Choosing healthier foods is easier than you may think. By changing just a few eating habits you can make a big difference to your diet.
Making small changes to your diet can help you to shed excess pounds and achieve a healthy weight.
It can also help you to achieve your five daily portions of fruit and vegetables: learn more in Why 5 A DAY? It's all about eating fewer foods that are high in calories, fat, salt and sugars and swapping them for something healthier, including more fruit and vegetables and wholegrains. Remember, small changes can add up to make a big overall difference to your diet.
You can learn more about a balanced diet in The eatwell plate.
Food and drink swaps
Try these small changes when you have your next meal or drink, or when you open the cupboard or fridge for a snack.
Once you've got started, try thinking of your own healthier swaps, too. Food labels can help you to choose healthier options: learn more in Food labels.
Breakfast
- Swap from whole milk to 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 five a day.
- Swap full-fat Greek yoghurt for fat-free Greek-style yoghurt or natural low-fat yoghurt.
Lunch
- Swap white breads, bagels and muffins for wholegrain varieties.
- Swap butter and cheese in your jacket 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.
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.
Drinks
- Swap your usual coffee made with whole milk to a ’skinny’ coffee made with skimmed milk.
- Swap your cordial for a cordial with no added sugars.
- Swap a few of your sugary drinks for a glass of water.
- Swap hot chocolate made with whole milk and served with whipped cream for a hot chocolate made with skimmed milk and no cream.
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