Healthy Family Healthy Budget - Summer Edition

Five Healthy Food Swaps for Christmas
and the holidays
The Christmas period is a time for friends and
families to get together, go on holidays and often
eat either a little more than we usually would or eat
different foods from our normal routine. With the
endless parties and end of year get togethers, this
can often be a time of stress for those who are
concerned about what they are eating.
The best way to ensure that you are enjoying
yourself while still partaking in all the yuletide
activities is to make small and simple swaps.
These are my suggestions for a happy and healthy
Christmas.
1. Swap white bread for Whole grain breads
Often we have house guests over the christmas
break and one of the most popular breakfast
options is toast or bagels. They are easy to
prepare, quick, tasty and cheap. The problem is
white bread is what I call an ‘empty food’, in that it
is something that will fill you up, but wont actually
put any nutrients into your body. White flours are
made by removing the husk that surrounds the
wheat germ (1) . This is done so the flour wont spoil
as quickly and the flour can be stored for longer
periods of time. However by removing this husk we
also remove a lot of the fibre, vitamins and minerals
that go along with it (2) . Choosing a sour dough or
whole grain bread will not only have more
nutritional value, it will also keep you fuller for
longer making sure you don’t snack through out the
day. Adding protein to your breakfast can also help
to keep you fuller for longer - smoked salmon and
avocado anyone!
2. Swap lettuce for Spinach
Salads are a great add on to any Christmas meal,
and often garden salads are one of the features
with lettuce being the base. Baby spinach however
has three times more calcium, five times more iron
and six times more magnesium than lettuce (3) .
Making this simple swap, will ensure your salads
are packed full of goodness.
3. Swap Mayonnaise for Yogurt
Greek yogurt can be a substitute dressing for the
mayonnaise we usually add with a potato salad,
with less fat and more calcium (3) . I like to use this
recipe as substitute:
1 x cup of greek yogurt
1 x tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
1/2 tablespoon of brown sugar
Mix well until all ingredients are combined.
4. Swap Potato for Sweet potato
Sweet potato is one of my favourite vegetables, not
only does it taste great, it is versatile, and full of
vitamin A (3) . Vitamin A is important for the immune
system, normal vision and reproduction health (4) .
Sweet potato chips go down absolute treat, or try
making mash potato with half sweet potato and half