I’m thankful for green bean casserole, homemade mashed potatoes, homemade gravy, turkey, rolls, pumpkin pie….
Okay. I am thankful for those things, but I would be lying if I said those were the most important.
When I was growing up, I got to see my family all the time. Aunts, uncles, grandparents—it seemed like everyone was there around the dinner table, no matter if it was a weekend or weekday. My grandmother’s house was like a second home to me (a cleaner home).
Getting to hang out with my family so much when I was younger made Thanksgiving a treat, sure, but not so different from the other dinners I had with them. I mean, the food I listed above clearly marked Thanksgiving as a special occasion. But on any given Thanksgiving in my childhood, I had seen my extended family just a few days before.
Now that I’m an “adult,” the treat has become not the pumpkin pie (but oh boy, I love pumpkin pie). The treat is having four or five hours with some of my favorite people in the world. I drive back to my hometown and, for a few days, get to spend a lot of time with my family. Since I’ve started my own life, the memories I had taken for granted when I was younger are less common. I would say this makes me appreciate the ability to make new ones even more.
I love Thanksgiving because I get to see all of my family. We play charades after dinner, and we wait until we aren’t absolutely stuffed to bring out the dessert. These rituals are comforting to me, and I am thankful that I have the good luck of having family to do them with.
I know Thanksgiving can be stressful because of what comes after it. The next day is literally Black Friday, a holiday that’s a pain for worker and consumer alike. And then we know what comes after Thanksgiving—Christmas music, Christmas shopping, Christmas oh-my-god-I-didn’t-know-we-were-supposed-to-buy-your-in-law’s-friends-presents, so on, and so forth.
I’m not going to tell you that isn’t going to happen. It’s all going to happen. But that doesn’t mean that Thanksgiving is just the moment before the month of the year that stresses you out the most. It’s a full day that you get to have with your loved ones, that you get to take stock of all the different ways you’re lucky. So please do that this holiday. The holidays seem to be getting more and more about what we don’t have…so on this day, I hope we are thankful for what we do.
So take the day for yourself if you can, sit with your family, and watch the parade!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Like so many of the blog posts I write, I’m writing this not because I don’t think you know what gluten is, but because I know I don’t know what gluten is. All I know—or knew, before doing a little research—was that most bread and pasta have gluten, and that “gf” does not stand for “girlfriend” when written next to a meal on a restaurant menu.
According to the Celiac Disease Foundation, “Gluten is a general name for the proteins found in wheat, rye, barley and triticale—a cross between wheat and rye. Gluten helps foods maintain their shape, acting as a glue that holds food together. Gluten can be found in many types of foods, even ones that would not be expected.”
Basically, gluten is a form of protein that is often found in bread, but can be present in a wide variety of foods. According to Medical News Today, most people can eat gluten without suffering any health issues. However, people with certain health conditions, such as celiac disease, have to avoid gluten entirely.
So how does gluten affect us, if we don’t have celiac disease or a form of gluten intolerance? Harvard Health Publishing says you’re fine to eat gluten, as “There is no compelling evidence that a gluten-free diet will improve health if you don’t have celiac disease. The same is true if you can eat gluten without trouble. Of course, future research could change this. We may someday learn that at least some people without celiac disease or symptoms of intestinal disease are better off avoiding gluten.”
That is to say, if your doctor hasn’t advised you against consuming gluten, current research claims you’re fine to consume it.
By now, you’ve probably heard that the meat industry is bad for our planet. There’s a lot about the environment that feels out of our hands—we are constantly surrounded by bad news, and it’s difficult to figure out what we can do to help. In all this uproar, you’ve probably heard someone mention Meatless Mondays.
First, some background on how Meatless Mondays started. While eating less meat is certainly good for the environment (and for you!), a nationwide effort to consume less animal byproduct first began during World War 1, when the United States government realized it needed to conserve food in order to feed the troops overseas. President Hoover asked Americans to do Meatless Tuesdays and Wheatless Wednesdays as a part of the war-time effort. The campaign was hugely successful—over 13 million families signed the pledge.
Now, the need to go eat less meat doesn’t come from a crisis of war, but a crisis of the environment. While a President hasn’t recently asked Americans to eat less meat, there are several benefits of doing so.
According to Mayo Clinic, “Even reducing meat intake has a protective effect. Research shows that people who eat red meat are at an increased risk of death from heart disease, stroke or diabetes.”
Eating less meat is good for you and the environment. Going one meal a week without meat is a great place for you to start—and it doesn’t have to be on Monday.
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