Gobble, Gobble, Here Comes the Cholesterol

[StenoLady1]

Originally Posted by mghealth

Well, no, but we all (the family) agreed ahead of time that none of us wanted to cook this year. We do this almost every other year (order from Marie Calendar).

I'll just eat in small quantities and substitute what I can: like making fat-free gravy, eating the breast/white meat only, etc.

Yes, the cooking can be a bear

Well, best of luck to you & I wish you a very happy breast/white meat only turkey day I'll be eating the same thing.

Lysne

[JJ]

Originally Posted by Uff-Da!

Because of my late husband's heart disease and diabetes, we had to "watch it" diet-wise for years. But I didn't let it bother me. I always cooked everything myself, so I could modify recipes a bit, drain off most of the fat before using the drippings for gravy, etc. The way I looked at it was two or three feast days out of 365 aren't going to affect things too much as long as one keeps the quantities down. If one not only has fattier foods and more low-quality carbs than usual and also doubles the quantity, that's where the big risk for a holiday heart attack comes in, I think.

I might add, I don't have to worry about it this year. I'll be alone for the holiday for the first time in my life. I had considered volunteering to help serve a Thanksgiving dinner at the local seniors center and would have eaten there, too, but with the continuing intestinal problems I've been having, I think I'll just continue with my food intolerance testing. So while you all feast, I may be eating canned tuna, plain white rice, celery and carrot sticks, etc. Ah, well, eating these simple foods makes for easy cooking!

Uff, have they figured out what is causing your intestinal problems? I know when I was having them, it was murder to get anything but soup, gingerale, crackers and cheese into me. They ran every test possible to figure it out, and only thing they could come up with was the after affects of Lipitor & Baycol. Strange, as I only took it on and off for about 6 months, but man, I suffered like crazy for almost 6 more months. I know U have never taken any statins, so hope it all sorts itself out soon.

I hear ya about trying to make the meals as tasty as possible without all the bad stuff we are use to. We have been adding much more veggie dishes to the meal, and as far as the potatoes, we all go very light on those. None of us are sweet eaters, so as far as dessert, we are lucky if we have a small piece of apple pie. Hubby use to love pumpkin pies, but the last few years it gave him heartburn, so I knocked them off. I would say it was something I was doing wrong, but he can't eat his sister's either and she has been making them since we were first married, so go figure. Seems we just don't eat as big as we use to anyway, so guess that kind of helps too. I could munch all day on the fresh veggies, olives and cranberries, so by the time we are ready to eat, I am half full.

Hope U have a great holiday in spite of the stomach problems....

[Lenin]

Instead of the sound of gobble-gobble from the oven I'll hear quack-quack...I'm roasting a duck for 2.

It's a WHOPPING pile of fat because of the delicious skin...a total of 108 grams of fat but 14 of them are poly-unsaturated; 49 grams are monosaturated (44 from oleic acid like olive oil) and of the 37 of the remaining SATURATED fats, 26 are palmitic acid...not too bad. THe stearic acid...WORST... amounts to 9 grams for half the duck.

After eating my half I usually need to wash my entire HEAD from all the grease!

But OHHH, the taste.

Turkey has a similar fat structure with FAR less total fat. Not a bad pig-out!

Total calories are horrific for Thanksgiving Dinner though...HORRIFIC!

[Uff-Da!]

Originally Posted by JJ

Uff, have they figured out what is causing your intestinal problems?

No, my PCP ran a bunch of tests. The only thing she found and we corrected was the intestinal yeast infection, but that didn't solve the whole problem. I've at least had a few days of normality since I started this food testing program and have limited my foods to just a few. But one day I forgot to take my Lact-Aid with my ranch dressing, and a couple of days I added something to my diet which I believe I can no longer tolerate (a whole glass of milk and a serving of corn). So it was back to problems a few days longer. I've scheduled an appointment with a gastroenterologist for December 6 and have a likely colonoscopy ahead of me for December 22 or 23, since I've never had one and there is the possibility that IBS or something could be part of the picture. At age 64, I guess I'll finally cave to my doc's recommendation to have one.

Back to the holiday menu. In recent years, I have made a couple of salads, one a veggie salad and one a cranberry gelatin salad (with fruit juice and unflavored gelatin, not the commercial packages). And I never used whipped toppings. I'd just eat more of the salads and small servings of the fatty things, so the total fat content of my meal wasn't that much greater than a normal meal.

[Tobias]

I find that after I've spent all the time and work cooking it, I sometimes lose my appetite for eating it!

Seriously, though, roasted poultry is a rather good choice for a meal. Of course, we all know that the skin isn't so benign but that can be easily removed. Is a little piece of breast skin going to kill us? I "stuff" my birds with pieces of onion, celery and sage, not bread. Instead of white potatoes, I cook squash. I make my own giblet gravy to be as fat free as possible. I guess that's our diet splurge. We can do without the bread but without gravy, it's not worth eating!