Holiday eater prefers naughty over nice
November 24-30, 2025
By Jay Edwards
I tend to eat more this time of year, telling myself I’ll become the person I’ve always meant to be starting January 1. For me, it always starts with diet after Christmas. And to help me get a head start I found a few naughty and nice food tips from WebMD on how to succeed.
Naughty: Turkey Skin. The skin of turkey and chicken is loaded with saturated fat. Not a big problem for me to give this one up. I remember one year we took the kids to Disney World. There were people walking around everywhere eating these giant turkey legs. I felt like I was in a Flintstone cartoon. Speaking of that, who would you rather date, Wilma or Betty?
Naughty: Stuffing. KM makes the best stuffing (the correct term in the south is dressing) in the galaxy. I don’t care how good you think yours is, this is better. WebMD says a single scoop may have up to 550 calories. What do they know?
Nice: Try making wild rice stuffing instead. Sorry, not happening.
Naughty: Buttery Mashed Potatoes. This is an easy one for me to give up, just filler. My brother Bill would disagree. But what does he know.
Nice: Mash the potatoes without milk, butter or salt. Bill would cry.
Naughty: Sweet Potato Casserole. I will never eat any of this even though sweet potatoes are supposed to be very nutritious. How could something that healthy taste good anyway?
Naughty: Pecan Pie. Hated it as a kid, love it as an adult, which isn’t good because one slice has 500 to 800 calories.
Nice: WebMD says to nibble on a bowl of mixed nuts instead. Who am I, Euell Gibbons? Trivia: Euell’s middle name was Theophilus.
Naughty: Fancy Finger Foods. Those little weinies in the crock pot are addicting.
Nice: Chilled shrimp and fresh fruits are nutritious low-calorie appetizers. That actually sounds pretty good.
Naughty: Potato Pancakes. Never had one so I’ll keep it at that. Why screw up pancakes with a potato anyway?
Nice: WebMD says if you’re doing the cooking, use olive oil instead of corn oil. If you’re doing the eating, limit yourself to a couple of latkes with unsweetened applesauce on top. Not sure what they’re even talking about.
Naughty: Eggnog. Because alcohol, heavy cream, eggs, and sugar make a frightening combo – a single cup of eggnog contains about 340 calories and 19 grams of fat.
I’ve never been a big eggnog fan, but we have some friends who have a milk punch party every New Year’s Day. It’s great. They invite half the state.
Nice: Make low-calorie eggnog with skim milk, egg substitutes, and artificial sweeteners. Blah.
Naughty: Mixed Drinks. OK, this is starting to depress me.
It reminds me of the line from that classic Kirk Douglas movie, “Ace in the Hole,” when newspaper publisher Jacob Q. Boot asks reporter Douglas if he drinks a lot. “Not a lot - just frequently.”
Nice: WebMD says to try a wine spritzer with cranberry juice. This not only shaves calories, but also contributes to your fruit servings for the day. Yeah right.
Naughty: Cake. Every Christmas KM makes rum cakes. I’ll tell you how good they are. One morning, years ago, she looked out the back window and saw our neighbors, Patsy and Bill, standing very still in their back yard and staring at the ground.
KM later called Patsy, who told her that their old dog Sasha had died and they had buried her that morning. KM made a rum cake later and took it to them.
The next day Bill brought our plate back. We both told him how sorry we were about his dog. He sighed and said it was all right. Then he smiled and told KM he was thinking of knocking off his other dog, so that she would make him another one of those cakes.
Happy Thanksgiving
Photo Credit:
Public domain
