Meagan Phelan wants you to spare your relatives the “hangry” version of yourself by eating breakfast on Thanksgiving morning.
The registered dietician, who has seen patients since 2017 at her Concord practice, Nourished Nutrition Counseling, said festivities can drive people to attempt to compensate for overeating by excessively restricting what they eat before or after their holiday dinner.
More than a bad idea, the choice could be an unwitting ticket onto a rollercoaster ride she calls the binge-restrict cycle: “It’s a pendulum. The more you swing one way, when that pendulum finally drops, it’s going to swing the other way for a period of time.”
The alternative for preserving a sense of normalcy around food during the holiday season (and year-round) is intuitive eating, a mindful practice of listening to your body’s hunger and fullness cues. If you’re hungry for breakfast or a snack before Thanksgiving dinner, or if you find yourself craving seconds later that evening, then eat, she said.
“If your body is trying to tell you something right here and now, listen to it. Have a balanced breakfast, don’t save it until you’re hypoglycemic and hangry,” she said. “That way you can sit down, be more present with the people around you and not feel the need to gorge yourself and get overly full.”
On a day-to-day basis, eating too much should be avoided, but Thanksgiving is a different story. Overeating on rare, special occasions is, on balance, part of a normal diet, Phelan said.
Allow yourself to feel fullness until that fullness passes, knowing that tomorrow “you wake up and it’s just another day,” she said, “and food doesn’t have this control or power over you.”
Incorporating more vegetables into your diet the day after Thanksgiving is always a good idea, but resorting to extreme measures, like juice cleanses or fasting through feelings of hunger, is unnecessary and can lead to further irregularities.
“I think we have to normalize that we are made to overeat sometimes, and we’re horrifically uncomfortable with that because of the fatphobia around overeating,” she said.
Phelan, who works with patients who suffer from eating disorders, said the first step in treatment for both binge eating and anorexia is the same: eating regular meals and snacks until the patient regains regular hunger and fullness cues. Listening to and respecting those cues, rather than suppressing them, can help prevent hormonal issues and more severe mental health challenges.
For families of every kind, gathering around the Thanksgiving table can be an experience rife with anxiety. While the jury may still be out on how to keep the peace through disagreements over politics and religion, Phelan offered one piece of advice for minimizing conflict or hurt feelings around food.
“We don’t need to talk about food in a good or bad way, and we don’t need to talk about bodies ever. We don’t need to talk about what you see somebody eating and how that might relate to your perception of what their body is doing or their health status. We can just keep those thoughts to ourselves, because no one wants that additional guilt or shame,” she said.
What to say instead? Notice the flavors and textures of the feast before you — the saltiness of the gravy, the garlicky goodness of the mashed potatoes, the crunch of the green beans, the stickiness of the pecan pie — and simply enjoy.
Overeating during the holidays can, of course, pose an immediate danger to heart health. Cases of cardiac arrest often double this time of year because of the overconsumption of food and alcohol, a lack of physical activity and extreme holiday-related stress, according to American Medical Response New Hampshire.
The ambulance company has provided some advice for avoiding cardiac emergencies during the Thanksgiving holiday, including managing stress and, as Phelan emphasized, enjoying family meals in moderation.
Know the signs of cardiac arrest — discomfort in the chest, neck, jaw or other parts of the upper body, shortness of breath, lightheadedness, nausea and breaking out in a cold sweat — and if you suspect there is something wrong, seek care early.