Growing up in the US, I regularly ran a 4 mile race on Thanksgiving morning called the Turkey Trot and I usually ate at least two or three pieces of pumpkin pie. To these days, the rare times I can find it, it's an incredible treat. I even grew my own pumpkins for a few years.
This is my brain on pumpkin pie: (/^▽^)/
And to directly address the article, I was much thinner then than I have been in my post-pumpkin pie-eating days. There's a natural rhythm to life—both the fasting and the feasting. My great-grandparents never joined in on the turkey trot before dinner, they always had pie and they stayed rail-thin. They just had other weeks where they didn't eat so much the rest of the time and it was usually bland stuff like oatmeal or mashed potatoes.
Notable comment at the article - perhaps it would help to add a fast to go with the feast? The problem in that idea is mainly that fasts generally go with some religious purpose, dropped easily from common practice if the religion falls out of favor, while people are generally up for a feast without needing much meaning.
This is my brain on pumpkin pie: (/^▽^)/
And to directly address the article, I was much thinner then than I have been in my post-pumpkin pie-eating days. There's a natural rhythm to life—both the fasting and the feasting. My great-grandparents never joined in on the turkey trot before dinner, they always had pie and they stayed rail-thin. They just had other weeks where they didn't eat so much the rest of the time and it was usually bland stuff like oatmeal or mashed potatoes.