7 Ways To Make Your Meals Healthier

If you are trying to lose weight and live a healthier lifestyle, it can sometimes be difficult to know where to start. You don’t need to change your diet drastically, though. Making small alterations to your normal life can make a huge difference. Remember, eating in moderation and regular exercise are the main things needed to lose weight.

Cook From Scratch

 You can find nearly every meal as a ready meal these days. Roast dinner, lasagne, burgers; you name it, it’s available. But your favourite meals can still be a possibility in a healthy lifestyle; you just need to make the effort of making it yourself. Cooking meals from scratch is much healthier for your body; you can control what ingredients you are using, how much fat is included, and size portions. Ready meals tend to have much higher levels of salt, sugar, and additives than you would ever use in home cooking. Eliminate all of these by simply preparing your meal yourself.

Add Fibre

Adding fibre to your meal is a great way of keeping you feeling fuller for longer. Try brown rice, pasta and bread instead of white options, as these take longer for your body to digest. Adding beans and pulses to a meal is also a great way of filling up, and saves you money as they are a cheaper alternative to meats.

Cut Down On Oil

When frying food, it is often easy to overdo it on the oil. Try investing in a good pan, so you are able to cut down on these. The healthiest cooking pans are non-stick, meaning you will only need a drop of oil, if at all. Also, try healthier oils. Coconut and olive oil are much better for you than sunflower and vegetable.

Less Sugar

We all know that too much sugar is bad for us. But, in baking most recipes list sugar as a major ingredient. Try replacing some of the sugar with healthy alternatives, such as organic honey, fruit, dates and coconut sugar. Play around with them and decide for yourself which works best.

Use Fresh Vegetables

When cooking and preparing meals, make sure you use fresh vegetables rather than frozen. Frozen and pre-prepared veg tends to be more expensive and treated with chemicals. They lose many of their vitamins and nutrition during processing, and fresh always tastes much better!

Cheese

Most people love cheese, and will happily add it to any dish. But unfortunately, it is quite fatty and not very good for our bodies. Try adding a smaller amount of stronger cheese, that way you will still get that cheesy taste and texture, but with less calories and fat.