Study Reveals America’s 5 Least Favorite Thanksgiving Foods

When you think of Thanksgiving, you probably imagine a feast of delicious foods ready to be eaten. Whether or not you have your own traditions, chances are most everyone’s meals look pretty similar on the holiday. After all, without all the traditional foods, it wouldn’t quite feel like Thanksgiving, would it?

It sure wouldn’t. That’s actually a huge reason people still serve foods—because it’s a tradition, and not necessarily because they like the taste of it. It turns out that 68% of Americans secretly dislike a classic Thanksgiving food, but pretend to like it simply because they feel they should, according to a recent online survey conducted by Instacart with The Harris Poll. Holy turkey.

We’re not sure what’s worse—people pretending to like certain foods, or the fact people actually have a disdain for certain Thanksgiving fare. To be honest, our jaws dropped open at some of these highly disliked foods—they’re some of our favorites!

Without further ado, here are the top Thanksgiving food offenders, according to the more than 2,000 who took the survey:

  1. Canned Cranberry Sauce

    A whopping 29% of people said they couldn’t stand the traditional purple jelly that is canned cranberry sauce. In fact, 46% of participants even went to far as to call the food “disgusting.” The weird part is Instacart customers bought 50% more canned cranberry sauce than fresh cranberries last Thanksgiving, the survey reported. (Perhaps there was just an uptick in donations last year?)

  2. Green Bean Casserole

    Coming in second is green bean casserole, with 24% of people gagging at the thought. Typically made with cream of mushroom soup, crunchy onions and green beans, green bean casserole is a pretty common dish served up at most Thanksgiving feasts—and we personally think it tastes wonderful mixed with corn or atop your mashed potatoes. But we suppose we’re in the minority on this one!

  3. Sweet Potatoes/Sweet Potato Casserole

    Right behind falls 22% of people majorly disliking sweet potatoes and sweet potato casserole. Sure, the idea of stuffing marshmallows inside a starchy vegetable seems a little strange at first, but it’s really tasty if you make it right! Maybe these people just need some new recipes to follow?

  4. Pumpkin Pie

    About 94% of Americans eat pie on Thanksgiving, but about 21% of those people secretly hate the pumpkin variety (which is probably one of the most popular pies to eat on Thanksgiving!). Ironically, pumpkin also tops the list of favorite pies to eat on Thanksgiving, with a 31% vote there. So how seriously can we take this survey, anyway?

  5. Turkey

    Probably the most shocking of all is the fifth most disliked Thanksgiving dish of all: The main event: Turkey! About 19% of Americans said they hate the taste of the meat. The survey also found that of those who have hosted, 30% have served something other than turkey as the main dish. While turkey is still the most popular protein ordered for Thanksgiving, pork is a close second. How odd!

What are your favorite—and least favorite dishes to serve on Thanksgiving? Do you agree or disagree with some of these survey results?