5 Food Substitutions to be Healthier!
Channel: Happy Holistics
Date: 2017-01-12

1) Swap out processed grains like white rice with whole grains like brown rice or even better, sprouted brown rice.  Whole grains have their husks, fibre and nutrients intact, while the processing of them into white products removes them.  Fibre is great for healthy poops, slowing the release of sugar into the blood and making you feel fuller for longer.  Sprouted grains produce their own enzymes and nutrients, which packs a bigger nutritional punch.
Yes, the texture is completely different and I do remember being pretty miserable for the first few weeks of making the switch, but my palate adjusted and I’ve eating brown rice for over 7 years.  
2) Substitute half of the red meat in recipes with mild-tasting veggies like cauliflower.  For example, if you’re doing tacos, make the cauliflower into crumbles and do half beef, half cauliflower.  You’re still retaining the flavour of beef, but you’ve just halved the saturated fats and cholesterol.  I personally don’t go more than 50-50 because once you take away too much of the meat, then I find that the flavour is sacrificed – even in something as heavily-spiced as a taco.  
3) Get a spiralizer (~$20) and swap processed noodles and pasta with noodles you make out of vegetables.  Alternatively, if you already have a potato peeler, you can create flat noodles without having to buy a new tool.  I like zucchini for its mild flavour, but I’ve also done stuff like carrots.  Just top it with the same pasta sauces or broths you’d normally eat noodles with and you’ve just chosen a more nutrient-dense option.
4) Move away from sugary fruit juices by diluting it – half water, half juice.  Then eventually, you could save fruit juices for special occasions and drink more herbal teas and water.  Since this might sound like a pretty big shift, take your time with it.  You don’t have to do it by tomorrow or the next day, just give yourself enough time to get used to the dilutions, then start subbing some juice with non-caffeinated drinks like chrysanthemum, dandelion root, or burdock root teas.  Then gradually shift to drinking mostly water.   
5) Have fresh fruit over dried fruit.  
1) because it helps you hydrate – a lot of us aren’t getting enough water during the day and so having a slice of watermelon can help with that compared to having a dried date, which wont
2) Nutritionally, as you see here, 100 g of raisins has 59 g sugar and there are 16 g sugar in 100 g grapes.  Same weight, over twice the sugar.  Now, I obviously know that I’m only looking at one factor in the bigger picture, but once you dry fruit, the volume is lost, so if you eat the same amount, you’ll get that much more sugar.  Yes, it’s at least fruit sugar, but any sweets that you don’t use up, will get stored in your body.
Music:
Darkest Child by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100783
Artist: http://incompetech.com/