Eight Common Healthy Pantry Swaps

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Many pantries around America are full of processed junk and low micronutrient foods. Making it no surprise that thirty percent of the American population are overweight, and forty percent suffer from obesity. Being overweight and obese for too long significantly decreases your life expectancy or leads to lifelong and chronic illnesses. Making it harder to live your life to your fullest potential. The best way to prevent yourself from overindulging in these foods is to not purchase or be around them.

Here are eight pantry swaps to make this year for a healthier lifestyle:

Sugar

Honey, maple syrup, blackstrap molasses, stevia extract, and date paste are good options instead of sugar. Remember that the fewer times you give in to your sweet tooth, the sweeter fruit will taste to you, so the less you’ll be tempted by things that don’t offer any nutritional value, like processed sugar.

Breadcrumbs

Whole-wheat panko, corn starch, potato starch, oats, and oat flour — and in some cases, depending on your goals, even parmesan cheese can substitute for breadcrumbs in a recipe. But, of course, what to use for your replacement depends on the reason for the ingredient in the first place. Although, as a binder, you can use a lot of options, as a thickening agent, it may need to be something else.

Salt

Many alternatives to salt, such as lemon juice, garlic, or dill to flavor your food. It depends on the entire recipe. For example, if you are making soup, it’s probably not that important to salt the food until the end, while if you’re making a roast, it’s more important to use salt during the cooking process.

Flour

Beans, or nut powders, can be good substitutes for flour depending on what you plan to make or the point of the addition. For example, if you need flour to thicken a stew, you can easily puree a few of the veggies instead, but if you need flour to provide browning, you may want to use a different option.

White or Brown Rice

While you can enjoy white and brown rice in a healthy diet, understanding how many choices you have when adding flavorful and nutritious grains to your diet is important. For example, adding quinoa, orzo, barley, or even chopped cabbage in place of your normal rice dish will increase the nutrition exponentially.

Salad Dressings

Getting creative with your salad dressings is fun and simple. Just think about the flavors you’re looking for and use a good sub. Vinegars, citrus, other fresh fruit juices, herbs, and aromatics are always good choices, and then it’s your choice what type of fat if any, you add using seeds, nuts, or other extracts.

Refined Oils

The truth about refined oils is that they’re all highly processed. Whether it’s olive oil or coconut oil, it takes a lot to get the oil from these plants. So limiting anything processed is always a good idea. But instead of substituting with fake ingredients, always seek to replace or lower the amount to just what is needed to get the best results.

Peanut Butter

Homemade nut butters that you make yourself when you need to use them will always be superior. To make homemade nut butter, all you have to do is blend the nuts in your high-speed blender or food processor. You can choose lower fat nuts like cashews while saving money and calories when you make your own.

Look through your pantry to see if you need to swap any ingredients out for these healthier alternatives. Making the switch will provide you with the tools to make healthier choices each day without stress. The idea is to use the “out of sight, out of mind” approach. If you fill your pantry full of healthy options, you won’t be able to make bad decisions in the first place.

Loving Life — The Reboot!

Dominique