Swap Out Refined Ingredients for Healthier Meals

Eating healthier starts with cooking healthier dishes, and in order to make healthier dishes you must use healthier ingredients. Healthy ingredients are “real foods” in and of themselves, such as butter and cream, as opposed to refined and processed compilations of denatured food products, additives and preservatives, such as canned cream of mushroom soup.

So instead of relying on the "old" recipes that often use canned or packaged ingredients, you can often make the same recipes you're used to with healthier, homemade ingredients. This year when you pull out your Holiday recipes, take some time to see how you can replace the canned, boxed and processed ingredients with ingredients that are nourishing whole foods.

If the recipe calls for . . .	The MUCH healthier option to use instead is . . .
canned cream soups	homemade cream soup
margarine, low-fat dairy	organic butter or coconut oil
Cool Whip or canned whip cream	real whipped cream (organic cream, a little sugar)
store-bought bread	sprouted whole grain bread, sourdough bread
sauce and gravy mixes	homemade stock, arrowroot or kudzu, spices
white sugar	raw cane sugar, sucanat, or natural fructose
brown sugar	coconut palm date sugar, raw sugar w/molasses
Equal, Sucralose	stevia, Whey Low (crystalline fructose & lactose), Xylitol, or erythritol
Karo Syrup (corn syrup)	raw honey, real maple syrup, agave syrup, or brown rice malt syrup
white flour (refined & bleached)	whole wheat, almond, coconut, rice, quinoa flour
canned or boxed breadcrumbs	homemade breadcrumbs
graham cracker or pastry crust	ground walnut and cashew pie crust
white rice	soaked and drained brown rice or quinoa
white potatoes	sweet potatoes or yams
mashed white potatoes	mashed cauliflower or parsnips
canned cranberry sauce	fresh cranberry and orange relish
canned vegetables	fresh (best) or frozen organic vegetables

For a more complete list of healthy ingredients that you can substitute for refined and processed ingredients, click the page titled “A Healthier Lifestyle” at the top of the homepage. There you will find not only what you should substitute, but why organic, hormone-free whole food ingredients matter.

Whether you are struggling to lose weight, or lower your risk for diabetes and heart disease, you will find information on how you can reach your goals AND thoroughly enjoy your meals when you cook with high quality minimally processed ingredients. You can find also find many of the recipes that have been published, as well as many other whole food recipes, on the page titled “Healthy Recipes”.

So many of you may wonder if it’s really worth “all the trouble” to find and use healthier ingredients and to make healthier meals. As a health coach, I can say that I truly understand the process of changing your eating habits and the apprehension in trying new foods. I have also had the wonderful experience of supporting my clients through that process, and am happy to say that not only does it get easier, but that the healthy benefits (both mental and physical) of choosing and eating higher quality ingredients ends up far outweighing any initial skepticism. So as you consider your desire to enjoy many types of foods, as well as your desire to keep or improve your health, you can rest assured that with a little education and ambition, you CAN do both!