Want to lower your intake of fat and get healthy but don't want to feel deprived? Follow these easy tips and your taste buds won't notice the change but your waistline soon will.
1. Use an oil spray for frying. Invest in a spray oil canister and fill it with good-quality olive oil. Ten squirts of oil from a spray provides just 10 calories, whereas a tablespoon of olive oil contains 100 calories. Use to spray over roasting vegetables and potato wedges, when you make a stir-fry or to quickly spritz over fish or chicken pieces before grilling.
2. Throw out your deep-fat fryer or chip pan... sorry, it’s the easiest way to make sure you don’t use it. Invest in a non-stick frying or griddle pan.
3. Remove the skin from chicken before cooking and you’ll remove most of the fat, too.
4. Use strong cheese such as mature Cheddar or Parmesan – a stronger taste means you can use less.
5. Use darker leaves in your salad as the darker the leaf, the more nutrients it contains. Include fresh herbs to give salads a flavour boost.
6. Hold the dressing on salads. Instead, add fresh chopped herbs and a light spritz of lemon juice and mature balsamic vinegar, then toss with a few big-flavour ingredients, such as capers and olives.
7. Don’t sprinkle raw bran over breakfast cereals to boost your fibre intake. Unprocessed bran is packed with naturally occurring compounds called phytates, which stop the body absorbing certain minerals such as calcium, iron and zinc. Instead, opt for higher-fibre wholegrain cereals.
8. Eat jacket potatoes are the perfect fast food. Simply serve with salad and a low-fat topping such as lean ham and reduced-calorie coleslaw, or tuna with sweetcorn and a little reduced-fat mayo.
9. Switch to skinny lattes. The change from full fat to skimmed will almost halve your calorie intake from 190 to 102 on a large latte.* (*based on Costa Coffee info).
10. Never skip meals, especially breakfast. Research shows that people who skip breakfast tend to be heavier than people who eat this meal, probably because skippers end up eating more during the day as a result of hunger cravings.
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