How To Switch Out Common Ingredients For Healthier Options

Healthy eating doesn’t have to be complicated, in fact, there are many ways to make small tweaks to your diet that ultimately improve the health factor, without having to make large sacrifices. One of these easy tweaks is learning how to switch out common ingredients for healthier options. These small switches won’t be super noticeable taste-wise, but it will take your cooking to the next level health-wise.

Knowing how to switch out common ingredients for healthier options may take some work at first, but soon it will become second-nature to you. Here are some quick replacements!

• Swap out your white rice for quinoa. Quinoa is a much healthier option and will help to fill you up the same way rice does, with extra boosts of protein, iron, and other good benefits. It’s not known as a superfood for no reason.
• Swap out your regular cooking oils for coconut oil. Coconut oil can be used in place of butter, on popcorn, in smoothies, and just for helping to brown some ground turkey.
• Swap out your salt for Pink Himalayan salt, it will taste the same, but features less sodium, with a saltier taste, so you won’t even notice the difference!
• Exchange your peanut butter for almond butter instead. You’ll get more vitamins and minerals, with less fat and sugar per serving, making this a great alternative for on your morning toast or bagel.
• Swap out milk for almond milk. Studies are showing that cow’s milk isn’t that great for our bodies anyway, and almond milk tastes just as good. The only thing to keep in mind is that almond milk generally doesn’t have calcium, so you’ll need to get that elsewhere.
• Get rid of soda and drink tea instead. You already know how bad soda is for you, and if you drink it for the caffeine, there are caffeinated types of teas out there, so you can still get your caffeine fix, just with a healthy twist. With so many flavors and types, you won’t get bored of tea easily and can drink it hot or iced.
• Swap iceberg lettuce for romaine. Romaine has more nutritional benefits than the standard iceberg lettuce, and it’s an easy swap to give your lunchtime salads an extra boost.
• Drop the bag of chips and reach for some popcorn instead. We all have those salty cravings, and you can eat popcorn to satisfy that craving, choose your flavor, and still eat fewer calories than a small serving of chips.
• Ditch the sugar for Stevia. It’s an all-natural sweetener, not an artificial one, and you can use much less than you would sugar to get the same sweet taste.

There are so many small tweaks you can make to switch out common ingredients for healthier options, and it really won’t affect the taste, but it will certainly improve the health benefits.