Shall We Rationalize Our Thanksgiving Feast as Healthy?
In the New York Times, science writer Amanda Schupak wants us to know that we can rationalize our Thanksgiving feast today as a good thing because it’s healthy:
“If there’s one day of the year to slip on something elastic-waisted and ignore your typical eating habits, it’s Thanksgiving. The sides! The pies! The leftovers! The holiday is a celebration of abundance and an excuse to indulge.
“But look closer at your holiday table and you’ll see seasonal vegetables and a centerpiece of lean protein. There’s a lot of good nutrition there, even if marshmallow toppings and gravy drizzles complicate things.”
How did it come to this?
Thanksgiving Celebrates Survival
If we want to be true to the spirit of Thanksgiving, the idea that we should worry about eating too much of the wrong things is wildly out of touch. The whole point of the Thanksgiving feast of 1621, which this holiday supposedly celebrates, has nothing to do with eating healthy. Rather it was all about simply surviving and formalizing a short-lived alliance with the Native American Wampanoag people who made that survival possible. It was a celebratory meal to mark an alliance based on a mutual need for protection against other enemies.
Worrying about saturated fat, fiber, seed oils, or arachidonic acid was not on the minds of Pilgrims or Native Americans. Food did not count as medicine. It was more basic and essential, to keep starvation from making people vulnerable to illness and death.
Eventually, the alliance marked by the 1621 feast frayed and centuries of conflict followed. Colonists exploited, enslaved, and massacred Native Americans. Native Americans fought back and mostly lost. Human conflicts and polarization are nothing new.
One Meal Does Not Define Health
Perhaps you’ve noted that we’re not big fans of pretending food is medicinal. Nor are we enamored with the health claims that food marketers use to sell their products. These are just tools for rationalizing what we do with food. Sometimes they wind up helping us rationalize some pretty unhealthy behaviors.
If we want to find healthful patterns for eating, we need to think about more than this or that good or bad food. More than a single celebratory meal. We need to think about how food and its civilized enjoyment fits into our lives. There are a million and one ways to do this. A registered dietitian can help with finding the pattern that fits. Because one size does not fit all.
What Are We Celebrating Today?
Circling back to Thanksgiving, we would each do well to stop and think about what we’re celebrating today. Maybe it is family and friends reflecting on blessings, challenges, and mutual love. Maybe it is bigger than just a small circle of people who are close to us. We recommend aiming high.
But do we need to rationalize the health benefits of this celebratory feast? In short, we would say no.
Click here for perspective on myths and truths of Thanksgiving. For Schupak’s thoughts on healthy eating at Thanksgiving, click here.
Roast Turkey, photograph by Mark Miller, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
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November 27, 2025
