marshmallow mashed sweet potatoes, glazed turkey, cranberry sauce and pies on a reduced sugar clean eating non-diet-diet lifestyle, let alone on a keto, paleo, diabetes-friendly, sugar-free diet, or if you’re trying to lose weight.
Tell me if this sounds familiar:
‘Letting events and parties turn into food splurge excuses, leading to that classic after-party affliction: food hangover?’
Then to make matters even more complicated, we often don’t want to miss out on the special foods we love, as they’re part of a strong and cherished family tradition - not to mention that they’re delicious.
You feel like you have to either not take part or compromise on the flavors you look forward to all year long.
But look at his way: does anyone enjoy the nasty old bloating and discomfort that happens when you eat foods that don’t work with your body, or that poor mood and lack of energy, leading to the endless craving for more food, that happens the next day as a result of all of the sugar and junk food you ate? Yeah, nope, that's what I thought, right!?
Luckily you no longer need to fret. You don’t have to forget about health goals just to have an easy thanksgiving prep… you can plan an excellent and relaxed low sugar/sugar free aka sugar balanced thanksgiving.
BUT, with a little bit of planning and some clever tips and tricks, it is totally possible to create a delicious and stress free no or low sugar thanksgiving meal that will have you and your family still going back for seconds.
You don’t need to avoid and fear planning for thanksgiving just because you care for your wellness! I’m going to show you how to easily plan a healthy and seriously tasty, thanksgiving celebration for you and all your guests, family or friends can enjoy, eat yummy foods and drinks and still feel great after the party.
I’m all about balance and moderation, and I believe healthy food can be good, fun, and even festive, just by adding healthy tweaks and hacks – making it certainly doable.
There are a lot of great food and drinks swaps, recipes and ideas out there that everyone will love eating.
Healthy food doesn’t have to taste bland. You’ll never even have to tell anyone that it’s healthy food!
Everything I’m covering is totally based on my own experience, what’s worked for me during thanksgiving previously as a sugar addict and then now as a low sugar or as I like to call it ‘sugar balanced’ eater.
Let’s do it.
Healthy Thanksgiving Dinner Step #1: Reinvent Your Favorites
Just because you’re eating healthily, doesn't mean all you’ll have to eat is plain, bland veggies and turkey with a side of salad. Not only will the guests feel disappointed, but more importantly, it’s your party to enjoy and if you can’t enjoy the food and drinks you'll find yourself discouraged and ready to throw in the clean eating or diet towel. Next thing you know, you’re ordering pre-made thanksgiving dinner from the local diner.
Luckily, there is NO need to feel disappointed about missing out on thanksgiving food and drink favorites, you can still make those old classics just with a couple of healthy tweaks, and all without sacrificing taste.
How to Make Your Favorite Thanksgiving Foods Healthy and Sugar Free:
I’m going to show you how to stay on track and map out your party planning meal plan with your healthy eating goals in mind, that’ll cut calories and cut sugar intake, while, of course, still tasting mouthwatering-ly yum.
Let's take a look, shall we?!:
‘Savory’ Thanksgiving Foods
You may be a little surprised that we’re even talking about that main meal course, especially if you don’t add sugar to the dishes yourself, but you may be adding ingredients that have sneaky bits of hidden sugar.
The approach we’re going to take for the main thanksgiving meal is adapting it to a totally sugar free version. If you’re not so fussed you can always follow these guidelines and still add a little bit of sugar, but again that depends on your preferences.
The first thing I want you guys to remember is that your savory dishes don’t actually need sugar.
Your thanksgiving meal in it’s very base is sugar free.
In fact, in my family, we’ve never added sugar to any of our dishes, and that was before eating a meal with or without sugar was even a concern of ours.
When made with the right recipes, your dishes should be able to stand on their own two feet, without added sugar making up for anything. That’s not to say your dishes as they are now aren’t really good, what I’m simply saying here is that there are in fact ways to cut that sugar out without compromise.
So, the first thing I want you to do is go over your stockpile of ingredients and check if anything you add to your food has sugar or any other name for sugar listed on the label.
You can look up a list of alternative names for sugar, or checkout my free 27 Hidden Sugar Foods to Watch Out for Checklist + Shopping Guide which you can download now and checkout the list of 50+ names I have attached for you in there.
For any of your thanksgiving dinner ingredients with hidden sugars, switch them out to a sugar free brand (preferably organic) or make it yourself. Some foods to check are cornmeal, canned cranberries, and gravy mix.
1. Switch Up The Recipes
The next thing I want you to do is find delicious variant recipes for the dishes you would normally add sugar or sweetened ingredients to.
Like I said earlier, your thanksgiving dishes can stand on their own. Your sweet potato mash tastes delicious without added sweetener. It doesn’t need sugar or marshmallows to make it into a flavorful dish – the sweet potatoes are naturally sweet, with some salt and lots of butter, they can be just as creamy and tasty as a side dish.
Use natural seasoning you love.
For example, if you traditionally use a sweet glaze on your turkey or ham, instead opt for lots of fresh herbs like sage and rosemary, add salt, vegetables and a flavorful quality broth. Get creative for adding that sweetness by adding fruit like apples or even a tad of fresh orange juice – or even try adding some champagne.
Top that all of with a well seasoned garlic butter and you’re good to go – which brings me to my final point.
2. Embrace Good Fats For Flavor
Try adding a little bit more healthy fat to your meal to make up for any sweet flavors.
I’m not saying to go crazy and add a ton of lard to your meal, but a little bit of extra butter or olive oil will go a long way in adding flavor where sugar may have done before.
One thing not to do is to use veggie oils or self-basting turkeys – the fats in there are terrible for you. Opt for extra virgin olive oil and salted butter.
3. Pro-tip: Create A Menu With Variety, Flavor, And Color
Make sure all your important food groups are represented in your menu. Make sure you include at least fiber (preferably in the form of veggies), clean proteins, and healthy fats like in avocado, fish, and seeds.
When the meal provides well-rounded nutrition, it will keep you and your guests full for longer, keeping you on target with health goals without feeling deprived, and interested in healthy foods by adding a variety to the palette.
Here’s What You Should Do:
Stay away from repeating a flavor and main ingredient in more than one dish. For example, your food menu will include one recipe featuring turkey, another with beans and another with nuts, etc.
Texture is also key here, as texture contributes to the sensory experience of eating food. You’ll want to make sure that you always have a balance of crunchy, chewy, and creamy.
Lastly… add appealing pops of color and flavor easily by using garnishes to spruce things up. Don’t worry it doesn't need to be anything elaborate, even simply chopping up some parsley, thyme, and red bell pepper into tiny pieces, add flair to a dish. And you can have it prepped and ready ahead of time.
‘Sweet’ Thanksgiving Foods
Onto dessert! I know this is the one we’ve been waiting for!
The first strategy I want to go over here is moderation. This is what I personally like to do now during my own holiday dessert courses, and what I find works the most as long as you know that if you taste something sweet you’re at a comfortable level with your reliance on sugar.
Some of you may not be able to include sugar back into your diet yet, especially if you’re in the throes of a major sugar addiction – we’ll to your sugar free options in a moment – but generally if you’re in a healthier relationship with sugar I think moderation is a great option.
Here we’re basically choosing smaller helpings of sugar sweetened or ‘normal’, if you will, desserts.
A lot of us look forward to grandma’s pie or those ginger sugar cookies all year around, so to avoid missing out on the flavor but without eating a ton of sugar, simply eat a bit less of your favorite dessert.
For example, cut a half slice of pie and top it with lots vanilla stevia whipped cream, or just have one cookie with a nice hot cup of frothy coffee as an after dinner treat. You’re still eating what you love, but with a fraction of the sugar intake.
1. Change The Recipes
The next thing you can do is simply change out the dessert you have to something that is naturally low-sugar or refined sugar-free.
Lookup a brand new recipe for a dessert that is normally sweetened with honey or has a small added sugar content.
For example, you can make some delicious pumpkin muffins that are only sweetened with honey and taste just like the season. Throw in some sugar free chocolate chips and you’ve got yourself a delicious easy dessert.
You can also get creative and do a totally sugar free recipes. For example have a sugar-free brownie and top it with more of that whipped cream.
2. When Making Dessert Swaps
One thing I would say though if you need to do a totally sugar free dessert is not to choose a sugar free version of a dessert you normally have with sugar.
Choose a recipe that is either really well reviewed or that is naturally sugar free, like berries and cream.
Although making sugar free swaps for your favorite food is great for 99% of the year, thanksgiving is a super special day with super special food, so I don’t want you to get all excited for a recipe that you think will taste like the sugary version and then be disappointed with the end result.
A lot of healthier sugar free desserts have other ingredient additions which do change up the flavor, like nut butters and stevia, so when you try the dessert it has a recognizably altered taste.
That disappointment may only end up making you hit the snack cabinet later on to satisfy your craving for a ‘real treat’ so to speak.
Healthy Thanksgiving Dinner Step #2: Emphasize The Entertainment
Pump up the fun and vibrant health by incorporating some autumn activities.
Make sure your Thanksgiving celebration encourages physical activity and games for not only the kids, but also the adults.
Include plenty of games like taking an after or pre-dinner walk, board games, flag football, mini-football, volunteer at a soup kitchen, have a mini pumpkin hunt, queue up an autumn-themed Spotify playlist and play some tunes, etc. Emphasize the entertainment not just the dinner binge.
Healthy Thanksgiving Dinner Step #3: Create A Food-Free Space
Shift emphasis on to the company rather than the food, by placing food stations and tables in a separate place from where your guests will be socializing. Whether your guest list is big, small, or even virtual (thanks to COVID-19) shifting the food and drinks away from the socializing space will help you and your guests employ moderation, socialize more and avoid unintentional grazing!
Studies have even shown that close proximity and visibility of food and drinks will increase your chance of consuming food and drinks, and will help you save at least 100 calories per nibble.
Healthy Thanksgiving Dinner Step #4: Use Different Glasses
Set your bar or use only tall, skinny highball glasses instead of short, wide tumblers. A recent study of college students showed that as much as 30 percent more liquor was poured into tumblers than highball glasses.
That’s It... Happy Thanksgiving!
So that’s how I like to plan and enjoy my thanksgiving dinner while eating low sugar or sugar free. I hope you were able to get some awesome inspiration for planning your thanksgiving easily and diet friendly!
I know that thanksgiving dinner planning can be stressful at the best of times, let alone when you’re trying to something new by focusing on wellness.
But, please just don’t stress – it can be made easy. By following these tips and hacks you can celebrate a fantastically enjoyable thanksgiving with health still being a priority, leaving you feeling great before, during, and after the dinner… goodbye food hangover 101!
And just remember this:
I know that food is not the only obstacle that can sabotage your healthy thanksgiving dinner; people can too. While friends and family care for you, they may not understand or accidentally make you feel “weird” for having a healthy thanksgiving dinner, and push sugary and junk foods on you. Don’t let any of that get to you, you’re doing the best thing for not just you, but everyone attending. We are nothing without our health.
This season we’re going to easily plan a fantastic healthy thanksgiving dinner everyone will love and enjoy without food hangover, wrecking their wellness and endless after binge cravings.
If you are trying to stop consuming so much sugar and have problems with sugar cravings, and want guidance on creating a vibrant inner well being, rejuvenating health, and being able to reduce sugar in your diet with ease, naturally and instinctively this autumn, then I've got your back! Don’t wait for January!