The Best Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipe Ever

I woke up this morning in a cold sweat after being tormented from a dream about the best Thanksgiving stuffing recipe ever. If you imagined that I was dreaming about the food item combining dried bread, onions, celery, herbs and spices that is served with Tofurky and cranberry sauce you would be mistaken. When I woke in cold sweats,  I did so thinking about all the Americans would be stuffing their face this Thanksgiving Day.

Give Some Thought To Your Thanksgiving Stuffing

As we sit down to observe Thanksgiving, I would like to encourage parents to think long and hard about the dietary choices that we will make today. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) more than one third of American children and adolescents are overweight or obese.

The CDC describes the most common cause for being overweight and obese as “caloric imbalance”—too few calories expended for the amount of calories consumed. In lay terms, that means we eat far too much (much too often) and we lay around exercising far too little (not nearly often enough) for all the food that we lay in our mouths.

When we sit down with our family and loved ones, we are not just eating a meal – we are also and more importantly modeling dietary habits for our child.  The dietary habits that we choose for yourself may have a lifelong and lasting effect not just on us but also on the way our children view food and health.

That’s Incredible…Incredibly Sad

If you are like most Americans, you will most likely consume more than 4,500 calories and 229 grams of fat when you eat your Thanksgiving dinner.  In the span of less than an hour, the average American will in one meal consume enough calories for the daily dietary needs of two or more days.  Stated another way, in sixty minutes or less, the average American, in one meal, will consume enough calories for the daily dietary requirements of two or more people.

When you consider most people will still eat breakfast, lunch and perhaps a late evening snack, the amount of calories and fat consumed in one day is not only astounding but dumbfounding. Not only is this incredible but it is incredibly irresponsible. It is incredibly dangerous.

Real Meaning of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is the day that we take a break from our daily schedule to give thanks for living another day, week, month and year. Thanksgiving is a day to get those of us who forget to give thanks daily to take a moment to give thanks for our health, friends, and family.

Regrettably, Thanksgiving Day has almost become synonymous with the description for the word oxymoron.   A day set aside to celebrate life has been high jacked by misinformed, irresponsible nutrition be damned bandits – us! We, the “bandits” and our eat, drink and be merry band of family and friends, treat Thanksgiving as a sport where the main event is overeating and rushing ourselves to an early death.

Death Sport

No matter how much I protest or how much information I share with you about the health effects associated with eating like you are training for an upcoming contest in the International Federation of Competitive Eating, Inc. chances are you will ignore me and eat like your name is Joey Chestnut, Sonya Thomas or Takeru Kobayashi anyway.

For the record, you should try to remember that you aren’t a competitive eater. Alas, on Thanksgiving you will do your best to stuff your face like an international star anyway.

Your competitive eater impersonation begins the moment you pile your plate leaving no visible space between any of the food items.  The pretense continues as you pile the plate not once but at least twice. As you sit down to prepare yourself for your second helping, you will display no signs of shame or embarrassment when you open the top of button on your pants. Amateur competitive eaters alike refer to this exercise as the “making room move”.

This “move” causes the mind and body to dispense with all reality – as you foolishly believe that your pants and you’re your stomach share some internal, physical connection. I suppose the thinking is that if you reduce the restriction on your bulging pants, your stomach will somehow expand. Nothing could be more ridiculous except for the fact that you will display this same bizarre behavior again in less than 30 days. Merry Christmas to you too!

Time to Pay the Piper

Seriously, Kobayshi, Sonya and Joey may make a living eating like pigs at the trough but eating like this will only make it more likely that it will be you paying the Piper. So please before you begin stuffing your face and unbuttoning the top button on your pants, please consider the facts provided by the CDC:

• Obese youth are more likely to have risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure. In a population-based sample of 5- to 17-year-olds, 70% of obese youth had at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
• Obese adolescents are more likely to have prediabetes, a condition in which blood glucose levels indicate a high risk for development of diabetes.
• Children and adolescents who are obese are at greater risk for bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, and social and psychological problems such as stigmatization and poor self-esteem.
• Children and adolescents who are obese are likely to be obese as adults and are therefore more at risk for adult health problems such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, several types of cancer, and osteoarthritis.  One study showed that children who became obese as early as age 2 were more likely to be obese as adults.
• Overweight and obesity are associated with increased risk for many types of cancer, including cancer of the breast, colon, endometrium, esophagus, kidney, pancreas, gall bladder, thyroid, ovary, cervix, and prostate, as well as multiple myeloma and Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

I don’t want to be a kill joy. I also don’t want you to kill yourself from the joy of overeating. So by all means, enjoy the day by celebrating and sharing good food with your family and loved ones.  However, remember that the average American’s dietary requirements are based on 1,200 to 2,000 calories.  More importantly, remember that the fate of your child’s health & happiness and to some extent of the American Healthcare System is like that fork you are ready to put in your mouth – in your hands.

You can either make a conscious choice to teach your children to eat to live or they will learn by your actions that they should live to eat. Both options include the same three words.  Only one of those two choices is the best Thanksgiving stuffing recipe ever.