Some people claim that having a healthier diet is time consuming and complicated. But it does not have to be like that. By knowing how to do it right, you can easily incorporate more healthy foods into your life.
10 tricks to make your diet healthier
The truth is that when it comes to wanting to make a healthier diet for better health, there are no excuses that it is “expensive”, difficult to do, time consuming, and so on. Because not all of them are expensive, nor are they all time consuming, for example, a simple common jam that you buy in the supermarket, the one that is full of sugar and artificial additives such as preservatives, you can make it in a couple of minutes at home.
With fresh fruits and all-natural sweeteners by simply mashing your favorite fruit, adding a little honey or maple syrup, a little walnut or ground almonds or shredded coconut, and voila! there you have in minutes a homemade and healthy jam free of preservatives and refined sugar.
Follow the following tricks to change eating habits and you will see that it was never that complicated. You will see that after having managed to incorporate these 10 points, you can continue doing the same with others until you can complete a good diet according to your health goals.
1. Use this trick to store fresh herbs
Fresh herbs like basil , mint, oregano, and sage add flavor to foods without adding any chemicals. However, sometimes you may need a large bunch of basil or mint, use just a few sprigs, and the rest dries up before you know it. But there is a trick to making your fresh herbs last long.
Simply remove the leaves from the stems and place them in an airtight glass jar and store in the fridge.
Just make sure the herbs are absolutely dry . Using this technique, the mint and sage will last up to two weeks. Basil, oregano, and coriander last for seven to 10 days. You can also freeze and preserve fresh herbs in olive oil.
2. Freeze Ripe Bananas to Make Amazing Smoothies and Ice Creams
When you freeze the bananas, they change their taste, and when you blend them, they give any smoothie an incredible creamy texture. Simply peel some ripe plantains or bananas , put them in a container or resealable bag, and freeze at least overnight. Then add them to your smoothies instead of regular bananas.
If you blend frozen bananas in a high speed mixer or food processor, you will have an incredible ice cream, which has a very creamy and rich taste. You may need to add a little water to make mixing easier. You can also add raw cacao for an iced raw chocolate or some berries (frozen or fresh).
3. Make your own dressings and sauces and store them in a glass jar.
Store-bought dressings have a lot of preservatives, chemicals, and bad fats. Even the healthiest ones still have preservatives and ingredients that aren’t ideal for you. So it is best to make your own dressing.
There are tons of recipes available to make healthy salad dressings. Just make a big batch and store in a glass jar or bottle for up to a week. You can see these 5 recipes for creamy dressings with natural ingredients.
A better trick: place your dressing ingredients (for example, freshly squeezed orange and lemon juice, fresh herbs, a little salt and pepper, and olive oil ) in a glass jar, put the lid on, and shake well until ingredients have been mixed.
That is an easy way to make your own dressing. For some of the recipes, however, you may need a blender. (Unfortunately, shaking a jar doesn’t do a great job if you want to mix a mango.)
4. Always have healthy food in your place
You will eat what is available. If you have healthy snacks on hand, you will be able to eat them when you are hungry, and there will be less chance that you will eat something unhealthy.
When you arrive very hungry, it is possible to make bad food choices. But if you have enough healthy food at home, you are more likely to eat healthy.
5. Make a healthy breakfast the night before
Yes, tomorrow can be hectic and very crowded. But you have no excuse not to make your breakfast the night before. A great way to do this is to make soaked chia or oatmeal pudding in a glass jar.
You can even do it in layers, for example oatmeal soaked in almond milk, then a layer of mixed fruit, etc., it takes about five minutes to do it. Then you put it in a fridge, and voila! you have a healthy breakfast in the morning. Also, the benefits of eating oatmeal are exceptional.
Another breakfast trick is to prepare all the ingredients of the smoothie or smoothie the night before. So in the morning all you have to do is turn on the blender. This takes less than three minutes.
6. Thicken soups or sauces with cauliflower
People love a nice texture, thick creamy soups, light sauces, and mashed potatoes – all tasteful but contain huge amounts of fat – usually the unhealthy types.
Luckily, there is a superfood: cauliflower. It’s low in fat, low in calories, and high in fiber and nutrients – just add steamed or lightly cooked and ground cauliflower to your soup or sauce, and mix.
You will be pleasantly surprised by its thick and creamy texture. If you like to mash potatoes, use cauliflower instead of potatoes. Its taste is very similar, and it is lower in calories and easier to digest.
7. Instead of refined wheat flour, use oats
White wheat flour is highly processed, lacking in nutrients, and also contains gluten . For a healthier option, substitute oatmeal for white flour. Simply process the dried oat flakes in a blender, food processor, or coffee grinder.
If you are sensitive to gluten, be sure to buy certified gluten-free oats . Natural oats do not contain gluten, but it is often contaminated as it is crossed with small pieces of wheat, rye or barley in grain stores.
8. Replace wheat pasta with vegetable “noodles”
Wheat pasta is highly processed and also contains gluten, which many people are sensitive to. It also forms mucus and phlegm and is not good for digestion. Therefore, you can replace it with vegetable “noodles” made from zucchini, carrot, or cucumber.
You will need a vegetable spiralizer, or a simple peeler. Using a peeler will cut the vegetables into flat noodles. Vegetable noodles mixed with a sauce become soft and their texture resembles real pasta.
9. Make your own flavored water
Processed sodas and beverages have been proven to cause weight gain, diabetes, and heart disease. If you are craving a delicious drink, you can make absolutely healthy flavored waters or vitamin water .
Add some fresh herbs, like basil or mint; a little citrus juice, such as lemon or orange; or sliced fruits and vegetables, such as sliced strawberries, cucumber, orange, ginger, etc. One can be: lemon, fresh ginger and mint. It is best to do it before going to bed and steep overnight.
10. Change the cow’s milk for homemade almond milk or another plant milk, and replace the butter with avocado
Dairy is also the food of the past. They contain many antibiotics, hormones, and pesticides. Also, many people are lactose intolerant, even without knowing it. Almond milk or other seeds, cereals and grains, such as rice, birdseed, walnut or oatmeal, is so easy to make, and you can always make a larger batch and store it in the fridge.
Although there is a debate about whether butter is good or not, the truth is that if you buy it organic and free-range, the only “bad” thing may be the high fat content, that if you eat it in excess and very regularly, say, every day in large quantities, it clogs the arteries and causes cholesterol. It’s not really that bad, but many lactose intolerant people choose to eliminate it because it is a dairy or because it is an animal product.
For that, you can replace your butter with a healthy avocado, even eating an avocado a day can help with problems related to cholesterol and the heart. Its flavor is delicious, creamy, contains Omega 3 fatty acids and is dairy-free.
We invite you to read Eating fat to burn fat? where it is even explained how avocado is one of the foods with fat that can even help you eliminate it from your body.