Healthy Food Swaps To Lower Cholesterol or Lose Weight

If you want to eat healthier, there’s never been a better time to start. The food industry is finally listening to consumers and offering a vast array of healthier options.

These are my top 7 swaps to help lower my cholesterol:

If you love mayonaise on your sandwich, you can now substitite Olive Oil mayo or even Canola Oil mayo for original mayonaise and save yourself 30 calories and 4 grams of fat. I cut out mayonaise completely from my diet and I put Wasabi Mustard on my sandwiches for 60 fewer calories and 8.5 fewer fat grams per 1T serving.

I don’t use Mayonaise to make tuna or chicken salad either. I use Greek Yogurt instead. It has only 8.5 calories per tablespoon and no fat, so it’s a huge savings compared to mayonaise. You need to spice it up a little more with some vinegar, salt, pepper etc., but it’s really good!

I never was a big soda drinker, but based on all the studies on how they negatively affect your health, I’m glad I’m not. I drink a mixture of juice and flavored seltzer water instead. If you use cranberry, pomegranite, blueberry, blackberry, or other antioxident rich juices you get anti-aging  benefits as well as cutting out 75 calories, 20 grams of sugar, and 37 mg of sodium per glass.

I rarely eat red meat anymore, swapping ground turkey for just about everything you would use ground beef for. Turkey burgers, turkey chilli, turkey lasagna… Yum! As with all the swaps it takes some getting used to, and some adjustments in how you cook and spice it, but with the huge savings of fat and calories, it’s worth it. A 4 oz. serving of ground beef contains a whopping 290 calories and 23 grams of fat while a 4 oz. serving of ground turkey has 160 calories and 7 grams of fat.

Butter. Tough one. The swaps don’t save you that much, and it’s in everything. I try to avoid it as much as possible. I’ve learned to eat bread plain, limit baked goods, and ask waitstaff at restaurants to have my food cooked with olive oil. For my family I get Smart Balance because it does contain 20 fewer calories per tablespoon than butter.

Sandwich breads are secret hiding places for extra calories and sugars. I use Flax & Omega-3 Lavash Roll-ups instead of bread. Two slices of white/wheat swirl bread can add 220 calories and 8 grams of sugar to your sandwich. The lavash is 100 calories with 0 sugars.

I’m a big chocoholic so it’s hard for me to cut out baked goods, especially cookies. But they’re made with butter and eggs, so I try not to eat them. Instead I have a small handful of Dark Chocolate Peanut M&M’s. Dark chocolate actually has some health benefits like lowering blood pressure and fighting free-radicals. Nuts are also a big part of a heart-healthy diet. A serving of 6 Dark Chocolate Peanut M&M’s has half the calories and fat of 1 chocolate chip cookie.

Watch my video to see the full calorie comparisons on these swaps at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPY9W2b1UDM