As we all struggle to eat healthy we try to pick up the best healthy food options we see at aisle of grocery store.
But what we forget, which is in actual the most important thing to do while buy things is to read the labels!
Just because food products have organic, low -fat, all natural, herbal ,real fruit written on them, it does not mean they get #Nutritionist approval.
There is no such thing as "good" or "bad" food but long-term including certain food containing lots of added sugar, sodium or oil can lead to unintentional health conditions like #diabetes #highcholesterol #hypertension #PCOS and many more.
To improve your long-term health, check out the list below and check the list of few easy swap alternative that you make it at home.
Flavoured Yogurt:
When you are out for something sweet, yogurt bars may seem the healthiest choice among ice-creams or donuts or pastries. But what people do not see are all the hidden ingredients. Most of the flavoured yogurts contain lots of sugar or artificial flavouring/syrups or sweetened fruits.
Its no wonder it causes spike in blood glucose which ultimately leads to sugar crash, making your stomach grumbling an hour later.
Swap it: Instead of these flavoured yogurts , choose a unsweetened greek yogurt full-fat or coconut/almond home-made yogurt. Top then with berries and sprinkle some crunchy pumpkin. This taste delicious and will keep you full for hours.
Granola Bars:
On the surface, many granola bars and energy bars look like a healthy option. They have chunk of dried fruits, oats, nuts and even dark chocolate at times. It is like a packet full of LOVE.
But when you flip their label and check ingredient list, it contains high fructose, corn syrups and hydrogenated oil.
Swap it: Make a home-made energy ladoos with dates , oats , nuts , seeds and coconut oil to have a good on the go snack or great mid-meal snack.
Bakes Vegetable Chips:
We all love chips!! Instead of fried potato chips which are everyones favourite but extremely high in calories it becomes very easy to replace them with baked vegetable chips.
Unfortunately, you are not getting a touch of sweet potatoes or beetroot or squash in these chips. Most brands use veggie powder to give the chips vibrant colour. And even if they are "baked" amount of oil use to make them crispy is a-lot. They are even salted heavily to give a nice taste.
In short - majority of what you are eating is potato starch, corn flour and lots of salt.
Swap it: Make and bake vegetable chips at home . Slice the vegetables, drizzle a the slices with olive oil and sprinkle herbs and bake them in oven until they are brown and crisp.
Nut Butter
Ok wait!! don't get me wrong here yes nut butter are healthy but not the nut butter which we generally find in commercial stores. It is very import to check their labels.
If you nut butter label says nuts + sugar + hydrogenated oil, it's all wrong.This is the reason why we cannot stop at just 1 tablespoon.
Swap it: You actual don't need to swap the nut butter but look out of nut butter with only has nuts (almonds/peanuts/cashew etc) and nothing else. Nut butters are very easy to make at home too.
Low- fat Salad dressing:
"Low-fat" as term is something people relate too as "healthy" but low-fat are not always the best healthy options. As soon as the product is low-fat it is often replaced with added sugar, salt and high fructose corn syrup, which in the end is very high in empty calories not making it anywhere near heathy!!
It is also very important to understand fats are not bad for us. We required them to absorb and synthesis all fat soluble vitamins.
Swap it: Salad dressing are easy to make at home with fresh herbs, spices, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, soya sauce, chilli and some lemon juice can be an amazing replacement to all those commercial bottled salad dressings.
Do you have other healthy swaps for these not-so-healthy foods? Do let us know in comments below :)
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