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Tofurky, anyone? If your Thanksgiving guest has special dietary needs, there are options

Every year, family and friends gather for Thanksgiving, expanding out tables to shoehorn in a few extra bodies. Kitchen tables meet dining tables and extend through both rooms into the living room, covered in orange, brown and white tablecloths.
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Tasty meals are available if one of your Thanksgiving guests happens to be a vegetarian.

Every year, family and friends gather for Thanksgiving, expanding out tables to shoehorn in a few extra bodies. Kitchen tables meet dining tables and extend through both rooms into the living room, covered in orange, brown and white tablecloths.

Traditions change from family to family. Mine goes for the classic turkey, mashed potatoes, turnips – and of course, gravy.

Last year, I brought a friend to Thanksgiving dinner – her family lives out of the country – and she, like so many more people these days, it seems, is a vegetarian. She has been vegetarian her whole life, and isn't the type to push her preferences on other people – to be honest, sometimes I forget.

So, sitting at the dining table covered in steaming foods, I took stock of how dietary restrictions can come in to play on an occasion like Thanksgiving – luckily she's a big fan of root vegetables.

"We have definitely noticed over the past few years that people are turning to different options," said Tristica Curley, a registered dietician. "They're making changes to that traditional turkey meal."

Udi's, a gluten-free food product producer, found in their Thanksgiving survey that about five per cent of people are trying to make their Thanksgiving meals gluten-free.

"And we know that outside of Thanksgiving, using B.C. residents for example, 17 per cent are choosing low-gluten or gluten-free diets," said Curley.

When it comes to Thanksgiving, luckily a good portion of the usual spread is gluten-free: meat and vegetables in particular. However, invite a few more people to that table – mine has seen in-laws, siblings of cousins by marriage and the aforementioned friend – and all could potentially come with their own distinct dietary restriction.

The Alaska Highway News has put together a list, a tool-kit per se, of some of the necessities to satisfy the more common food sensitivities. Staying within the city limits, you should have all (or at least a good portion) of what you need to put together an alternative Thanksgiving dinner here in Fort St. John.

Starting with a protein source, the turkey, or for some people, ham. Both of these would satisfy the gluten or dairy-free diets, but are an obvious concern for the vegetarians.

After several stops around town and various conversations with skeptical grocery clerks, one Tofurky provider was found. Complete with stuffing, the turkey-flavoured tofu option can be purchased frozen at Homesteader Health.

Otherwise, the major grocery stores offer different varieties of meat-flavoured tofu – enter tofacon, tofu burgers and dogs, and a selection of tofu sausages. If these options don't seem to fit the occasion, there's always the option of supplementing with the other meat-free goods on the table.

"You'll want a couple kinds of starches," said Curley, noting that mashed potatoes and stuffing generally account for this.

While potatoes are an easy find at grocery stores around town, depending on the recipe, a dairy component could be required for the mash. Homesteader offers a soy-based sour cream and cream cheese spread that could offer an option for the dairy-free cooks, in place of butter or traditional sour cream.

Whether stovetop or stuffed, dressing is usually made with some portion of bread product. As well as Homesteader, the major supermarkets all offer gluten-free breads, as well as a selection of alternative flours if baking from scratch is your fancy.

Celiac disease has increased fourfold over the past 50 or 60 years, said Curley.

"The current prevalence rates are 1 in 100," she said. "Food companies have gotten very good at producing gluten-free products."

Salad dressings and sauces are one area that Curley noted often have gluten. With gravies, she said a vegetable base is always an option to replace a meat broth and using corn starch or an alternative flour – available at all of the grocery outlets – can thicken the sauce rather than a glutinous flour. Gluten-free gravy mixes are sold at the Wholesale Club, as well as a broad selection of gluten-free salad dressings.

"Regardless of what your limitation is, you always want to include several types of vegetables," said Curley.

Luckily, the base of these dishes tends to follow most dietary rules. And if covering the cauliflower in cheese is the only way to get the kids to eat it, Fick said there are various products out now that adequately substitute for those with dairy intolerances.

"If the kids can have something, rather than being singled out as 'you can't have that while everyone else is eating it,' to still give them something, especially if they're lactose-intolerant or that sort of thing," he said.

One of the most important parts of any Thanksgiving dinner is always the dessert.

"There are a lot of really great pumpkin desserts you can make that are really high in fibre and that are good for you," said Curley. If nixing the pie crust will keep more diners on board, she suggested a pumpkin crisp or a pumpkin pudding.

"For me, the biggest thing as a dietician — most of my clients have a dietary restriction, even if it's weight loss — is always to try to find different ways to make them feel satisfied and not like they're missing out," said Curley. "With Thanksgiving dinner, there are so many options you can choose from that you don't have to feel like you're missing out."