We all know there are certain foods we shouldn’t eat because they contain lots of fat, sugar, and calories. But do you really want to give up your favorite brownie recipe? And who wants to swear off their afternoon special coffee drink?
There are ways to continue to enjoy those less-than-healthy treats. It just means changing up that beloved cookie recipe a bit, and tweaking that scrumptious Caffé Mocha order slightly.
You can do it. Here’s how.
1. Slim down drinks
High-calorie drinks like fruit juices and specialty coffees can come with lots of sugar and/or fat, just like solid foods do. Cut back on the sugar and calories in a bottle of juice by emptying half and storing it, then refilling the bottle with water, suggests Men’s Health. (Eight ounces of 100 percent orange juice contain 110 calories and 22 grams of sugar.) Request to have that coffee drink made with nonfat milk and sugar-free syrup. (A Starbucks 16-ounce Caffé Mocha made with 2 percent milk and topped with whipped cream contains 330 calories and 15 grams of fat. Substitute nonfat milk and skip the whipped cream, and it drops to 220 calories and just 2.5 grams of fat.)
2. Cut fat in dessert
Instead of using oil when making cookies, brownies, and other baked goodies, use applesauce or baby-food prunes and cut up to half the fat, the American Dietetic Association says. When enjoying a full-fat dessert, share a piece with a friend to decrease the amount you eat. If it’s a cake you are enjoying, scrape off the sugary frosting; with other desserts, forgo the whipped cream topping. A fan of canned fruit? Rinse off the syrup or juice it’s usually packed in; you’ll still get the benefits of its soluble fiber without the extra sugar.
3. Substitute sugar
When baking at home, you often can substitute up to half the sugar with artificial sweeteners such as sucralose (Splenda), one of the easiest to work with, the American Diabetes Association says. Be sure to read packaging instructions for artificial sweeteners carefully, and consult manufacturers’ websites, the ADA advises. You also can find additional recipes at those.
Another way of cutting back on sugar in recipes is to instead use more sweet spices and flavorings such as vanilla, nutmeg, and cinnamon.
4. Skim the top
Have you ever noticed that when you refrigerate gravy, soups, stews, and other meat and poultry dishes the fat rises to the top? A good way to cut back on the fat in those foods is to skim it off. Remember this at Thanksgiving when skimming the fat off refrigerated turkey gravy can save a whopping 56 grams of fat per cup, according to the Utah State University Cooperative Extension.
Another good cooking habit to acquire: trimming all fat from pork, beef, and chicken before cooking, and removing skin from poultry.
5. Soften butter, eat less
Set your butter out at room temperature or soften it up a bit in the microwave and you’ll likely use less of it than when it is cold, Men’s Health suggests. Another thought: Try a buttery spread fortified with plant sterols and stanols. These are LDL cholesterol-lowering substances that occur naturally in the cell membranes of fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, seeds, and grains. They work by blocking the absorption of “bad” cholesterol into the bloodstream.
6. Choose nuts
It’s not enough to simply eliminate unhealthy, saturated fats that block arteries and contribute to heart disease, researchers reported in the journal PLoS Medicine last week. Replacing these fats with healthier, polyunsaturated fats found in nuts, fish, vegetable oils, and other foods is critical for heart-healthy benefits. Swapping bad fats for good can lower risk of heart disease by up to 19 percent, scientists found.
Good choices include nuts such as walnuts, pecans, and almonds; avocados; and fish like tuna, salmon, and mackerel, which are high in omega-3 fatty acids.
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