The holiday season can make it tough to keep your nutrition balanced unless you have the right healthy food swaps. These are ingredients you can use in place of traditional options that come with far more nutrition. This way, with the right changes, you can enjoy the meals and desserts you love but with a nutritional boost.
As you make your Christmas dinner and bake your desserts, consider making a few healthy food swaps so that you can give your family more nutritious options. By doing this, you won’t spend the holiday season eating empty calories that will only cause weight gain without supporting your body at the same time.
Top Healthy Food Swaps for Your Holiday Season
Use Natural Sweeteners
All sugar is sugar. Whether you sweeten with honey, maple syrup or refined white sugar, your body processes it all the same way. However, when you choose certain natural sweeteners, it can come with additional health benefits and characteristics aside from simply being sweet. Therefore, while they may both give your body the same hit of glucose, some natural sweeteners also come with some added nutrition that simply isn’t there in white sugar or artificial sweeteners.
Use Quinoa in Place of Rice
Quinoa is an ancient grain that is highly nutritious. It’s originally from South America, where it has grown for thousands of years. It is a highly versatile grain that tastes slightly nutty. It works as a fantastic substitute for rice in many recipes. By using it among healthy food swaps, you provide yourself with more fiber, nutrients and even protein than you would receive from eating white rice. By choosing red and black quinoa seeds instead of the regular white ones, you’ll also benefit from additional polyphenol antioxidants.
Use Chia Seeds in Place of Eggs
Chia seeds are tiny seeds grown in Central and South America with a striking amount of nutrition. This makes them ideal among healthy food swaps. They are often known as superfoods. In fact, they’re frequently recognized as being near the top of the list of superfoods. This is due to their high levels of protein, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins and minerals.
At the same time, they have a unique property in that they form a gel after they have soaked in water. By combining one tablespoon of chia seeds with 3 tablespoons of cold water, the result is expanded, gelled seeds. In that form, they make a wonderful and nutritious egg substitute.
