ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - It's Thanksgiving week and it's time to deal with that age-old question — should Thanksgiving Day be a cheat day for our diet? A majority of us think it should.
Related: No cash, no problem: Salvation Army bell ringers now take mobile donationsAccording to a recent Harris Poll, 59 percent of Americans say the holiday is an excuse to cheat, allowing them to eat things they would otherwise ban from their daily diet. But 44 percent say they do everything in their power to find healthy choices for their turkey day meal."I don't know," said Dr. Fred Buckhold, a SLU Care general internist at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital. "My conflict of interest here is that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year and I plan on pigging out even though I am on a diet. So you can let that bias what I'm about to say.""I always remind people that we are here to live our life and there are times when sometimes the pleasures of life are worth living," Dr. Buckhold tells KMOX. "And I think that's important. But I also think that being reasonable and practicing moderation should always win out over the course of our life.""So if you've been good on your diet, I think a cheat day here and there is not a bad thing," said Dr. Buckhold. "It's okay once in a while to have a steak dinner. What you don't want to do is have a steak dinner every single night with a buttered potato and sour cream, and all the fixings."The Harris Poll also found 23-percent of Americans are not interested in saving Thanksgiving leftovers. And Millennials hate leftovers the most -- 32-percent say no leftovers for them. That's the stance of only 18-percent of Baby Boomers.
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