If you are looking for a posting on how to eat heart healthy at the Thanksgiving table, you won't find one here. I am a devout believer in enjoying this holiday season to the utmost and I will tell you why.
For some 20 years, ever since I started writing about how women could protect themselves against heart disease, studies have shown that women (and men!) who are socially isolated run a higher risk of heart disease.
The reasons for this findings vary. Some believe it is that, when we are socially isolated, we are more prone to depression, which is a risk factor for heart disease. Other researchers believe that, when we are lonely, we are more likely to indulge in non-heart healthy activities. Some studies even show that loneliness affects how our brain functions!
Holidays like Thanksgiving make us pause in our daily lives to join in with others, no matter whether we are with family, with friends, or perhaps volunteering at a soup kitchen or community center to make the holiday happier for others.
No matter what, reflect on the fact that you are not only enjoying good food, you are enjoying companionship. And that will make your heart happy.
Now please pass the pumpkin pie!
Thanks for giving all of us a pass on enjoying wonderful Thanksgiving food. Of course, you followed that posting with an enthusiastic commentary on the merits of a super-strenuous workout program--no wonder you're not fretting about a few days of excess consumption.
ReplyDeleteActually, many traditional Thanksgiving foods are quite nutritious: sweet potatoes (forget the marshmallows), greens, acorn squash, cranberries, and the star of the show, turkey. In addition, Thanksgiving leftovers are excellent vehicles for nutritious eating. Our turkey bones and scraps contributed to a great lentil soup; leftover turkey cut into cubes and mixed with leftover potatoes and several kinds of leftover vegetables made a great "shepherd's pie" (a fun way to get vegetable-resistant kids to enjoy veggies of all shapes, sizes, and colors). So here's my added thanks to Thanksgiving.