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CalorieCount.com, a health and wellness site with more than 5 million members, put together some facts and figures on Thanksgiving:
Did you know?
• Making cranberry sauce? Drop a cranberry on the ground. If it bounces 4 or more inches, it’s ripe.
• Each Thanksgiving, the U.S. eats 690 million pounds of turkey. That’s the weight of Singapore’s entire population.
• Pilgrims used a knife, spoon and their fingers at the first Thanksgiving. The fork was missing from the table until the late 1700s.
• Ben Franklin desperately wanted the turkey, and not the bald eagle, to be the official U.S. bird.
Food facts and numbers
• 690 million pounds of turkey are consumed each Thanksgiving.
• 50 million pumpkin pies are eaten each Thanksgiving.
• 750 million pounds of cranberries are produced.
• 3,000 calories are consumed by the average person on Thanksgiving.
What?! 3000 calories?
Want a healthier version of your favorite Thanksgiving plate? Enjoy all of your Thanksgiving favorites for half the calories.
• Roll: 76 calories
• Cranberry sauce: 86 calories, 1/2 slice
• Glazed carrots: 115 calories, 3/4 cup
• Turkey: 238 calories, 1 cup sliced
• Mashed potatoes: 287 calories, 1 cup
• Pecan pie: 503 calories, 1/8 of a 9-inch pie
Turkey talk
• 88 percent of Americans eat turkey at Thanksgiving.
• Typically, turkey is made up of 70 percent white meat, and 30 percent dark meat (lucky for us, the U.S. generally prefers white meat while other counties like dark meat).
• Dark meat provides richer flavor, while white meat has fewer calories and less fat.
• Turkey is rich in zinc and vitamin B-niacin, making turkey a top food for eyesight.
• Turkey doesn’t make you sleepy, even though amino acid tryptophan is present. Scientists blame booze and vast caloric intake at the feast.
