You’re never too busy to eat well: 7 Healthy swaps to consider

Mums Tips

Feeding the Family

Published on Thursday, 15 April 2021 16:50

Last Updated on 15 April 2021

Monica Costa

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In this modern world, sometimes you can feel overwhelmed when it comes to your life. Even the simplest little daily things can take a toll, such as making food.

However, there is no excuse for eating junk food and unhealthy fast food. Usually, we order these foods as we want a pick me up, but these days it’s easier than ever to make quick meals that are arguably just as good.

That’s not to say you should completely cut out your favourite meals. On the contrary, you can swap out parts of your top dishes with healthier alternatives, helping you keep the same enjoyable taste, just with food that will be digested better for your body.

Fruit With Breakfast

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so it’s important to get it right. Everyone has time for breakfast in the morning, if you say you don’t then it’s because you’re either not getting up early enough, or you’re over complicating your meals.

When it comes to making your breakfast, ditch the sausages, move away from fatty foods, and look into adding fruit into your diet. You can add fruit into breakfasts in a few different ways.

For cereals, you can cut some bananas or strawberries into the bowl, adding a nice twist to an otherwise plain dish. Truthly, you can add any fruit to cereal, depending on your taste.

As well as cereals, you can go all out with fruit, and enjoy a cup of fruit and yoghurt. If you’re someone who’s not too sure what fruits they fancy, then adding yogurt is a great way to experiment.

Even added some slices of fruit with any meal, even toast, is a great way to try and get your five a day. There’s no excuse, it takes less than a minute to make some of these meals.

Healthy Ready Meals When Running Out Of Time

Often, it can be hard to dedicate time to making foods, as we’ve discussed. However, there is no excuse these days. You can stock up on healthy ready meals to enjoy if you feel like you’re going to be busy.

There are now ready meals that are designed with health in mind, so if you’re not sure what to have, these can eliminate your uncertainty.

There are websites available online catered for this, where you can bulk buy meals to last you a while. You should opt for a ready meal from Shake That Weight, they have a range of meals available, such as the popular chicken and bacon casserole.

Their ready meals are low in carbohydrates and calories, whilst still maintaining a high protein content. Also, a very useful feature, is that traditionally, ready meals have to be stores in a fridge, but these ready meals require no chill temperature.

They make use of state-of-the-art vacuum packing technology, meaning they can be stored anywhere in your home for when you need them.

With the meals, you can either have them cold, as they’ve already been cooked, or you can heat them up in a microwave for a few minutes. They have cooking instructions if you’re still unsure, as well as other useful nutritional information.

White Pasta For Wholewheat Pasta

When it comes to straight out swapping whole foods, you can go no wrong with swapping out white pasta for wholewheat options.

Pasta is a staple part of many people’s diets, but there is no need to completely ditch it. Wholewheat pasta still contains a lot of the taste of normal pasta, especially if you’re still adding the same sauces and ingredients, you would normally.

The benefit with wholewheat is that it’s high in fibre, and contains more vitamin E than its white counterpart. As well as that, they also contain more B vitamins and antioxidants too.

This little change won’t be majorly noticeable if you’re trying the same meals, but your body will be much happier digesting this.

White Rice Swaps

It’s a very similar story for rice too. Rice, in general, is quite good for you, but again, you can swap out to fibre-rich brown rich to get a boost.

There are different types of rice to try, you can actually get cauliflower rice, that is lighter for your stomach, with reduced calories.

The bonus with cauliflower rice, is that they can count as part of your five a day. They’re cheap to buy from most supermarkets, and worst case, you can actually make your own.

If you’re wanting to mix it up from rice, you could swap rice out for similar substitutes, such as quinoa and couscous. You can usually make meals with the same substances but the main part changed up, adding unique flavours and twists into your meals.

Water Within Foods

Let’s not forget, water is a crucial part of any healthy diet. Some people struggle getting enough daily water into their daily lives, but what you may not know, is that plenty of food actually contains water.

Cucumber is top of the table when it comes to this. They are made up of 96% water, making it the highest water content amount of any food. Logically speaking, this means it’s incredibly low in calories, and a great source of vitamins and fibre.

Most vegetables have some level of intake of water, most noticeable, tomatoes, spinach and mushrooms.

These ingredients can be used in so many sauces for a range of different meals, and can always be frozen or refrigerated for future uses.

Various Bread Swaps

When it comes to bread, there are so many different types. You have different levels of white bread, wholemeal, gluten free, rye, seeded and 50/50.

Bread is, of course, a part of many British meals, but slightly altering your bread choice can pay off big time for your health. It all comes down to the fibre. These high fibre breads, such as seeded or rye, gets digested much quicker, allowing the natural sugar to turn into energy quicker, releasing into your bloodstream.

This allows you to still enjoy fillings in your sandwich, guilt free. With so many different bread sellers, from big brands to local bakeries, there are constantly different options for bread consumption.

If you’ve never tried any different bread from a classic sliced white, then now is the perfect time to experiment around.

Low Fat Yoghurts

Yoghurts are an interesting one, as they are always targeted for dieting. Sure, they’re largely not too bad, but low fat advertised yogurts are usually packed with lots of added sugars and flavours.

So, if you are going to try and consume some yoghurt as part of your diet, consider opting for a plain version. You can always add natural flavourings, such as nuts or fruit to help make them a bit more exciting whilst still offering a healthy option. Also, it goes without saying, that yoghurts and added pieces make for a very quick meal or snack.

A better option when it comes to eating yoghurt, is to go for Greek yogurt. They are naturally lower in fat and sugar than most standard yoghurts, and some brands even have extra protein for good measure. Allowing you to feel fuller throughout the day.