11/25/13

Thanksgiving: 10 Tips for a Healthier Feast

This season, give thanks with a healthier and more eco-friendly dinner!!  Remember, you vote with your dollar every time you make a purchase at the market.  So vote for a cleaner and healthier future by supporting products made with fewer pesticides and less processing!



This Thanksgiving:

  1. Eat Locally - Try an organic or locally raised turkey, or perhaps even a climate-smart center piece such as a stuffed winter squash!
  2. Avoid BpA Exposure - Canned green beans and cranberries are both high in pesticide residues and, because of their canned storage, are also high in BPA (an endocrine disrupting chemical). Try using the fresh and organic forms of these ingredients. Maybe it’s a good opportunity to improve your cooking skills too!
  3. Minimize the Fat - Some experts estimate that the average person consumes the equivalent of 3 sticks of butter at the Thanksgiving table. Use heart-healthy and GMO-free oils if you can.
  4. Avoid Pesticides - Substitute white mashed potatoes, which are high in pesticides, with that made from sweet potatoes (low in pesticides). 
  5. Avoid Pesticides - Replace high pesticide stuffing ingredients such as celery and carrots with their organic substitutes. 
  6. Waste Less – While it might be tempting to use disposable plates and cutlery when hosting for a large group of people, this amounts to much wasted production energy, excess garbage to our landfills, and air pollution (from waste incineration).  Using glass/china plates, glasses, and regular silverware is much more environmentally sound.  If you choose to wash your dishes by hand, using lower temperature faucet water is even more eco-friendly!
  7. Recycle- Don’t forget to recycle the items used to make your Thanksgiving meal, such as aluminum foil, metal cans, cardboard egg cartons, food boxes, glass/plastic bottles, jars, etc.
  8. Use Tap Water - Serve your guests tap water.  Bottled water creates mountains of plastic waste and is actually no healthier than tap water in the U.S.  In fact, studies have shown bottled water to have a higher bacteria count than tap!
  9. Save Leftovers - Sadly, the average American wastes roughly $600 of food annually.  This Thanksgiving, be sure to send leftovers home with your guests if you can’t finish them singlehandedly.
  10. Store Smart - Package your leftover food in reusable containers as opposed to tin/aluminum foil and plastic wrap.
Be sure to share these tips with family and friends! And remember, where YOU cut down on waste and energy demand, you enable a future world in which your children and your children’s children can enjoy the same quality of life and opportunity for a healthy environment that you’ve enjoyed!  

For information on where to purchase locally grown produce, visit:

For information on where to purchase antibiotic-free meat, visit:

For information on the carbon footprint associated with various food products, visit:

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

If you enjoyed this article, please join my blog!  Simply click the “join this site” button to the right, log in using your Yahoo, Google, or Twitter account, and click “follow publicly.”  Thanks!!
           
                                                                                                -Shahir Masri, MS

18 comments:

  1. it's interesting to learn multiple ways to achieve a healthier environment. what surprised me the most was reading that bottled water has a higher bacteria count than tap water. i would have never known. can you talk a little about how that's possible? thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Denys. This is possible because disinfecting agents such as chlorine leave an unpleasant "pool-like" taste in the water. For that reason, private water companies don't use them as much. This results in a higher bacterial count. By contrast, municipal water plants use much more chlorine, particularly since it is needed to prevent bacterial growth throughout the pipeline distribution system of a given city. Thanks for your question.

      Delete
  2. That's really interesting to know that canned green beans and cranberries have high pesticide residues. I was wondering how does this effect the environment and our bodies overall?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well the effects to our bodies are not entirely known, although there have been studies associating pesticide exposure with ADHD, Parkinson's Disease, and a number of other ailments. As for the environment, Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring talks a lot about the environmental damage caused by pesticide applications. Fortunately, things have improved since then. However, ground water contamination still represents a major environmental issue as it relates to pesticides. There are really no regulations that control pesticide runoff into the environment from farms, termed non-point pollution. This is unfortunate!

      Delete
  3. It was interesting to find out that white potatoes contain more pesticides than sweet potatoes. Is there a reason why there is more? How would the pesticide affect our bodies?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Different crops are susceptible to different pests and are grown in different areas with different pests. Some crops therefore require more pesticides to ward off such harm. This is why certain vegetables/fruits will have a higher pesticide loading than others. As for safe levels, it really depends on the pesticide. Unfortunately, regulations do not have a good grasp on this since they do not account for mixed or multiple pesticide exposure.

      Delete
  4. Most of the recommendations are what I usually do on Thanksgiving, but there can be improvements. It is insightful how you mentioned about the white mashed potato having more pesticides, so that next year I will tell my parents to try a different alternative such as sweet potato. The article is very informative and impacted my actions for the future, thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  5. WOW ! I did not realize an average american wastes about $600 of food, that's alot ! Although, what if the guests don't want to bring home left overs and you're left with aplethora of foods. Would it be bad to throw it away rather than stuffing it all in our face causing us to become fat ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would not suggest sacrificing your own health to prevent a little food waste. However, there is usually always someone willing to take leftovers. And if not, perhaps invite some friends over the next day to help you finish some of the food! :)

      Delete
  6. I knew that Thanksgiving was a day to stuff yourself, but I did not know how much butter we averagely consume during the holiday! 3 sticks of butter PLUS the meat and other fats we consume during the meal adds up to a lot of health complications. Even though we use Thanksgiving as an excuse to eat all we can, I feel like consumers, nowadays, are eating a lot of high cholesterol food on a daily basis. At this rate, do you think consumers will actually take time to look at what's right or wrong to eat?

    ReplyDelete
  7. It's sad to know that people spend so much money on food. What I found interesting is that tap water is better than bottled water. Why does bottled water contain bacteria? Would it affect our health after time?

    ReplyDelete
  8. It was interesting to learn that canned green beans contain high amounts are high in BPA and pesticides. I sometimes cook for myself and make my own decisions in buying certain foods, I now know to avoid green beans or canned food generally. I usually bake cookies or pizza, and I use a lot of aluminum foil, I never knew they were recyclable. I would like to know other alternatives to "non-GMO" oils and what types of oil are healthy for you? Would olive oil be one of the non-gmo?

    ReplyDelete
  9. I found it quite interesting that even the location of where you bought your food can make a difference in terms of health. It was also quite shocking to know that approximately three sticks of butter is consumed in the average Thanksgiving meal. My question is, what are the FDA's standards in regulating pesticide use in foods?

    ReplyDelete
  10. I found it quite interesting that tap water has more bacteria than bottled water. I think people could also take their leftover food to some homeless shelters instead of trowing it away. My question is why does bottled water contain more bacteria?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wow I found this article really helpful but I'm so disappointed that I didn't read this earlier for Thanksgiving. I'm surprised Americans don't spend more on food because in our society tomorrow it's all about spending and wasting. Thank you for sharing this valuable message with the rest of us! This was very useful and we can apply it over all in our daily lives and not just Thanksgiving!

    ReplyDelete
  12. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I can't believe that many average Americans have been spending $600 on food supply. Well for me, I can't deny that because my family also does these kinds of things. We don't even finish or eat 75% of the food we buy. I should tell my family next thanksgiving or any holiday to conserve the food we get. I got a question, how would you save your food and how will it benefit everyone?

    ReplyDelete
  14. I did not know that there were so many staple foods of Thanksgiving that had the harmful stuff such as GMO's and pesticides. I would love to know more possible replacements. I'm even okay with potatoes being replaced since I really like sweet potatoes. However, for the dilemma with the plates and washing. Is there an even more eco-friendly way with plates rather than using low temp waters?

    ReplyDelete