Healthy food swaps

Stop eating high-calorie foods and swap them for a healthy, balanced alternative.

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Drinks

Snacks



Making small changes to your diet is the healthiest and most achievable way to lose weight.

Your first step is to eat fewer foods high in calories, fat, salt and sugars and swap them for something healthier, including more fruit and vegetables.

Try these small changes when you have your next meal or drink, or when you open the kitchen cupboard or fridge looking for a snack. Once you've got started, try thinking of your own healthier swaps, too.

When buying pre-packed food, don't rely on the attractive promotional print on the wrapping, which can be misleading. Instead, learn to read the nutritional information when checking for calorie, fat, salt and sugar content.

## Breakfast

-   swap whole milk for semi-skimmed, 1% fat or even skimmed milk
-   swap a sugar-coated breakfast cereal for a wholegrain breakfast cereal such as porridge or shredded wholegrain wheat cereal with no added sugar 
-   swap a sprinkle of sugar on your breakfast cereal for a topping of fresh or dried fruit, which counts towards one of your 5-a-day
-   swap full-fat greek yoghurt for lower-fat or fat-free greek yoghurt, or natural low-fat yoghurt


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## Lunch

-   swap white breads, bagels and muffins for wholegrain varieties
-   swap butter and cheese in your baked potato for reduced-fat spread and reduced salt and sugar baked beans
-   swap a tuna melt panini for a tuna salad sandwich on wholemeal bread without mayo
-   swap a cheddar cheese filling in your sandwich for reduced-fat hard cheese


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## Dinner

-   swap creamy or cheesy sauces for tomato- or vegetable-based sauces on your pasta, meat or fish dishes
-   swap mashed potato made with butter and whole milk for mash with low-fat spread and a lower-fat milk, such as semi-skimmed, 1% fat or skimmed
-   choose leaner cuts of meat – for example, swap streaky bacon for back bacon
-   swap the frying pan for the grill when cooking meat


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## Drinks

-   swap a coffee made with whole milk to a "skinny" coffee made with semi-skimmed or skimmed milk
-   swap a cordial for a cordial with no added sugar
-   swap a few of your sugary drinks for a glass of water
-   swap a cola or fizzy drink with some 100% fruit juice (with no added sugar) mixed with soda water
-   swap hot chocolate made with whole milk and served with whipped cream for a hot chocolate made with skimmed milk and no cream


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## Snacks

-   choose from these 10 surprising 100kcal snacks
-   swap a blueberry muffin for a currant bun on its own or with some reduced-fat spread
-   swap yoghurt-coated raisins for plain raisins
-   swap salted nuts for unsalted nuts
-   swap cheese straws for rice cakes with lower-fat cream cheese


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References

All of Healthily's articles undergo medical safety checks to verify that the information is medically safe. View more details in our <a href="/safety" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">safety page</a>, or read our <a href="/legal/editorial-policy-principles" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">editorial policy</a>.