Food Swaps

I advocate a flexible eating strategy – making room within your diet for all the foods that you love and not restricting foods that you, for whatever reason, believe are ‘bad for you’. Honestly, I avoid labelling foods as ‘bad’ or ‘good’. Yes, some foods are more calorific, or less nutrient-dense than others. But if the majority of your diet is nutrient-dense, fibrous foods and you are mindful of your optimal calorie intake for your goal, enjoying all foods (in moderation) should form part of your diet.

That being said, some of us would love nothing better than to eat ice cream daily or have a Snickers for lunch each day – you can with healthy food swaps for junk food. Having this daily luxury could be something that keeps us on track over the long term. With a flexible diet, theoretically, you can do this, however, those calories being consumed would then limit the calorie allocation you then have remaining for nutrient-dense food and your diet would be suboptimal. Years ago, we had just this one option – the traditional version, but today, due to the health food industry coming on leaps and bounds, we now have low cal / low sugar and/or high protein versions of most foods, such as Snickers Hi Protein. What does this mean? You can have that daily Snickers and pack in 20g of protein! The Snickers is actually conducive to most goals – crazy, but true.

Now, I love food. All types of food. Kind of like my taste in music, I also have a pretty eclectic taste in food and due to my working-class roots, I love some of the working class favourites. I’ve invested many years and a fair few quid into finding easy food swaps for the foods and snacks that I crave, I actually think I have it nailed and you’ll be glad to hear, I’m about to share them with you. So, here goes...

Low Calorie, Low Fat, High Protein Sausages Food Swap

Sausages are, quite frankly, an epic food – they are very versatile and go well with just about anything. But, when consuming a traditional branded sausage, you generally get very little bang for your buck in terms of protein levels and unnecessary quantities of saturated fats. Let’s compare a traditional brand with my first savvy swap - The Mighty Heck Sausages:

So how does 100g of Heck Sausages compare to a traditional supermarket brand?

• 60kcals less

• ⅔ less fat

• ⅕ of the saturated fats

• ⅓ more protein

And, the compromise? There isn’t one, these sausages taste great and although they can be a little more expensive, they are usually on special offer at most supermarkets.

High Protein Sweet Food Swap

Now, this is an area of the food industry that has literally surpassed all of my expectations and made my sweet snack dreams come true. Protein bars have been, for many years, utterly gross. If they were just about palatable and didn’t take 30 minutes to chew each bite, they were a winner. They were the high protein alternative to chocolate bars, but in reality, were way off the mark. Fast forward to today and there are so many fricking awesome protein bars out there which are as good as a bar of your favourite chocolate. 

The brands that I love are Battlebites, Grenade Carb Killa, Snickers Hi Protein and my current favourite – Mars Hi Protein. Let’s compare a traditional Mars with a Hi Protein version:

Unbelievable right? The Hi Protein version is almost double the size of the standard and packs in the following:

• 10 times more protein

• 25% less sugar

• Similar fat levels

• 80 more cals (but for all the above benefits and twice the product size, who cares?)

Is there a compromise here? A little. They are more expensive than standard Mars Bars, but they are double the size and can often be found on offer at Amazon and at The Skinny Food Co along with the other brands I mentioned. They do have a slightly chalky consistency, which isn’t unpleasant, but overall are definitely a 10/10.

Low Calorie Bread Food Swap

The next savvy swap is a recent find, which is an absolute no brainer but something that eluded me until now. It’s good old Danish Bread. Let’s compare this with a standard supermarket loaf:

It’s pretty much even Stevens apart from the calorie content. Danish Bread has 30 less calories per slice, so a couple of pieces of toast or a sandwich can equal 60 less calories. It might not sound like much, but little savings like this over the course of a week can quickly add up when your target is fat loss. 

Low Calorie Pizza Food Swap

This, in my mind, is an incredible creation. Pizza is the Achilles Heel of many and having the ability to regularly eat pizza could help keep up diet adherence by increasing sustainability. Savvy Swap number 4 is...Lo-Dough pizza bases.

Let’s see the (absolutely mind-blowing) comparison:

Incredible, right? 39kcal versus 218kcal for a pizza base! The compromise? As you can see from the weight, the Lo-Dough base is around ⅓ of the size of the standard base and we do lose some protein but we have more fibre and this base is fantastic for those in a calorie deficit wanting to enjoy a pizza. You can, of course, add high protein toppings to turn this into a low cal, high protein pizza. In my opinion, it doesn’t taste as nice as a standard pizza base, but that’s the trade-off for a version this staggeringly low in calories. It’s a bit pricey at £3.25 for 2 bases, but you can subscribe and save :D

Low Calorie and High Protein Ice cream Food Swap

Who doesn’t want to eat ice cream every day? Well, we do in the Expert PT Household and now, we can! There are some awesome, inexpensive ice-creams out in the market place right now which can save you calories and give you a hit of protein for your pudding. Once again (there’s a theme here), I’ve tried them all and my favourites are Oppo, Moophoria and Halo Top. Let’s see how Savvy Swap number 5, Halo Top, competes with the traditional tubbed ice cream:

These are some pretty impressive differences. 85g of Halo vs 100g of traditional tubbed ice cream looks like this:

• Well below half the calories for a 100g serving

• Twice the protein

• Around 75% less saturated fat

• In essence, you could eat the entire tub of Halo for 60 cals more than 2 scoops of the traditional version

Low Calorie Pastry Food Swap

Our final Savvy Swap, number 6, is also a newbie on me and something I picked up from Jamie Oliver. I am yet to meet anyone who doesn’t like pastry and Jamie’s low cal alternative really hits the spot. Savvy Sway 6 is...Filo pastry. 

It has a multitude of uses and substitutes all types of pastries. I use it for fish pie, quiche, desserts (like apple pie or filo tart), salmon en croute and lots of other foods that taste good wrapped in filo and oven-baked. Sounds good, yeah? Let’s have a look at the comparison with traditional shortcrust pastry:

Let’s look at the key differences between a serving of shortcrust pastry versus filo. What do the numbers say?

• Around 100 fewer calories

• 1g more protein

• 10% of the fat

• Pretty much zero sat fat compared to 7g

So now you have it, my best savvy swaps to allow for the regular consumption of the foods you love that may ordinarily be at odds with your nutrition goals.

These are THE best food swaps for weight loss, and may just be the swap that keeps you adhering to your nutrition target for long enough to smash your goals – get them on your shopping list!