I know for myself, when I first learned about the importance of quality food, I just wasn’t sure what to eat. I found myself getting into ruts with my meals. I could only handle broccoli and a chicken breast every day for lunch for so long.
But you don’t have to throw away all your old cookbooks and family recipes. You just need to know how to substitute with healthy ingredients!
I’ve put together a starter guide for healthy ingredient substitutions:
| Replace These… | With These… |
|---|---|
| Vegetable or Canola oil | Grapeseed or Coconut oil |
| Sugar | Stevia, xylitol or raw honey |
| Pasteurized Milk | Coconut, Almond or Rice milk |
| Peanut Butter | Almond or Cashew Butter |
| Mayonnaise | An alternative like Veganaise made w/ grapeseed oil |
| Soy Sauce | Bragg’s Liquid Aminos |
| White Rice or Pasta | Brown Rice or Brown Rice noodles |
| Table Salt | Sea Salt |
| Salad dressings | Make your own w/ olive oil, vinegars & herbs |
| Chocolate Chips | Dark Chocolate w/ at least 70% cocoa |
| Enriched or All-Purpose flours | Gluten-free flours made from beans or brown rice like Bob’s Red Mill |
| Granola Bars | Larabar or Trail Mix |
| Potato or Corn Chips | Veggies like Sliced Bell Peppers or Cucumbers |
| Cheese Dip or Ranch Dressing | Guacamole or Hummus |
| Refined Cereal | Breakfast Smoothie |
This is great! I’m actually putting together something very similar. Great stuff! I agree – these substitutions can make a world of a difference in your health!
This would be a nice table if it had a third column with the heading “because.”
This is great information. I as well can get into ‘ruts’ sometimes, so it’s helpful to have healthy alternatives. Thanks Dr. Axe!
Thanks to you and Dr. Ben Follas, my husband and I are choosing what we eat more wisely. I’m a vegetarian and need to eat more vegetables anyway.
I’m so glad to see this! I will put it with my cookbooks. One question, though. My mom gave me some raw stevia powder because she didn’t like it. I quickly found out why…It’s disgusting! Can anyone recommend a certain type of stevia that tastes good?
I like NuNaturals, there is no bitterness or aftertaste.
Know where I can find NuNaturals? Is it a sweetner? The aftertaste is what I have trouble with when using Stevia to sweeten my coffee. Now I use Agave, but have heard that it is not as low-glycemic as once thought.
Dr Axe,
I listen to you whenever I get a chance. I would like to change my eating habits, but it seems very overwhelming knowing where to get started. Do I really need to go out and buy a bunch of stuff?? Whenever I listen to you it seems like a lot of information. I will try to eat healther but then it seems like all I am eating is salads and will go back to my old ways. Where do I start?
I’m curious on why the gluten-free recommendation, unless it’s merely a recommendation when compared to enriched flours. I noticed in another one of your articles (about school lunches) that you recommend gluten free crackers. If a person doesn’t have Celiac Disease, is there any benefit in gluten-free versus whole wheat?
Gluten free products tend to be easier to digest for most people and often times are lower on the glycemic index so they won’t turn to sugar as fast. Here is an article talking about gluten I posted: http://www.draxe.com/whats-the-deal-with-gluten/