Talking Turkey: MayoClinic.com Highlights Healthy Holiday Cooking

Main Category: Nutrition / Diet
Article Date: 17 Nov 2007 - 9:00 PDT

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Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful for family, friends, good health and great food. This year, instead of serving the old, not-so-healthy standbys -- turkey smothered in gravy, candied yams, buttered corn and pumpkin pie -- try healthier Thanksgiving recipes from MayoClinic.com.

MayoClinic.com offers a number of options for a fresh approach to healthy eating this Thanksgiving, including tasty recipes for turkey gravy and pumpkin soup. A new video on MayoClinic.com also provides users with instructions on creating a healthy Thanksgiving dinner.

Many holiday recipes can tolerate a healthy renovation without affecting the taste or texture of the food. Mayoclinic.com offers a few tips and techniques to make recipes healthier:

-- Reduce the amount of fat, sugar and sodium. With most recipes, fat, sugar and sodium can be reduced without losing flavor.

-- Make a healthy substitution. Healthy substitutions not only reduce fat, calories and sodium, but also can boost the nutritional content. For example, use whole-wheat pasta instead of enriched pasta.

-- Delete an ingredient. In some recipes, ingredients can be removed altogether; likely candidates include items such as frosting, coconut and nuts, which are high in fat and calories.

-- Change the method of preparation. Healthy cooking techniques -- such as braising, broiling, grilling and steaming -- can capture the flavor and nutrients of food without adding excessive amounts of fat, oil or sodium.

-- Change the portion size. Smaller portions have less fat, calories and sodium and allow individuals to eat a wider variety of foods during a meal.

Mayo Clinic.com provides users with a number of healthy recipes, nutrition facts and grocery shopping tips to use during the holiday season.

About MayoClinic.com

Launched in 1995 and now visited by more than 13 million users a month, this award-winning consumer Web site offers health information, self-improvement, and disease management tools to empower people to manage their health. Produced by a team of Web professionals and medical experts working side by side, MayoClinic.com gives users access to the experience and knowledge of the more than 2,000 physicians and scientists of Mayo Clinic. Mayoclinic.com offers users intuitive, easy access tools such as "Symptom Checker" and "First-Aid Guide" for fast answers about health conditions ranging from common to complex; as well as more in-depth sections on more than 25 common diseases and conditions, a wealth of healthy living articles, videos, animations and features such as "Ask a Specialist" and "Drug Watch." Users can sign up for a free weekly e-newsletter called "Housecall" which provides the latest health information from Mayo Clin! ic.

http://www.mayoclinic.com.