Get out your carving knives, roasting pans and deep-dish pie plates.

It’s time to celebrate the bounty of the season.

For many of us that means a dinner where plates are piled high with slices of succulent turkey and mounded with a selection of traditional trimmings: creamy mashed potatoes covered in swirls of brown gravy. Savoury stuffing. Jewel-red cranberry jelly. Vegetables, maybe corn and green beans. A fluffy dinner roll spread with butter. And, of course, a generous wedge of pumpkin pie.

Thanksgiving dinner may be the one meal of the year where caution gets left at the dining room door.

So, we have no plans to deter you from stuffing yourself with stuffing, or making you forgo that second piece of pie. But we thought we would provide a nutrition snapshot of the classic Canadian Thanksgiving dinner. Just as a friendly F.Y.I.

Some of you may be cringing. We were worried, too.

But the lab came back with good news: This food-filled plate is not as calorific as you might think!

One more thing to be thankful for on Thanksgiving.

With 1,125 calories, this dinner is about half of the average woman’s recommended daily calorie intake, and 47 per cent of the average man’s.

Few of us will be counting calories on Thanksgiving. But if you are, leaving the dinner roll and pat of butter in the bread basket will save about 125 calories. With all the other goodies on the table, you may not even miss the bun.

The 31 grams of fat is about half of what the average woman should consume in a day, and a third of a man’s daily needs.

None of these items are particularly fatty on their own. So taking a little less of everything (and asking the cook to be judicious with the butter) is really the only way to shave off some fat.

The 1,554 mg of sodium is just a tad higher than the amount Health Canada recommends people aim to consume in a day for optimal health.

For those worried about their sodium intake, passing on the gravy and stuffing will cut out one third of the sodium out of this meal.

Verdict: Tuck in and enjoy! Thanksgiving happens once a year.

Dishes that have more calories

Nutrition experts and those of you who are very particular about your health may disagree with the conclusion that this Thanksgiving dinner is not a calorie bomb.

But here at The Dish, we have seen many more frightening meals.

For example:

• The chicken pad Thai from Thai Express has 1,131 calories, 40 grams of fat and 2,594 mg of sodium. That one box of noodles has the same amount of calories, more fat and 1,000 mg more sodium than this entire Thanksgiving meal.

• The large Dairy Queen mocha MooLatte, which clocks in with 820 calories and 31 grams of fat, has the same amount of fat as this entire Thanksgiving meal — in a drink.

• The Junior League nachos at Wayne Gretzky’s contains 2,197 calories, 141 grams of fat and 3,474 mg of sodium. Split them, as Wayne recommends, and the platter still has 35 grams more fat than this entire Thanksgiving meal.

Note about nutrition results

The Dish sent the entire Thanksgiving meal, as seen in the picture and including the dinner roll and dessert, to the lab for testing.

Nutrition information for individual items was calculated from either the Nutrition Facts Table provided on a food’s packaging, or from the Canadian Nutrient File, the database provided by Health Canada which lists nutrient values in Canadian food.

Nutrition information for individual items is provided as an estimate of their nutrient content. This explains the discrepancy in the total nutrition numbers for the individual food items and the lab-verified results.

Knorr Classic Roast Turkey Gravy Mix

Serving size: ¼ cup

Calories: 20

Fat: 0

Sodium: 340 mg

Protein: 1 gram

Carbohydrates: 4 grams

Ocean Spray Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce

Serving size: 2 tablespoons

Calories: 60

Fat: 0

Sodium: 5 mg

Protein: 0

Carbohydrates: 14 grams

Kraft Stove Top Turkey Stuffing Mix

Serving size: ½ cup

Calories: 160

Fat: 1 gram

Sodium: 420 mg

Protein: 3 grams

Carbohydrates: 23 grams

Frozen corn

Serving size: ¼ cup

Calories: 35

Fat: 0.5 gram

Sodium: 0

Protein: 1 gram

Carbohydrates: 7 grams

Green bean casserole, made with Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup

Serving size: ½ cup

Calories: 107

Fat: 6 grams

Sodium: 353 grams

Protein: 2 grams

Carbohydrates: NA

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Mashed potatoes, made with butter and milk

Serving size: ½ cup

Calories: 121

Fat: 5 grams

Sodium: 315 mg

Protein: 2 grams

Carbohydrates: 19 grams

Roast turkey breast

Serving size: Two large slices, about 300 grams

Calories: 477

Fat: 3 grams

Sodium: 47 mg

Protein: 32 grams

Carbohydrates: 0

Dinner roll

Calories: 88

Fat: 2 grams

Sodium: 152 mg

Protein: 3 grams

Carbohydrates: 15 grams

Pat of butter

Calories: 36

Fat: 4 grams

Sodium: 29 mg

Protein: 0

Carbohydrates: 0

Pumpkin pie

Serving size: 1/8 of 10” pie

Calories: 300

Fat: 7 grams

Sodium: 260 mg

Protein: 6 grams

Carbohydrates: 54 grams

Irresistibles Light Whipped Cream

Serving size: 2 tablespoons

Calories: 15

Fat: 0.75 gram

Sodium: 5 mg

Protein: 0.5 grams

Carbohydrates: 1.5 grams

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