Easy Food Swaps You Can Do Right Now

Eating healthier doesn’t have to be hard. I’m going to show you some easy food swaps you can do right now to take control of your health:

Whole Grains

If you're going to eat grains, make sure they're whole grains - whether it’s rice, pasta, crackers or cereals: whole grains are so much better for you. If you make this change, you’re going to see a world of difference when it comes to health, weight, cholesterol, blood sugar - all of that.

Whole grains:

  • Have more protein
  • Have more fiber
  • Are slower to digest
  • Spike your blood sugar less

Rice

For example, take white rice: I consider this dead food, it has zero nutrition. Instead, try brown rice, or what I’d rather eat, wild blended rice - it has the hull on there, there’s more of a texture and more nuttiness. Not only is it better for you, it actually tastes better in my opinion.

“When you look at a container of organic strawberries, you might think organic means they weren’t sprayed with pesticides, right? Wrong.”

Pasta

The same thing pertains to pasta: eating whole grain pasta is so incredibly easy right now, so there’s really no excuse for reaching for that standard “pasta”. I would never eat the typical box of enriched spaghetti. They strip down what was once a whole grain into a simple grain, and then they “enrich” it with iron, riboflavin and folic acid to try to add that nutrition back in. This is not the kind of stuff you want to eat. 

Instead, these days there are way better options. I like pasta made from legumes, such as chickpeas or red lentils. These are complex carbohydrates that won’t spike your blood sugar as much. They pack protein and fiber, so you’re getting nutritional value in your food.

Crackers

There are some great cracker options out there, but if you walk into the cracker aisle you’re going to see a lot of horrible options too. For example, “Chicken in a Biscuit'' snack crackers: how do they get the chicken flavor in there? 

Look at the label: 

  • Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)
  • Disodium Inosinate
  • Disodium Guanylate

These sound like crazy words - I only see ingredients like this when I review fast food. These are basically all different forms of MSG. Never, ever eat something like this.

Instead, try a cracker made from real ingredients. I like Mary's Gone Crackers: 

  • Gluten-free
  • Whole Grain Brown Rice
  • Quinoa
  • Flax Seeds
  • Sesame Seeds

Small changes like this can add up in a big way for your health!