By Hiba Giacoletto, Healthwise
A simple and effective approach to start eating more healthy is to switch to healthier alternatives of foods you commonly consume.
Here are my top five healthier switches.
1. Regular salt -> Unrefined salt such as sea salt, Himalayan salt or Celtic salt
Regular salt is refined and stripped of plenty of beneficial minerals that are naturally found in salt. Switch to unrefined salt which is a little grey or pink in color rather than white. Using an unrefined salt is much more important than trying to limit the amount you use since unrefined salt is an essential part of a healthy diet.
2. White sugar -> Dates, maple syrup, brown rice syrup, molasses or honey
Instead of white, refined sugar that is completely void of nutrients and spikes blood sugar levels rapidly, switch to natural sweeteners that are full of nutrients and are more gentle on blood sugar levels. My favorites are dates, maple syrup, brown rice syrup, honey and molasses.
3. Vegetable oil, canola oil or sunflower oil for cooking -> Coconut oil or ghee
Oils such as canola oil or sunflower oil become toxic when heated. Switch to saturated fats such as coconut oil and ghee, a clarified butter, which are better adapted to high temperatures and taste delicious. If you cook with olive oil, make sure you use only gentle heat - up to 180 degrees Celsius maximum as it will also become toxic with higher heat.
4. Fruit yogurt -> Natural full-fat yogurt, without added sugar
Fruit yoghurt tends to be very high in sugar. Switch to natural, full-fat yoghurt and add your own fresh fruit. You can even blend the fruit (including frozen berries) with the natural yoghurt if you don’t want pieces of fruit in your yoghurt.
5. Farmed salmon -> Wild salmon
Even if farmed salmon is ‘organic’, always choose wild salmon as its health benefits are far superior. Farmed salmon are actually grey since they are not eating their natural diet and are dyed so that they look as red as wild salmon.
Start with any of the five points above, making one switch at a time. You will see that this will feel a lot more natural and will allow you to avoid an ‘all or nothing’ approach to eating more healthy!
Author's bio
Hiba Giacoletto is a Certified Health Coach from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN) with a Masters Degree in Psychology
Hiba helps people lose weight, feel more energetic or take control of their eating without diets or deprivation. She believes that no one way of eating or living works for everyone and that it is about experimenting to find what truly works for you. She uses a unique blend of NUTRITION + PSYCHOLOGY + COACHING to help people start trusting their body's wisdom to make food and lifestyle choices that enable them to look and feel their best. She is convinced that regardless of what you might have tried in the past, she can help you get unstuck, overcome self-sabotage behavior and find your mojo!
You can book a FREE 45 minute Health Chat via her website, www.healthwise.ch to find out whether Health Coaching is right for you.
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