Great Cooking with Chef Shane

With the Holidays here and New Year’s resolutions just around the corner, now is a good time to start adding healthier alternatives to your diet without diminishing your enjoyment of eating all those delicious foods.

It is a fact that a lot of people are used to eating what they want. Many find it hard to make a healthy change in their diet. Eating healthier foods is easier than you think. By knowing the healthy alternatives to what you are eating, you can make a huge difference in your diet and health.

There is no need to sacrifice a lot just because you need to make healthier food choices. Once you know the better alternatives to swap your food with, the new diet will be easier to follow. Here are healthy food and drink swaps you can do:

For Breakfast:

• Instead of drinking whole milk, drink skimmed, semi-skimmed or 1% fat milk.

• Choose a fat-free Greek-style yogurt over a full-fat Greek yogurt.

• Top your breakfast cereal with fresh or dried fruit instead of sprinkling sugar on your cereals.

• Pick a wholegrain breakfast cereal over a sugar-coated breakfast cereal.

For Lunch:

• If you want a cheesy sandwich, ditch the cheddar cheese and opt for a reduced-fat hard cheese instead.

• If you like eating a jacket potato, use reduced-fat spread, less salt and sugar baked beans instead of cheese and butter.

• Instead of eating bagels, muffins and white bread, buy wholegrain pastry and bread.

• Swap eating a tuna melt Panini and opt for a tuna sandwich with wheat bread and no mayo.

For Snacks:

• Pick unsalted nuts over salted nuts

• Prepare rice cakes with lower-fat cream cheese instead of eating cheese straws

• Instead of yogurt-coated raisins, buy plain raisins.

• It is time to ditch the blueberry muffin and grab a currant bun. You can use reduced-fat spread for some flavor.

For Dinner:

• When eating meat, choose the leaner cuts (less fat). For instance, eat back bacon instead of streaky bacon.

• If you are a pasta lover, it is time to ditch the cheesy and creamy sauces first. Opt for vegetable-based or tomato-based sauces for your pasta. This is also applicable for meat and fish dishes.

• If you plan to cook meat, grill instead of frying.

• Mash potatoes with butter and whole milk are delicious but very fattening. Opt for mash potato with low-fat milk, semi-skimmed milk or skimmed milk and low-fat spread.

For Beverages:

• When drinking hot chocolate, ditch the whole milk and whipped cream. Use skimmed milk instead.

• When drinking coffee, drink skinny coffee with skimmed milk instead.

• It is time to sacrifice sugary drinks and replace them with good old H2O.

These healthy food swaps are really not so bad right? You just have to know the right alternative by choosing less-fat, less-sugar and less-salty foods. Keep this list in mind to help you change your diet.