Talking Turkey: MayoClinic.com Highlights Healthy Holiday Cooking

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

ROCHESTER, Minn. — 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 Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. Doctors from every medical specialty work together to care for patients, joined by common systems and a philosophy of "the needs of the patient come first." More than 3,700 physicians, scientists and researchers, and 50,100 allied health staff work at Mayo Clinic, which has campuses in Rochester, Minn; Jacksonville, Fla; and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz.; and community-based providers in more than 70 locations in southern Minnesota., western Wisconsin and northeast Iowa. These locations treat more than half a million people each year. To obtain the latest news releases from Mayo Clinic, go to www.mayoclinic.org/news. For information about research and education, visit www.mayo.edu. MayoClinic.com (www.mayoclinic.com) is available as a resource for your health stories.