Healthy Substitutes to Save Pounds

| Photo: THINKSTOCK

By Lucky Barillas, Nutrition Counselor, MyDiet™ Team
Publicado:

By making just a few small changes in your diet and replacing certain foods, you will be able to decrease the number of calories you eat and avoid adding extra pounds.

The truth is that by replacing, for example, one slice of bread with regular cream cheese, with a whole-wheat slice of bread and lowfat cream cheese or cottage cheese, you will be saving around 41 calories and 5 grams of fat. So you can still enjoy bread with cheese, but with less calories and fat.


Keep in mind that lowfat- or low-calorie products are not necessarily foods you can eat in larger amounts. The idea is to be able to enjoy them and reduce calories and fat.

Here are some examples of healthier substitutes for some of your favorite foods :

INSTEAD OF:

USE:

AND YOU WILL SAVE:

Whole milk

Skim milk

20 calories

2.5 grams of fat

Regular mozzarella cheese

Lowfat mozzarella cheese

10 calories

1.2 grams of fat

Breakfast cereal with sugar

Whole-wheat cereal

23 calories

0.7 grams of fat

Regular sugar

Artificial sweetener

16 calories

0 grams of fat


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Chocolate chip cookie

Chocolate chip granola bar

61 calories

5.5 grams of fat

Regular Ranch dressing

Lowfat Ranch dressing

51 calories

6.5 grams of fat

1 tablespoon cooking oil

Nonstick vegetable oil spray (Pam)

120 calories

13.6 grams of fat

Regular soft drink

Diet soft drink

155 calories

0 grams of fat

TOTAL

456

CALORIES

30 GRAMS OF FAT

You will notice that this list includes foods that most people eat regularly. With these small changes alone, you can lose up to 1 pound per week or, more surprisingly, you can avoid gaining 1 pound a week. That adds up to 4 pounds each month!

So now you know that eating healthier doesn’t mean you can’t eat the foods you like; it is about selecting the healthiest foods and limiting your serving sizes.