Healtheir food swaps to make at the supermarket
By our PCYC Ashmore Gym+Fitness Team
Making small, mindful choices about your food can have a significant impact on your long-term health. By incorporating healthy food swaps into your diet, you can seamlessly replace less nutritious options with more nutrient-dense alternatives. If you’re considering a change today, here are a few easy swaps to get you started.
Soft drinks
Any soft drinks can be swapped for sparkling water with fresh ingredients like mint leaves and cucumbers. If you prefer a sweeter option, try a glass of water with ice cubes made from fresh fruit.
This will reduce your sugar and kilojule intake, as well as the risk of tooth decay and diabetes.
Museli
Supermarket museli’s with added sugar or dried fruit can be swapped with plain porridge with fresh berries or bananas. Try and stick to whole oats as instant porridge contains a higer glycaemic index (GI).
Not only will this satisfy your cravings, whole oats are wholegrains and can help lower LDL cholesterol (known as the “bad” cholesterol).
Many commercial muselis are high in sugar and salt, and when they include sweetened dried fruit and banana chips, this makes it even higher.
White bread
An easy swap for white bread is wholegrain or multigran bread.
Wholegrains are higher in fiber than the refined grains in most white bread, so they keep you fuller for longer and help lower LDL cholesterol.
Fruit-flavoured yoghurts
These high-sugar yoghurts can be swapped for plain yoghurt, or Greek yoghurt with fresh fruit.
Not only does this swap contain substanitially less sugar, fresh fruit boosts your dietary fiber and antioxidant intake. If you opt for the Greek yoghurt, this contains twice as much protein as regular yoghurt! This will keep you fuller for longer
Pre-made pasta sauce
The easiest swap for supermarket pasta sauce is to make your own! Most pasta sauces take 20 minutes to make, and you can control everything that’s added to the sauce. With simple, fresh ingredients like tomatoes, onion, garlic, herbs and vegetables, homemade sauce can taste even better than the pre-made jars.
Most supermarket pasta sauces are packed wirth sugar and salt, so by making your own sauce, you have the ability to reduce your kilojule, sugar, and salt intake. You can also increase your vitamin and antioxidant intake.
If you don’t have the time or energy to whip up your own, you can view our healthier spaghetti bolognese recipe which contains better-for-you pasta sauces from the supermarket.
Potato chips
Crunchy chips can be swapped for raw vegetable sticks like carrots, celery, cucumber or capsicum, accompanied with dips like low-sodium hummus, avocado or plain yoghurt dip.
Potato chips are high in saturated fats, salt, and kilojules. By replacing them with fresh raw vegetables sticks with a dip boosts your vegetable intake, reduces the risk or gaining wait and reduces the risk of getting some cancers.
Pre-made salad dressings
Salad dressings bought from the supermarket, like the pasta sauce, are healtheir if you make your own. Homemade salad dressings with extra virgin olive oil, lemon or balsamic vinegar contain a range of health benefits.
Most supermarket salad dressings are often full of sodium which raises blood pressure, and contain extra sugars. Extra virgin olive oil is loaded with antoxidants and has proven benefits for weight control and heart health.
Ice cream
Icre creams can be swapped with frozen mango, or half a banana frozen on a stick and dipped in dark chocolate.
Ice cream is high in carbohydrates (sugars), fat, kilojules and low in nutirients. Even though frozen mango is also high in carbohydrates, it has the added health benefits of being high in fibre, vitamin C and antioxidants. Desserts with bananas contain high fibre, vitamic C and antioxidants and potassium which reduces blood pressure. Choosing dark chocolate over other chocolate (in moderation) also has many health benefits, including antioxidants.
These simple changes can lead to a better, healthier you, so why not choose some of these swaps next time you visit the shops.