Turkey Day's Exempt From Low-Carb Craze

Nov. 24, 2004 -- -- The low-carb craze hasn't reached the Thanksgiving table: While turkey still reigns as Americans' favorite part of their holiday dinner, about as many as in the past are looking forward to stuffing themselves with the stuffing.

About half in this ABC News poll call turkey their favorite part of the traditional meal, but almost as many cite other Thanksgiving essentials: Thirty-four call the stuffing tops, while one in 10 single out the cranberry sauce. All are essentially unchanged since last asked in 1995.

Men are somewhat more enthusiastic than women about the turkey, 53 percent to 44 percent. Senior citizens are the least inclined to ask for seconds of stuffing -- just 24 percent call it their favorite part of the meal, compared with 36 percent of younger people.

And there's a regional difference: While turkey has a leg up in the West, Midwest and Northeast, stuffing gives it a nice run in the South, where 40 percent call it their favorite, compared with 45 percent for turkey.

What about the yams? The pumpkin pie? Just 4 percent in this poll volunteered something other than the turkey, stuffing, or cranberry sauce as their favorite. Three percent had no preference -- and less than one-half of 1 percent volunteered that they don't have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

This ABC News poll was conducted by telephone Nov. 17-21 among a random national sample of 1,012 adults. The results have a three-point error margin. Sampling, data collection and tabulation was done by TNS of Horsham, Pa.

See previous analyses in our Poll Vault.