(November 22, 2005) — The traditional Thanksgiving we all dream of includes spending time with family and loved ones, a chance to take a break from the stresses of school and work, and best of all, completely stuffing your face with high-cholesterol, calorie-loaded foods until you’re rolling over in your chair and clutching your belly, moaning from the sharp satisfaction and intense pain. People look forward to the holiday season because they’re looking for a chance to relax and refuel themselves after working so hard during the year. But because of faulty eating habits, they end up doing themselves a disservice instead. “People think ‘Oh, it’s the holidays, I’m going to treat myself by eating until I can’t move.’ They think they’re rewarding themselves, but they’re really doing the opposite,” said junior Glory Sikka. Raised in a family of vegans, she’s used to eating healthy her whole life. “Me and my family just eat the regular vegetables and things we usually do, but with a more festive touch. Like my mom will have Thanksgiving napkins and plates out and we’ll eat yams and sweet potatoes.” If you make bad choices during the holiday season, you’ll probably end up stressing yourself out about shedding those hastily gained pounds for the rest of the year. History teacher Ira West agrees. “The holidays are well known as a time when people overeat until they go way past the point of satiety,” he said. Satiety is when you no longer have hunger; at that point, you’re supposed to stop eating. “However, it’s culturally accepted to just stuff yourself silly with all kinds of meats during the holidays. This is bad whether you eat meat or you don’t, but it’s generally much harder to get to that point if you don’t eat meat because vegetarian food is just so much more filling and satisfying than what a meat based diet would give you.” Not to mention it’s a lot healthier! So what are some vegetarian alternatives? You don’t have to stray too far from tradition to have a healthy vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner with your family. Really, all you have to do is get rid of the turkey and gravy. Many Thanksgiving mainstays are actually quite healthy foods we should eat more often. Sweet potatoes are an excellent source of vitamin A, beta carotene, vitamin C, potassium and fiber. The long loved cranberry sauce is packed with dozens of different antioxidants. But instead of buying it from a can, it becomes a far healthier alternative when made from whole berries, making it into a tastier but less sugary topping. And pumpkin (before it’s made into a pie) is loaded with potassium and many other vitamins, while being low in calorie and fat (according to the Nov. 2004 issue of the Harvard Heart Letter ). If the longing for turkey is too unbearable, you can go for the numerous commercial alternatives available, such as ToFurkey, which West said he “can’t vouch for the tastiness of.” All these excellent and healthy vegetarian foods lose their worth when mixed with the usual butter, eggs and the enormous amounts of sugar and cream. So give yourself a real break and lose the meat this year. Who knows, the habit just might stick.