Make healthy swaps

Making your diet healthier can feel like a huge task, but incorporating small changes in your everyday routine is easy. Try out these simple swaps that will help you achieve a better balance:

1. 
   Photo: Courtesy of Azmina Govindji
   Choose an unsaturated spread or swap in a reduced calorie mayonnaise instead of butter or ghee. If you spread butter on two slices of bread each day, this clocks up around 10 grams of bad fats, calledsaturated fat. That's about half of the maximum amount recommended for an average woman in a whole day, and around a third of the maximum limit for men. So next time you spread butter on toast, think about whether you could choose a lower-fat, unsaturated spread instead. Instead of spreading ghee on your chapati, could you swap it for a little unsaturated spread? Or when you're slapping butter onto bread for a sandwich, consider if spreading some mayonnaise instead might be an option for you. Reduced calorie mayonnaise has about a tenth of the saturated fat contained in butter.
2. Swap out salt and choose low-salt seasonings and sauces instead. Bought seasonings (like chicken seasoning) and sauces (like soy sauce) can often be high in salt. Read the label and choose those which are either salt-free or low in salt. And try using colourful ground spices like haldi (turmeric), garam masala and coriander seed to season your cooked dishes.
3. Choose diet drinks in place of sugar-rich drinks. A can of regular cola has around seven teaspoons of sugar in it. That could set you back about 140 kcalories (1 kcalorie equals 1 000 calories). When you choose a diet drink, it's likely to be sugar-free and calorie-free. But that's not a green light to go wild! Diet versions of fizzy soft drinks can still rot your teeth. It's good practice to have such drinks with your meal rather than sip them throughout the day.
4. 
   Photo: Courtesy of Azmina Govindji
   
   Photo: Courtesy of Azmina Govindji
   Swap out your usual dinner plate for a smaller one.Simply choosing a smaller plate means you can pile on less food. In time, you'll just get used to having smaller portions, and this can work wonders for your waistline.
5. Add lemon juice and spices to rice instead of butter or oil. You may be in the habit of pouring some oil or adding a knob of butter to the water when you boil rice. Stop and think: how much difference does it really make? Try drizzling on some lemon juice to help keep the rice grains separate, and add spices like jeera (cumin), cloves, cardamom and cinnamon to give you extra flavour.