Guest Contributor: Amanda has her fingers in many pies, she’s is a Chartered Accountant, Personal Trainer AND a Commonwealth Powerlifter. Amanda writes about health, fitness and clean recipes to satisfy her sweet tooth with the occasional travel and personal finance post (stratifying that inner Chartered Accountant) over on Move Love Eat.
There are so many diets, fads and well choices out there when it comes to food. What is healthy and what isn’t? What is healthy for someone may not be healthy for the next person! For example swapping from white bread to brown bread is a better option for most people but for those who are gluten intolerant it isn’t really going to help. What a confusing world we live in!
I’ve put together a list of 10 Healthy Food Swaps which should suit most lifestyles, small changes can make a big difference overall, so what are you waiting for?
- Swap prepacked fruity yoghurt for plain greek yoghurt (preferably homemade, we use the easiyo maker) with some fruit sliced through it. I had plain greek yoghurt with some sliced peaches and coconut chips the other day and it was delicious!
- Swap the creamy packaged salad dressing for a homemade dressing, try some greek yoghurt with a bit of lemon, add a touch of honey if it is too tangy for you without.
- Swap the croutons in your salad for some nuts and seeds, the croutons are generally only good because they are crunchy, adding a few nuts in the salad increases the fats which help keep you fuller for longer and still gives you that crunch!
- Swap cereals for oats. If you’re not an oat fan hear me out on this one, cereals are packed full of sugars and oats can be dressed up anyway you like! I like to addsome stewed apples, a few chopped dried strawberries and some protein powder or greek yoghurt for a bit of flavour.
- Swap full fat dairy ice cream for banana based icecream. Sometimes you just need to eat the icecream, but on other occasions blitzing up a banana will satisfy the craving for something sweet without the sugar crash later on.
- Swap lollies for dried fruit. Whilst dried fruit tastes like lollies and shouldn’t be consumed in large portions as they still have a lot of sugar, I’m in the camp that they are way better for you than lollies and a great swap.
- Increase the % of cacao in your chocolate. If you regularly eat dairy chocolate slowly start bumping it up until you have 85-90% chocolate, these are a lot more bitter so are harder to eat a lot and also contain a lot less sugar than standard dairy milk chocolate.
- Swap chips for popcorn, nuts or rice crackers. The thing most of us like about chips is that they are crunchy and have some flavour on them. Try swapping for air popped popcorn with a touch of salt, a handful of nuts or even a few rice crackers. Be mindful of your portion sizes as these are all foods you can just eat and eat so only dish up what you need.
- Ditch the packaged marinades and flavours for your meat in favour of herbs and spices. A little garlic, ginger and mixed herbs goes great with pretty much any meet. Other flavours we often use are turmeric and paprika. Packaged marinades and sauces are full of sugar and other additives and you can get great flavours out of herbs and spices with little effort.
- Ditch the tortilla or hamburger bun. Often when you have a wrap or hamburger you order (or cook) fries as well, I don’t know about you but I struggle to fit all the carbohydrates in and quite frankly I don’t need them all. Try having homemade wraps or burgers without the bun, use lettuce leaves instead it’s still damn tasty and you notice the flavours more as the bread isn’t getting in the way!
There we go lovelies, 10 easy food swaps you can bring into your lifestyle!
