TOP FIVE HEALTHY HOLIDAY FOODS

BY CHRIS ROSENBLOOM, PHD, RD, CSSD

From Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day there will be a lot of media stories on weight gain during the holidays. Dire warnings will be issued about high fat and high calorie holiday dishes. But, what receives less media attention is the abundance of healthy foods that appear on mom and grandma’s table from November to January.

So, load up your plates with these performance boosting foods:

1. Sweet potatoes. Fresh sweet potatoes often appear on the holiday table in a sweet potato casserole or soufflé. These dishes are very good sources of the antioxidant nutrients vitamins A and C that can help repair sore muscles and support your immune system to fight off winter colds and the flu. Sweet potatoes are naturally low in sodium and high in potassium, an electrolyte that is often overlooked but is needed by athletes. Frozen or canned sweet potatoes don’t contain as many nutrients as fresh produce, so fresh sweet potatoes are the healthiest. And, if you have never tried a baked sweet potato you are missing a great side dish or healthy snack…naturally sweet and delicious, there is no need to drown it in butter and sour cream like a baked white potato. For a holiday conversation starter, ask your family if they know the difference between a sweet potato and a yam. The yam is a completely different vegetable and is not as rich in vitamins as sweet potatoes.
2. Turkey. Turkey breast might be your favorite, but don’t be afraid of the dark. The dark meat contains only slightly more fat than white meat but it is higher in iron and zinc. Iron helps make hemoglobin needed to deliver oxygen to working muscles and zinc is important is muscle repair and immunity. If your family likes to deep-fry the turkey, as long as the frying oil is at the proper temperature and the turkey is removed from the oil as soon as it is cooked if won’t contain much more fat than a traditional roasted turkey.
3. Greens. It doesn’t matter if they are turnip greens or collards, steamed spinach or a salad with Romaine lettuce, greens are loaded with healthy nutrients like the B-vitamin folate, fiber, beta-carotene and vitamin C. Collards and turnip greens have an added nutrition boost by being a good source of calcium.
4. Cranberries. This tart berry was said to be served at the first Thanksgiving in 1621. Our ancestors probably didn’t know that they contain a plant compound called bioflavonoids which help prevent disease. Cranberries may show up on the table as a traditional cranberry jelly or sauce but you can also snack on dried cranberries. Cranberries are very tart so sweeteners are usually added to make them less sour.
5. Pumpkin pie. Holidays would not be the same without pumpkin pie. Pumpkin, like a sweet potato, has a deep orange color that is bursting with nutrients. One slice of pumpkin pie has about 350 calories but the same slice of pecan pie has over 500 calories so pumpkin pie is the more nutrient-rich choice.

This holiday, choose performance-boosting foods while enjoying great taste at the same time.

Chris Rosenbloom is the sports dietitian for Georgia State University Athletic Department and is the editor of the American Dietetic Association’s Sports Nutrition Manual, 5th edition, scheduled for publication in 2012.

From USA Swimming.org