Providing healthy yet delicious meals is a vital aspect of the care at Tutera communities. Our culinary team members dedicate their skills and expertise to create a variety of menus that balance flavor and health-focused ingredients.
Whether you’re hosting an older adult at your Thanksgiving gathering or simply looking for healthy Thanksgiving dishes, here are some of our culinary team’s favorite heart-healthy Thanksgiving dishes for senior living communities.
Why Heart Health Is Important, Especially for Seniors
When people are asked about the body’s most important organ, the heart is usually the first answer that comes to mind. This is because the heart pushes millions of gallons of blood through your body, carrying oxygen, hormones, vitamins and other essential compounds to your muscles, skin and other organs. That’s why a healthy heart is so crucial!
Appetizers
When our guests walk through our door, we like to give them something to munch on while they wait. Here are a couple of our favorite healthy holiday appetizers. While many people think they can skip appetizers for Thanksgiving, there are actually many reasons they are beneficial to include on your menu:
- Portion control: Your guests can help manage hunger so they do not overeat during the main course
- Providing variety: You can include a wider variety of heart-healthy ingredients for a more appetizing meal
- Fostering conversation: Your guests can easily eat and chat, setting the tone for the whole dining experience
Cranberry Brie Bites
Brie is a famous, mild-flavored soft cheese originating from France. It offers a host of essential vitamins and minerals. When eaten in appropriate amounts (like in these appetizers), it can:
- Help regulate your appetite
- Be an excellent source of protein
- Increase your levels of calcium, vitamin B12, vitamin A and phosphorus
- Support a healthy immune system
Pairing brie and cranberries not only proves to be delicious but also multiplies the benefits for your guests. Cranberries contain anti-inflammatory properties and antioxidants that help prevent illness. Some of the health benefits of cranberries include:
- One cup of cranberries contains about 25% of your daily requirement for vitamin C
- They aid in the prevention of UTIs
- They help prevent stomach cancer and ulcers
- They can benefit your overall heart health
Turkey & Sweet Potato Meatballs
Looking for an appetizer that’s more on the savory side? Then you would enjoy this recipe. All meat provides protein, a macronutrient that our body needs to consume daily, as it cannot store protein and only uses it. However, unlike red meat, turkey is low in saturated fat. Eating turkey can help to:
- Decrease your likelihood of developing heart disease
- Build up muscle mass and strength
- Increase your B vitamin levels
- Support your thyroid and regulate your metabolism
Sweet potatoes are a commonly featured ingredient around the Thanksgiving table, but they’re not just delicious – they’re also extremely healthy. Sweet potatoes help:
- Lower your LDL level, or “bad cholesterol”
- Decrease your risk of developing cancer
- Regulate blood sugar levels
- Prevent vision loss
Healthy Roasted Turkey
While oven-roasted turkey is relatively healthy already, there are slight changes you can make to improve the recipe and avoid ingredients that can increase your risk of heart disease. With these changes, this roasted turkey is our featured recipe among our heart-healthy Thanksgiving dishes for senior living communities.
Eating Well offers a flavorful and heart-healthy Thanksgiving recipe for an oven-roasted turkey. Our culinary team enjoys this recipe because it uses healthy oils, such as avocado or vegetable oil, instead of butter. This keeps the turkey moist while helping to maintain low blood cholesterol levels. These types of healthy fats also have a higher smoke point, which lowers the risk of releasing potentially harmful free radicals while maintaining a savory and robust flavor.
Healthy Thanksgiving Side Dishes
But what to pair with your turkey entrée? Our team has you covered with these healthy Thanksgiving sides!
Maple Roasted Winter Vegetables
Glazed vegetables are a popular side dish, but the added sugars the glazes use can increase your risk of heart disease. That’s why, for this recipe, our culinary experts use pure maple syrup instead of refined sugar. Maple syrup is still a sugar, no doubt, but here is how it’s healthier:
- It’s a naturally occurring sugar with a lower glycemic index, meaning it’s better at regulating blood sugar levels (when consumed in moderation)
- Has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds
- Supports a healthier microbiome in the gut
- Increases manganese, zinc, calcium and potassium levels
The vegetables that our team can include in this medley are beets, potatoes, carrots, parsnips and rutabaga. These vegetables are high in starchy carbohydrates, and to some, they may be considered more a part of the grains category than the vegetable category. However, they also provide several benefits:
- Can lower blood pressure and improve heart health
- Increases oxygen intake, helping manage fatigue
- Provides anti-cancer properties
- Regulates appetite and weight loss
Sweet Potato Casserole
Sweet potatoes are another form of root vegetables. While we rarely enjoy having lots of carbs on one plate, our culinary team makes exceptions for holidays, especially when they are complex carbs like these. Sweet potatoes offer:
- A natural source of potassium, an electrolyte that carries signals from the brain
- Over 100% of the recommended daily amount of vitamin A
- 20% of the recommended daily amount of vitamin C
- Additional levels of the GLP-1 hormone to support weight loss
As one of our favorite healthy Thanksgiving sides, this sweet potato casserole replaces white sugar with a mixture of pure maple syrup and coconut palm sugar to better regulate blood sugar levels. It also uses chopped pecans for the topping, and you can easily remove them so it’s easier to eat, making it a flexible and heart-healthy Thanksgiving dish for senior living communities.
Classic & Healthy Mashed Potatoes
This simple and easy Thanksgiving recipe makes slight alterations to a classic dish to improve the benefits for your health. Most mashed potato recipes use heavy cream and butter, which are high in saturated fats. These increase your blood cholesterol levels, which also increases your risk of developing heart disease.
However, this recipe replaces those with healthier alternatives like nonfat Greek yogurt and nonfat milk. It still uses butter but limits the amount to just one tablespoon to keep the classic buttery texture and flavor that everyone loves about this dish. Then, it uses olive oil to maintain the smooth texture without adding additional butter. These replacements improve your health with:
- Higher levels of protein
- Additional amounts of calcium for better bone health
- Increased levels of vitamins A and D
- Higher levels of potassium to reduce blood pressure
And what are mashed potatoes without gravy? This recipe from Easy and Delish offers a simple, healthy and delicious gravy recipe. What’s great about it is that it provides options to make the recipe gluten-free and dairy-free for individuals who have intolerances! It’s the perfect complement to all our heart-healthy Thanksgiving dishes for senior living communities.
Desserts
Now that your guests are full of delicious and healthy foods, they need something sweet to top off their Thanksgiving meal. Some think you need to avoid dessert to stay heart healthy, but thankfully, they are wrong! Here are some benefits of including desserts in your heart-healthy Thanksgiving dinner.
- Balanced enjoyment: Finishing the meal with something sweet covers all the cravings your guests might have, ensuring they can feel fully satisfied
- Support nutritional intake: When using heart-healthy Thanksgiving recipes, you can support a well-rounded nutritional intake with your dessert options
- Enhanced mood: By sharing a sweet treat with friends, family and loved ones, it can make your guests feel the warmth and joy associated with the holiday
Healthy Pumpkin Pie
Pumpkin pie is a classic Thanksgiving dessert, but the amount of added sugars makes it unsafe for those looking out for their heart health. This recipe from Amy’s Healthy Baking uses white whole wheat flour as a healthier alternative for your flour crust. Then, it uses nonfat milk, nonfat Greek yogurt, liquid stevia and maple syrup to decrease the amount of added sugars and saturated fats. Here are some benefits to having pumpkin pie:
- Higher levels of antioxidants to reduce the risk of chronic diseases
- Improves vitamin and mineral levels to boost immunity
- Protects eyesight with vitamin A, lutein and zeaxanthin
- Potassium, vitamin C and fiber content can support heart health
“But what about whipped cream?” We have an answer for that too! This recipe has its own healthy version of whipped cream using nonfat Greek yogurt and liquid stevia for a sweet, thick and healthy whipped cream!
Apple Pie Oatmeal Cookies
Not a fan of pumpkin or pie? We have alternative options that are still a healthy and delicious way to end your Thanksgiving meal. This recipe also comes from Amy’s Healthy Baking and uses whole wheat flour and agave nectar to keep the recipe healthy and sweet. It also uses coconut oil but you can easily replace that with other oils like vegetable oil or canola oil if your prefer.
Apples offer a variety of health benefits, but in this heart-healthy Thanksgiving recipe, apples can help:
- Reduce the amount of bad cholesterol in your body
- Lower your risk of developing cardiovascular issues
Plus, the oats in the cookies provide additional health benefits, including:
- Beta-glucan fiber, which also helps reduce bad cholesterol and boost your heart health
- Support for weight loss efforts and regulation of blood sugar levels
Heart Health in Older Adults
We’ve already established that maintaining your heart health is important, but for seniors, it is essential. As you age, aspects of your heart health naturally deteriorate:
Rate
Your heart has a natural pacemaker that controls your heartbeat. As you age, the natural pacemaker (the sinoatrial or SA node) loses some of its cells, which can cause a slower heart rate.
Size
Another aspect of your heart that changes with age is the overall size of your heart. As the heart wall thickens, the amount of blood your heart can actually hold decreases, which causes the heart to fill more slowly.
Rhythm
The aging process also affects the rhythm of our hearts. While heart rhythm changes are typically associated with several types of heart disease, studies show that older adults are more likely to develop abnormal rhythms.
What Our Team Focuses on for Heart Health
Improving your heart health should always be a focus, but as you age, certain lifestyle habits like your diet and exercise can make a dramatic difference in your heart health. That is why our culinary team pays close attention to what health benefits they can offer with their menus. Here is a list of ingredients we try to avoid and ingredients we try to replace them with for a healthier alternative.
Discover Our Perfectly Curated Meals
Whether you’re looking for yourself or for your loved one, our Tutera communities, like Ridgeland Senior Living Community and the Morningside of Springfield, offer a variety of dining menus, and our team can cater to any dietary needs you may have.
You can easily find a community near you or schedule a tour of a community of your choice. Our team will gladly talk with you about your needs, what you’re looking for, and how we can best serve you and your family.
