Simple Swaps for a Leaner Diet

Simply substituting skim milk for cream in your coffee can save you 10,000 calories a year. So imagine what five or six small changes will do. Your diet can become much leaner through food swapping, and you won't necessarily have to give up your favorite foods.

"Food swapping means substituting healthy choices for less healthy choices, but it doesn't have to be a remarkable change," explains Jo-Ann Heslin, M.A., R.D., co-author of The Fat Attack Plan. "People get nervous about making changes because they see themselves never eating another hot fudge sundae or going to a steakhouse again. That's when they throw in the towel and give up. But food swapping means finding alternatives you can live with."

According to Heslin, when people feel they must give up the foods they like, the process of maintaining a leaner diet becomes a real struggle. But instead of making eating an all-or-nothing proposition, you can learn to enjoy foods high in sugar, fat and sodium less frequently and to eat them in smaller amounts. This is a reasonable system most people can accept.

Benefits of Food Swapping

Food swapping offers long- and short-range benefits. By improving your eating habits over the long-term, you may increase your life span and minimize your risk of chronic diseases. In the short-term, by eating a leaner diet you will have more energy because you will be consuming better foods with higher nutritional quality. Plus, you'll lose some weight or maintain your current weight.

General Swap Tips

The key to successful food swapping is to start slowly. Make moderate changes in your diet at first. Don't try to tackle all foods at one time. Here are some suggestions of ways you might start:

• Prepare your vegetables without sauces or butter. Top them with herbs instead.

• Reduce your meat portions. The recommended 3-oz. portion is about the size of the palm of your hand before it is cooked.

• Replace the excess protein you've eliminated from your diet with more vegetables and complex carbohydrates.

• Instead of frying foods, grill, broil, bake or poach them.

• Replace sauces, gravy or salad dressing poured on food with a small amount on the side. Dip your fork tip in the sauce before picking up food, and you'll get the essence of the flavor.

• If you like to serve cake for dessert, substitute cupcakes for sheet cake. A cupcake is a defined portion that limits your intake more effectively than if you eat cake slices. Eat your cupcake with fruit slices or berries rather than frosted

• Try serving raisin, pumpernickel or cinnamon breads as a dessert substitute.

Supermarket Skills

Supermarket savvy is very important in food swapping because if you don't bring home healthful foods, all your good intentions may not be enough to get the job done. Learn how to make healthful substitutions during your trips to the grocery store. Here are a few tips:

• Buy whole-grain bread, cereal and pasta rather than white or refined products.

• Buy canned fruit packed in light syrup or water, not heavy syrup.

• Choose low-salt canned and frozen vegetables without sauces.

• If you don't like to skin chicken yourself, buy it pre-skinned.

• Choose low-fat dairy products when available.