Increase your fibre intake
Dietary fibre is only found in plant foods (e.g. vegetables, fruit, cereals, nuts) and is an important part of our diet.
There are two types of fibre: insoluble and soluble.
- Insoluble fibre provides ‘bulk’ in the diet, promotes feeling of fullness, and helps speed up the flow of food through the digestive system.
- Soluble fibre helps lower blood cholesterol.
It is important to increase your fibre intake gradually to let your digestive system adjust. You'll also need to drink plenty of fluids, because fibre swells with liquid.
The following are simple alternatives which will increase the amount of fibre in your diet.
| Instead of ...... |
Swap for a better choice ...... |
| White flour |
Wholemeal flour |
| White pasta |
Wholemeal pasta |
| White rice |
Brown rice |
| White bread |
Wholemeal or wholegrain bread or High fibre |
| Rices or Cornflakes |
Oats/ Porridge, Weetbix, Sultana bran |
| Packaged snacks, e.g. crisps, muesli bar, biscuits |
Fresh or dried fruit (leave the skins on if possible)
Vegetable slices
Wholegrain crackers
Muffin made with wholemeal flour or bran (add fruit for an extra fibre boost)
Raw nuts and seeds (e.g. almonds, brazil nuts)
|
| Stews and casseroles |
Add plenty of vegetables
Add beans/ lentils e.g. red lentils or chickpeas |
| Meatloaf |
Add wholemeal bread crumbs or rolled oats to the meat mixture |
Swap to low fat yoghurt
It’s easy to over indulge in creamy foods and desserts at Christmas, so here are easy ways to incorporate low fat yoghurt which will help lower the fat content of your diet.
- Swap from full whipped cream, to ‘half and half’ – mix half the amount of whipped cream with low fat vanilla yoghurt
- Instead of icing on cakes and desserts – mix low fat Greek yoghurt with a dash of honey, or sprinkle the yoghurt with grated chocolate
- Instead of ice cream – swap to frozen yoghurt or sorbet
- For an easy dip – mix low fat natural yoghurt and sweet chilli sauce or pesto
- For a tasty dressing – mix ¼ cup yoghurt with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of chopped mint leaves
6. For a scrumptious dessert make a Meringue Nest. Fill a meringue nest with vanilla or lemon delicious flavoured yoghurt and top with sliced kiwifruit and sliced strawberries
Swap your milk
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Milk is a great place to start to lower the FAT content of your diet. Everytime you have a cuppa with trim milk you are saving 16 calories. Multiply this by 5-6 cups per day and that is a massive saving of 80 – 100 calories per day.
If you use dark blue milk try first swapping to light blue milk.
Later swap down to green milk. For maximum calcium, try yellow milk, it has twice the calcium of trim milk.