Durham, N.C. - The traditional Thanksgiving dinner weighs in at more than 3,000 calories, with more than half those calories coming from fat. Elisabetta Politi, nutrition manager at the Duke University Diet and Fitness Center, has a good strategy to help manage our food consumption at Thanksgiving dinner.

"There's a science of weight control called 'Volumetrics,' which is based on the rationale that if you eat more food that has lower caloric density, you tend to eat less calories."

Politi says you can put this strategy into practice on Thanksgiving by mentally dividing your plate into four equal parts.

"Fill half your plate with vegetables, such as lettuce, your salad, your green beans. Divide the other half of the plate equally between some protein, which can be your turkey or ham, and the other half of that half, which can be for grains such as sweet potatoes, rice or stuffing."

Politi also recommends preparing for Thanksgiving dinner by eating smaller meals and upping your exercise time during the days before the big feast. Enjoy your Thanksgiving dinner, but do so wisely.

I'm Cabell Smith for MedMinute.