Healthy Food Alternatives

Everyone can be a sucker for sweets; however, it’s also important for you to maintain a healthy diet. By using a few of these tips, you can establish better eating habits.

Sweets

Instead of eating artificial or refined sugars, switch them out for natural sugars. You can do this by buying fresh, dried, or dehydrated fruit. If you don’t like eating fruit plain, add yogurt or peanut butter to your fruit.

Chocolate

Dark chocolate contains more natural ingredients than milk or white chocolate. It doesn’t have added fats and sugar like the other chocolates do. There are many health benefits to eating dark chocolate. It’s full of antioxidants, can help reduce heart disease, and has compounds that help protect your skin from the sun. Dark chocolate is very healthy for you, but it should be consumed in moderation.

Coffee

Coffee at Starbucks is an expensive and unhealthy treat. A popular drink at Starbucks, a venti white chocolate mocha, has 73.8 grams of sugar. According to the American Heart Association, men should only consume 45 grams of sugar and women should consume 30 grams of sugar each day. Creamer and sugar can add on the grams of sugar to a drink. Drinking hot or iced tea with low sugar is a better alternative. This advice can be used towards energy drinks as well.

Cereal

When it comes to breakfast cereals, you should use the 5 rule: five grams of fiber, five grams of protein, and less than 5 grams of sugar per serving. Eating cereal full of refined sugars isn’t a healthy way to start your day. It’s important to make sure your cereals contain more nutrients than sugar.

Bread

Instead of buying white bread that consists of mainly refined grains, consider switching to whole grain bread. I personally enjoy “Dave’s Killer Bread” which has 21 grains of fiber in each slice of bread. The company has many other bread products like english muffins, bagels, and rolls. All of their products are organic and non-gmo certified.

Pizza

Cauliflower pizza crust is an upcoming trend. Not only is it better for you, but it actually doesn’t taste that much different than a regular pizza crust. It’s also perfect for crisp, thin crust pizzas! You can find this item at Hyvee, Target, or Trader Joes. You can expect to see it soon in every grocery store.

Muffins Muffins are a yummy breakfast food that contain a lot of sugar. A healthier alternative is kodiak cakes’s muffin in a cup. Not only do they have less sugar, but they are full of protein. All you have to do is add some water, mix the water into the muffin mix, put it in the microwave, and then you have yourself a warm muffin. Kodiak cakes also sells protein oatmeal and pancake cups for those mornings when you need a quick breakfast.

Chips

Chips are full of fat and oil. A better replacement for potato chips are veggie chips. My personal favorite veggie chips are Harvest Snaps. Instead of potato chips, they are made of green peas, black beans, and red lentil. They have more fiber, protein, and less sodium than the average chip brand. These veggies chips come in nine different flavors and are gluten free.

Tortilla Chips

Salsa, guac, or queso can be a good snack with the right chip. Instead of buying generic tortilla chips that are fried in corn oil, buy tortilla chips baked in coconut oil. Coconut oil is a healthier oil to consume. If you can’t find the chips in store, you can always make them yourself.