Got healthcare questions? We’ve got answers, thanks to the local medical experts who have appeared as guests on “Northshore Healthbeat,” the official podcast of St. Tammany Health System.
With Super Bowl LIX set to kick off Feb. 9 in New Orleans, we thought it only appropriate to revisit our episode on healthy tailgating, with tips from Clinical Dietitians Sarah Brignac and Jessica Greer of St. Tammany Cancer Center – A Campus of Ochsner Medical Center.
Find edited excerpts from that episode below.
What are some strategies for tweaking traditional tailgate foods to make them healthier but still delicious?
Sarah: First, maybe replace the red meat, which does include pork, by the way. Some people think it’s a white meat; it is actually a red meat. It’s not “the other white meat.” Lamb, pork, beef are all red meat, and all those are healthy but in small quantities.
Easy changes would be doing shrimp skewers, chicken skewers, a turkey burger. Those things all reduce saturated fat and your cholesterol intake. And then in terms of barbecue sauce, you have to be really careful with added sugar, so try to find one that is lower in added sugar – or make your own.
What about those plant-based meat substitutes, like Beyond Burgers and Impossible Burgers?
Jessica: I think it’s a great alternative for vegetarians.
But even if you’re not a vegetarian, it’s still a healthier option than a regular hamburger, right?
Jessica: Not necessarily, because they do put a lot of coconut oil in there, so it does have just as much saturated fat as red meat does. So, really, it’s more for vegetarians. But if you do choose to have more vegetables in your life, that is an option to get more veggies and more fiber in there.
Mushrooms are also a great alternative, especially if you want to put something between a bun. Black beans are also a great option – you can do black bean burgers. Lots of fiber there, and you can really make it your own by adding your own spices.
Sarah: And the fiber in beans is a natural way to lower your cholesterol, so people who are trying to avoid getting on statins, trying to up your fiber intake is a great way to try and do that first – hopefully to prevent you from getting on a statin – but it can probably delay that as well.
Fiber is great for a lot of things: digestive, cardiac, all kinds of good stuff.
Any ideas for sides?
Jessica: One of my favorite side dishes is actually a Buffalo chicken dish, and I make it healthier by putting yogurt in it.
The key is, we still want to get those really good tailgate flavors in. We don’t want to make it so healthy that everybody’s like, “Eh, we’re going to the next tailgate.”