Turkey is by far the worst option for feeding your family this Thanksgiving. Though it is synonymous with Thanksgiving, it is also synonymous with dryness and extreme levels of sodium. Would you want to spike your grandmother’s blood pressure this Thanksgiving? If you’re a normal person, you’d answer “no” to this question. There are plenty of serving alternatives to turkey this Thanksgiving: ham, duck, and chicken are all options that show a little more care for your family’s health and taste buds. Despite turkey being a corresponding pair with Thanksgiving during the holiday season, people have to realize the simple fact that turkey is inferior. The people of America need to get out of the monotonous and torturous tradition of eating turkey on Thanksgiving, and replace it with a more nutritious and delicious alternative.
Eighty-eight percent of Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving, but how did Thanksgiving become so closely associated with turkey? The holiday of Thanksgiving comes from the first dinner that took place between the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony and the indigenous Wampanoag people. The specifics of what was eaten on that day are widely unknown. So how does turkey become a long-standing tradition? It is quite simple, actually: in the 19th century, turkeys were incredibly convenient to obtain because of their bountiful numbers in the area. The large supply of turkeys also led to their low cost, making it a no-brainer decision for people of the time to serve on holidays. Coming back to how Thanksgiving is celebrated today, it has been shown that almost everyone who celebrates Thanksgiving has access to a supermarket that sells a plethora of options to satisfy their families. So, why does eighty-eight percent of the population pick turkey when most of their favorite meat is not turkey? The answer is tradition. The fact that people so voluntarily go against their wishes to stick to tradition is sickening. The tradition of turkey on Thanksgiving needs to be done away with to allow people to enjoy their favorite meal without judgment.
Everyone talks about how amazing Thanksgiving food is, but I never quite understood the hype. How could you say Thanksgiving is the best dinner of the year if its centerpiece was so lackluster? Every other side dish on Thanksgiving is stupendous, but turkey was something I could never get behind. For me, turkey always came with a poor view because it is significantly worse than chicken. Turkey’s biggest flaws are its dryness and lack of flavor, which cannot be said about chicken. There is actually no better meat if you are looking for flavor than chicken, as it absorbs any flavor that surrounds it. This makes chicken an incredibly versatile main dish on Thanksgiving. Another plus to choosing chicken over turkey is that it comes in smaller portions, as opposed to turkey, which is always large and hard to finish. Using this to your advantage, you can have smaller proportions of different kinds of chicken that satisfy everyone’s taste. This alternative-style Thanksgiving is a much better option than serving one massive turkey that nobody likes.
In addition to the terrible taste of turkey, it also has terrible nutritional value. To name a couple of its shortcomings include its high concentration of fat and sodium. Fat and sodium are big contributors to the potential epidemic of diabetes and the already ongoing epidemic of obesity. Turkey has the potential to hurt your loved one’s health and simply making the choice to not buy turkey this Thanksgiving stonewalls that chance.
Thanksgiving should be a holiday for your family to enjoy each other’s company over some amazing food. Making the switch from turkey is another alternative that can make Thanksgiving so much more special for everyone. This Thanksgiving every American should ditch turkey and make this holiday the best one yet.
