Healthy Food Swaps
HAVING WHAT YOU WANT, THE HEALTHY WAY!
Being healthy has had many different looks for me over my life. It is something I have always been interested in but for most of my younger years this meant deprivation and sacrifice. Health for many years was about what weight I was and how many calories I was eating. This led to many issues for me that definitely were not healthy, physically and emotionally, including eating disorder, adrenal fatigue and gut issues. I remember when I first found out about the difference between good fat and bad fat! Until then I thought ALL fat was bad. I was so scared that if I started having eggs for breakfast it would make me fat. I have come a long way since then and it is sad how much misinformation was and still is out there. This is one of the reasons I am so passionate about the type of food we offer at All Good Things, as well as the education about what is good and what is not.
Healthy swapping and nutrient density are my buzz words. I get excited to find ways to create any of the favourite ‘unhealthy’ options the healthy way. I find it so interesting that we can create the same meal that look exactly the same, only one is full of nasties and the other full of nutrients and goodness.
Take one of my family's favourites - Lasagne. One way to make it is with grain fed (high in bad Omega 6), preservative and antibiotic filled mince from stressed and unhappy animals, milk from the same; cheese that has more preservatives in it than actual dairy (some cheese doesn’t even need to be refrigerated!!), highly inflammatory seed oils, veggies sprayed with who knows what, and gluten laden lasagne sheets between each layer. On the other hand I can cook a lasagne that looks exactly the same with grass fed beef from free roaming happy pastured cows (high in Omega 3’s), milk straight from the cow when I can get my hands on it or homogenised at the least, raw gruyere cheese, olive oil or ghee to cook it in, organic veggies and I use finely sliced potatoes as the lasagne sheets (but there are many healthy pasta options out there too). I also sneak as many nutrients as possible into the healthy version like livers and fresh herbs.
It’s more often what you add in rather than take out that makes the difference when it comes to health. It is such an incredible difference in the quality of food and quantity of nutrients you are putting into your body from a meal that looks exactly the same either way. Yes the ingredients cost a little more but what price do you put on good health? What I have found is that I eat way less because the body is satisfied faster with the amount of nutrients in each mouthful. The stomach must let the brain know it is full quicker without all the empty calories.
There are so many little things we can ‘swap’ without much effort. Either start slow and replace one thing at a time, learning about the health benefits as you make the swap. Or go all-in and start paying more attention to everything you use, and change .
Just from changing the oil you use, from industrial seed and vegetable oils to ghee, butter, coconut or olive oil is a great way to start. Add in as many nutrients wherever you can, from fresh herbs to organ meat. We make a nori seasoning that we add to omelettes in the cafe that is roasted seaweed, sesame seeds, pepper and garlic, all ground up for adding to anything really. I make a veggie paste that I add to mashed potatoes, which provides flavour and nutrients. Swap your refined sugars out for pure maple syrup, rapadura sugar, honey or dates. Add nutrients to smoothies like maca powder, LSA, gelatin powder, mushroom extracts, MCT oil, Ningxia (if you haven’t heard of Ningxia and would like more info let me know) or many other things. We have bacon and eggs, hamburgers, pizza, all sorts of sweets and deserts including things like bone marrow baked custard. Tonight we are having ‘healthy swap’ nachos which will also be our special in the cafe this week. There is nothing I have found that cannot be reproduced in a healthy way and even boosted in taste and nutrients. Join me over at Instagram or Facebook to continue the conversation and share your healthy swaps. You can even give me something you love that you haven’t worked out a healthy swap for and we can come up with something, I promise!
More Healthy Swap Examples
Visit us in-store at All Good Things Cafe to view our range of healthy swap products available to take-home, to start you on your healthy swap journey. To learn more about these nutrient dense products, click on the images.