14 Unhealthiest Thanksgiving Sides To Avoid This Year

Listen, some of us don't make up for the overindulgence on Thanksgiving. We don't hit the gym extra hard the week after, nor do we fast or go on a cleanse the entire month of November leading up to the gluttonous feast each Thanksgiving. The only way to survive Thanksgiving is to pick your battles and when it comes to which sides to indulge on, we've got it figured out.

Many of the traditional Thanksgiving sides like stuffing, mashed potatoes, and gravy aren't doing much for your health. However, we aren't going to tell you to not eat stuffing. That would be ludicrous. Instead, we've found that not all these side dishes are completely unhealthy by nature. In their most traditional form, many of these dishes can be high in sugar, fat, or carbs, but there's almost always a lower-calorie alternative you can opt for. Based on the opinions and advice of nutrition experts, we've picked out the 14 most unhealthy sides served at Thanksgiving. Instead of one of these this year, try one of our nutritious alternatives instead.

Green beans are healthy, but that's not enough for Americans on Thanksgiving. Everything needs to be served gussied up and in a casserole dish. That's eternally true about this dish, one made by adding green beans to a can of cream of mushroom soup and then topping the whole thing with crispy onions before baking it. It's a tasty dish and a good way to get some veggies in during the Thanksgiving meal, but here's why you should probably just opt for regular green beans instead.

The condensed cream of mushroom soup most green bean casserole recipes call for adds a high level of sodium to this vegetable dish. If you're buying the most popular brand, Campbell's, a single can of condensed soup contains a heaping 2,150 milligrams of sodium. It's best to avoid too much salt in our diets, as this can lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. For a heart-healthy side, try simply boiling some green beans instead, and serving them topped with just a little unsalted butter.

Another outdated dish that somehow seems to make it to the table each year is the dreaded Jell-O salad. Once again, this is far from a salad and typically contains Jell-O, whipped cream, fruit, and sometimes nuts or pretzels. There are a lot of family-specific variations, but none of them are healthy. We don't actually think you'll need that much convincing to skip out on the Jell-O this year, but just in case, we've got some facts.

Jell-O itself isn't terrible, but often where it's found, whipped cream isn't too far away. Heavy cream, whipped to make whipped cream, contains 36% fat. Not only that, the fat in cream is primarily saturated fat, the overconsumption of which has been linked to heart disease. 

There's no substitute for trash, but if you insist, there are some pretty easy ways to make Jell-O salad lighter. You can use zero-sugar gelatin mixes, for starters, or perhaps substitute the whipped cream with Cool Whip. Any routes you can take to lower sugar and fat content in your Jell-O salad are the roads best taken.

This one hurts. We love mashed potatoes, but there are plenty of tasty ways to lighten the load and not go overboard on the delicious starches at this year's Thanksgiving. In particular, it's a good idea to lower the fat and sodium content of your mashed taters. Typically, the creaminess of mashed potatoes comes from two ingredients: Butter and cream. These dairy products contain a large amount of saturated fats which, according to Harvard, can boost blood levels of LDL cholesterol. That's the bad kind of cholesterol, and it can lead to heart disease. Not the route to go, even for potatoes. Trust us, there are better ways.

Sometimes milk is used instead of or in addition to cream, and that's a wonderful place to start. If you're used to enriching your mash with cream, try 1% milk instead this year. Or better yet, chicken broth is an excellent and flavorful way to make your potatoes creamy and smooth without the use of cream or butter. Finally, if you are using salted butter on those suckers please, for the love of all things delicious, switch to unsalted and do everyone a favor.

Mac and cheese is far from the most traditional Thanksgiving dish you can think of. The settlers and colonizers of the land now known as the United States were not feeding their children cheesy pasta from a box. This is a distinctly modern addition and one that we frankly could do without. Your kids, on the other hand, might disagree. 

A favorite of children everywhere, this simple pasta dish is typically made with a few ingredients pretty high in saturated fats: Cheese, butter, and cream. These are becoming common culprits in our Thanksgiving search. So how do we turn this dish, which traditionally contains large amounts of fat and refined carbs, into something that makes sense as a side dish? 

There are a few ways to go to make this side healthier, such as using whole wheat pasta or going dairy-free with a vegan mac and cheese. Still, if watching carbs is a thing for you this Thanksgiving we recommend staying away from any kind of pasta (or pasta salad) that you get offered.

Many people don't think there is much of a difference between the aforementioned sweet potatoes and yams. This is likely because they've never really had yams in their life, only sweet potatoes called by that name. Yams are very much their own distinct vegetable, and yams are a totally different species, Dioscorea batatas. Notably, real yams aren't found in the United States and don't grow natively here. All this to say, when you're eating a candied yam you are most likely eating a big sweet potato. 

While this dish is a bit simpler than the sweet potato casserole, it also includes brown sugar, and often requires an excessive amount of it to caramelize. This year, instead of using sugar, we recommend roasting your sweet potatoes (or yams, if you must) in just a bit of maple syrup. True maple syrup has a lower glycemic index than sugar, meaning its inclusion is less likely to impact blood sugar levels. 

Pass the gravy! You'll hear this more than one time over your Thanksgiving weekend. But when it comes your turn, resist the urge or at very least go light on the gravy this year. Especially if it's made from the bird itself. 

Gravy made from turkey drippings can be more delicious than the canned stuff, but all that amazing flavor is contained within the fat of the bird. These drippings are high in fat and sodium, and considering that American turkey gravy can often be made by adding more fat in the form of milk or butter, this puts most gravies into pretty unhealthy territory. Even if you're getting gravy from a can, it can't avoid the cardinal sin of gravy: High amounts of sodium. There's 240 milligrams of sodium per serving of Heinz Turkey Gravy, and that's a baseline. 

There are ways to make a healthier gravy, of course, starting with the basics like mushroom gravy. Way back in 1993, The Washington Post shared a dietician's tip involving cream of mushroom soup diluted with evaporated skimmed milk. 

So you've made it to the end of the meal. Congratulations, but Thanksgiving isn't over yet. While desserts aren't side dishes, a holiday list could not be complete without a slice of pie — and wouldn't you know it, we chose the most unhealthy one you are most likely to see on the dessert table. Normally, many of us may go for the pecan pie, but after learning how much worse it is for you than pumpkin pie you may want to make a different choice.

Pecan pie is usually higher in sugar and fats than the other seasonal desserts. If you've ever made the dessert, you'll know well that corn syrup and molasses are key ingredients going into this. Karo light corn syrup, used in many recipes, contains 121 calories and 30 grams of carbs per 41-gram serving, making it pretty much all carbohydrates. As for molasses, Grandma's has a similarly small serving size and high carb count, at 16 grams per single-tablespoon serving, of which 15 grams is sugar. If for dessert, the choice is between pecan and pumpkin, pecan pie is much less healthy for you. This year, we are team pumpkin.