BHealthy This Thanksgiving!!

Thanksgiving is one of my favourite holidays, bringing together delicious food and family – the perfect combination! There are many ways to make sure your family has a healthy holiday.

To ensure your table is filled with tasty food that is good for you, start with the perfect turkey! Look for a turkey that has been humanely and sustainably raised –a “free-range” turkey means it has spent its days outside grazing. Organic is always a good choice, it tastes better, and has been raised on organic feed, which means less exposure to pesticides, herbicides, hormones, and antibiotics.

You can also consider going meatless and offering a Torfurky! There are a lot of great vegetarian and vegan dishes that can be served for Thanksgiving that are delicious and provide some different options for your guests.

Many elements of the traditional Thanksgiving dinner provide some great health benefits. Cranberry sauce is a mainstay of the Thanksgiving table and the antioxidant rich cranberry is so good for you. The polyphenols found in cranberries have been found to promote a healthy urinary tract and help protect against cardiovascular disease and other chronic conditions.

Pumpkins have so many impressive health benefits that they are often considered a super food. Pumpkins are rich in vitamin A, which can help with eye sight, they are naturally rich in phytosterols that have been shown to help reduce cholesterol, beta –carotene can help protect against cancers, vitamin C can help boost your immune system, the list of the pumpkins virtues goes on!

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time of the year to visit your local farmers market. It’s the harvest season and markets offer a variety of fresh veggies and other wonderful treats that are perfect for your Thanksgiving table. We are so lucky to live in an area that offers so many opportunities to visit local farm markets and bring home the goodness of fresh, locally grown food. This year, fill your table with nutritious and delicious food that is grown in your community and celebrate the season with your loved ones. When you buy local, you are supporting our farmers and you are ensuring your family eats quality, nutritious, food, while enjoying the very best of the harvest season.

Here’s to very happy and healthy thanksgiving!

Be Happy, Be Well, BHealthy