4 Easy Food Swaps For A Healthy Lifestyle

You could go on a crazy purge of your fridge and pantry and that might work for you to encourage healthy eating, but let’s not be quite so drastic unless necessary, yeah?

Although your kitchen may benefit from a detox, an empty fridge is like a stab in the guts (sorry to be so graphic!), not to mention stressful.

Don’t get us wrong, it can be a physically and emotionally cleansing experience to rid your kitchen of nasties, but what is more important is that your healthy lifestyle choices stick.

For most of us, turning our eating habits upside down overnight is simply unrealistic, and may feel like a punishment – but don’t beat yourself up. Big changes can be alienating and disheartening, causing you to fall back into old habits.

Soon enough, processed foods might creep back into your cupboard and you’re back to square one.

Our advice? Make small positive changes with these 4 food swaps.

Refined (white) for Wholegrain (brown)

Make the switch from refined to wholegrain foods. White rice for brown rice, white bread for wholegrain bread, plain flour for wholegrain flour and plain rice crackers for wholegrain rice crackers.

You get the idea, and do it at your own pace. Even substituting half white rice for half brown rice is a step towards healthier living as you adapt to include more nutritious and fibre rich foods into your diet.

You’re not alone – we’ve been there, and it’s worked for us. Now white bread seems dull in comparison to nourishing, wholegrain and seeded varieties.

Regular Pasta For Veggie Pasta

Skip the high carb pasta options once in a while for a nutritious zucchini, carrot or butternut pumpkin spirals.

Not just for the little ones, this fun swap ‘hides’ vegetables in plain sight and reduces your calorie intake at dinner time.

If you don’t have a vegetable spiralizer, a peeler or mandolin should to the trick in creating pasta-like ribbons. Sauté in a pan, garnish with your favourite herbs and enjoy!  

Soft Drinks For Carbonated Water

Consuming excessive soft drink can put a huge bump on your journey towards a heathier you. Our trick? Good ol’ fashioned H20.

Add a slice of your favourite citrus (lemon and lime work wonders) into carbonated water and you’ve got a bubbly delight enriched with vitamin C and a zing of freshness with very minimal calories and virtually no sugar. 

Hot Chocolate for Chocolate Tea

Chocoholics - we’ve got your back.

We know the joy of curling up with a steaming hot chocolate on a cold morning, night…. whatever time of day it is and we’re not going to deny you that feeling.   

You may have already made the swap from high sugar milk chocolate to antioxidant-rich dark chocolate, (or even dark chocolate for cacao nibs if you’re a super foodie!), but we’re going to let you in on a secret.

Chocolate tea.

It’s made by brewing boiling water with a teaspoon of cacao husks (the shell of the cocoa bean) and contains zero, nil, absolutely zip sugar.

Not only are you boosting your water intake (which your body loves!), you're skipping the sugary hot beverages that may affect your health.