Read on to find healthy swaps to help you stay within your nutritional goals.
Reflect: What situations, cravings, meals, or snacks would you like to swap with healthy food?
Look at the list below for some sweet, salty, crunchy, and creamy swaps to incorporate into your daily food intake to fuel your body and meet your nutritional goals.
Swaps for sweet foods
- Fruits
- Sliced apples, frozen grapes, dates, watermelon, frozen fruit bar
- Yogurt and pudding
- Low-sugar yogurt, sugar-free pudding made with skim milk, chia pudding
- Smoothie
- Delicious smoothie recipes from the Real Foods Nutrition Guide
- Dark chocolate
- With frozen bananas, in trail mix, a piece of a candy bar
- Gum
- Sugar-free gum or mint
Swaps for salty foods
- Vegetables
- Cauliflower tots, edamame, snap peas, black olives, hummus with veggies
- Protein
- Hard-boiled eggs or canned tuna
- Snacks
- Popcorn, baked sweet potato chips, rice cakes, peanut butter
Swaps for crunchy foods
- Vegetables
- Raw veggies with plain Greek yogurt, kale and veggie chips, snap peas, edamame
- Protein
- Unsalted nuts, crispy chickpeas, peanut butter and celery
- Whole grains
- Baked tortilla chips, whole-grain cereal (no added sugar), or homemade sweet potato chips
Swaps for creamy foods
- Avocado
- Plain avocado spread on bread, veggies dipped in guacamole
- Warm nut butter
- Peanut, almond, cashew, sunflower
- Hummus
- Chickpea, black bean, carrot, edamame, avocado
- Pureed berries
- Blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries
Swaps for sugary beverages
- Sparkling water or water infusions
- Unsweetened ice tea
- Coffee (black or low-fat options without sugar or whipped cream)
- Red wine (5-ounce glass)
- Red wine contains more antioxidants than hard liquor
Remember to check the nutrition labels when looking for healthy swaps, practice portion control, and continue tracking your calories.
Make your homemade meals a healthier version with these easy ingredient swaps:
Ingredient swaps
What healthy swaps will you use? Which of your favorite recipes could use an ingredient swap?
Little changes in your nutrition can go a long way. Healthy home cooking and grocery shopping set you up for a healthy and nutritious week.
Challenge yourself to incorporate swaps into your week. Maybe you and your family and friends will find a new favorite meal.