- Plant-Based Collagen: What Actually Works - August 1, 2026
- Tips to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain - November 10, 2019
- Healthy Food Swaps to Transform Your Health - March 31, 2019
There are several healthy food swaps that will make a big difference in moving the needle on your health and your weight. You don’t need to try all of them at once, but just one change will bring you one step closer to your health goals. Start with the healthy food swap that seems the easiest and work your way up from there.
Replace a Sugary Breakfast with a Highter Protein Breakfast (my #1 healthy food swap)
Are you are eating dessert for breakfast (pancakes and syrup, pastries, donuts, bagels)? If so, try a healthy food swap with a pea protein smoothie with frozen raspberries or a veggie tofu scramble. This approach will lead to more stable blood sugar levels after meals and fewer cravings throughout the day.
You’ll get the protein your body needs to carry out its basic functions, you’ll feel full longer, and it slightly increases metabolism due to its thermic effect. Pairing this with some fiber and a healthy carb is a winning combo!
This one food swap can make a big difference in your health!
Reduce refined starchy carbohydrates and swap with more vegetables or whole grains
Pass on refined starchy carbohydrates like white flour, white rice, and white bread.
Replace these low-fiber starchy carbs with another serving of vegetables or switch to whole intact grains.
These processed carbohydrates have a high glycemic index which causes blood sugar spikes and can lead to weight gain and chronic health conditions. This is one healthy food swap that can make a big difference.
Think brown rice, sweet potatoes, whole grain bread and any whole intact grains.
Replace sugary snacks with a serving of nuts
Sugary snacks are the same as a sugary breakfast – it raises blood sugar and insulin which creates an environment for fat storage and inflammation.
Studies show that those who ate a serving of nuts every day had a lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease and coronary artery disease compared to those who never eat nuts. Nuts contain protein, good monounsaturated fats, minerals and fiber.
Go for unsalted raw or lightly roasted nuts, not prepared in oil. If you have a difficult time digesting nuts, you can soak and sprout them make them more digestible. Watch the serving size since a serving is 10-12 nuts or a small handful. Sprouted pumpkin seeds are a great option as well!
Replace coffee with green tea or a healthy decaf coffee
Caffeine may be fine for some, but so many people are stressed these days. Caffeine + stress is not a good combination for your adrenal glands. Once you start producing more cortisol due to stress, you create an environment that is perfect for gaining weight. This is caused by an increased insulin response due to high cortisol levels!
Take a break for a while and see if it makes a difference. Green tea is beneficial for weight loss, brain function, and certain types of cancer. Green tea has less caffeine than coffee, but you can also get a decaffeinated variety.
If you are someone who gets a headache when quitting caffeine, reduce slowly over 1-2 weeks by cutting your daily serving in half every 3 days.
If you love your coffee like I do, try upgrading your coffee to Purity Coffee! I switched to the Decaf Purity Coffee a long time ago and have never looked back. Purity uses a Swiss Water Process to decaffeinate their coffee, which is completely chemical free and organic. In addition, they soak their coffee beans in a hot green coffee extract that draws out the caffeine but not the flavor! This decaf coffee is antioxidant rich with a lower acidity, creating a decaf coffee that tastes amazing. Take it from a true coffee snob, this will not disappoint.
Replace soda with sparkling water or stevia sweetened soda
If you have a carbonation addiction, just this one healthy food swap will generally show immediate positive effects on the scale.
One study found that for each additional 12-ounce soda children consumed each day, the odds of becoming obese increased by 60% during 1½ years of follow-up.
Also, people who consume sugary drinks regularly (1-2 cans/day or more), have a 26% greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Diet drinks are also associated with weight gain as well as an increased risk of strokes, heart attacks and early death in women over 50.
There are many different flavors of carbonated sparkling water on the market and if you don’t care for that, you can try filtered water with a little fresh squeezed lemon or lime juice as a great alternative.
This is one of the most important healthy food swaps on the list!
Swap cauliflower rice for white rice
Finally, our last healthy food swap is to replace white rice with riced cauliflower. This healthy food swap will cut down on refined carbohydrates while adding in a cruciferous vegetable. These types of vegetables are great for cancer prevention, as well as getting additional fiber and minerals.
White rice has a high glycemic index (GI) and eating too many highly processed GI foods can lead to insulin resistance and possibly diabetes. Many stores sell riced cauliflower in the produce or freezer section, and some have pre-made fried cauliflower rice. You can also make your own using a box grater or a food processor.
Replace inflammatory oils with healthy food swaps like whole food sources of fats and healthier oils
Fats that are highly processed are unstable and prone to oxidation, which causes inflammation in our cells. Since these refined oils are also high in the more inflammatory omega-6 fats, they reduce the availability of the anti-inflammatory omega-3 fats because they compete with each other.
A high omega-6 and low omega-3 diet has been linked to many diseases like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, IBS, macular degeneration, asthma, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, psychiatric disorders, and autoimmune disease.
The best way to ensure a healthy omega-6 to omega-3 ratio is to remove refined vegetables oils from the diet.
Check your salad dressing ingredients since this is a main contributor of these oils!
Avoid the 3 Cs: corn, canola and cottonseed and the 3 Ss: soybean, sunflower and safflower oil. Peanut oil should also be avoided since it is highly processed and is sometimes a mold contaminated crop.
Remember that oil is a processed food and no matter how much accolades you hear about olive oil, it’s still a processed food. It’s best to avoid or reduce most oil when possible, but if you find that difficult to do, stick to less inflammatory oils like:
- Extra virgin olive oil (with high polyphenol content like Lucini Olive Oil)
- Macadamia nut oil
- Avocado oil
- Coconut oil (in moderation and only if you have normal lipid values)
All oils should smell fresh and clean. If they do not, they have gone rancid, and you should dispose of them. These rancid oils can be extremely toxic and can interfere with normal fatty acid metabolism. Try using the least amount possible. I love using an olive oil mister in a glass bottle to help reduce the amount of oil I use.
Healthy Plant-Based Fats
Don’t skip out on healthy plant-based fats to lose weight. Fat is an essential nutrient and is not your enemy like refined sugar is! Fat supports critical hormone production, cell growth, organ protection, energy levels, weight management, regulation of body temperature, cognitive function, immune function, and absorption of fat-soluble vitamins and nutrients.
Most importantly, include healthy whole food sources of fat like:
- avocado
- olives
- nuts and nut butters
- seeds (chia, flax, hemp, pumpkin, and sunflower).
While fats can be a healthy addition to your diet, if you are trying to lose weight be careful not to over consume fats since they are a calorically dense food. Keeping dietary fat around 20% or less is a good place to start.
Upgrade Your Eggs and Meat if You Aren’t Already Plant-Based
The ultimate goal is to transition to a plant-based diet and drastically reduce or avoid meat, dairy and eggs all together.
However, if you are just beginning your journey to a plant-based diet or practice a flexitarian diet, this healthy food swap is a great place to start.
Its best to avoid any products coming from factory farms since they can contain hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, herbicides and heavy metals plus the damaging effects of stress hormones due to the living conditions. Many of these contaminants act as “obesogens” in our body and can contribute to weight gain or weight loss resistance as well as chronic health conditions.
Unfortunately, most eggs and meat at the grocery store are from factory farms. For eggs, look for free-range, organic, certified humane, Animal Welfare Approved, or American Humane Certified. For meat, look for organic, pasture-raised, grass-fed, and free-range animals.
You can find healthier meat choices at the Thrive Market.
When you are ready to learn more about the benefits of a whole foods plant-based diet, a good place to start is my blog post about a plant-predominant diet.
Skip Farm-Raised Fish
If you are still eating fish, this is an important healthy food swap. There are several issues with farm raised fish including high concentrations of contaminants like PCBs and dioxins which are linked to hormone disruption.
Farm raised fish are also high in inflammatory fats (omega-6) and are commonly treated with antibiotics due to poor living conditions. These antibiotics can affect your health and lead to antibiotic resistant bacterial strains.
Farm raised salmon has been shown to contain 50% less omega-3 fats due to an unnatural diet of grains and legumes.
Avoid tilapia and Atlantic salmon which are almost always farm raised. Shop for fish that has the wild or wild-caught label from a store that you trust. Remember that if it smells extra fishy, it’s not fresh!
Wild-caught fish can have contaminants as well and pregnant women are advised to limit certain types of fish while pregnant due to heavy metal contamination. The FDA has a useful chart listing how the contamination levels of different types of fish.
For those who do eat fish, I recommend purchasing your wild caught seafood from Vital Choice. You can find more information on healthy and sustainable seafood options at the Seafood Watch website.
Also, there are so many new plant-based seafood products now. These are made from legumes, soy, and algae designed to copy the taste, smell, and texture of real fish and shellfish. Look for plant-based tuna like unMEAT, faux shrimp, fish filets, and crab cakes.
Omega-3 Algae Oil Supplements
Another option to get the required amount of omega-3 fats in your diet is to take a trusted EPA/DHA (omega-3) supplement. I prefer to go to the source for omega-3, just like the fish do, and get my omegas from algae.
Marine sources do not produce omega-3 fatty acids, but they do accumulate them from the algae they eat. The same fatty tissue that accumulates omega-3 in fish, also accumulates environmental toxins as mentioned above. Fish oil supplements are another source of contamination, and I do not recommend this type of supplement.
Lucky for us, we can get a clean omega-3 supplement from algae oil. I’ve listed a few trusted brands below. You can order these through my online dispensary below. You’ll be asked to create a free account and provide your name and email. Once you login, you can view pricing and my dispensary discounts!
My Favorite algae oil supplements are:
Omega-3 Testing at home
Don’t forget to get your omega-3 index tested regularly. Fortunately, this is something you can test at home with a finger prick test through OmegaQuant. You are emailed the results in a couple weeks after mailing the test kit back.
The Omega-3 Index Basic Test measures the amount of EPA and DHA in the blood. According to OmegaQuant, the optimal omega-3 index value is 8% or higher. Most people hover around 6% or below. And unfortunately, in the US, most people are at 4% or below – the highest risk zone.
There are many health impacts of a low omega-3 index: joint pain, skin issues, mental health issues, brain fog, increased risk of dementia, and susceptibility to infections.
Raising your Omega-3 Index to the desirable zone of 8% will help ensure you are getting enough of the right amounts of omega-3s (EPA and DHA) in order to protect your health.
If your results are low, you know you need to increase omega-3 rich foods like flax seed, chia seed, hemp seed, and dark leafy greens as well as take an algae Omega-3 supplement.
You may also need to reduce high omega-6 foods if you are consuming them. The ratio of plant-based omega-3 to omega-6 is critical since these both compete for the same enzymes in your body. Since your body must convert your dietary omegas into a bioavailable form, if you eat too much omega-6 you will not have enough of the enzyme to convert your omega-3s. This leaves you deficient in anti-inflammatory fats and can lead to a chronic inflammatory state.
Start with eliminating all vegetable and seed oils. Test again. If it is still too low, you can look at reducing the high omega-6 nuts and seeds like sunflower seeds, cashew nuts, peanuts, walnuts and pine nuts.
You can order the test through my online dispensary below:
Key Points on Healthy Food Swaps
- Replace a sugary breakfast with a higher protein breakfast
- Swap starchy carbohydrate with more non-starchy vegetables
- Swap sugary snacks with a serving of nuts
- Replace coffee with green tea or a good brand of coffee like Purity Coffee
- Replace Soda with sparking water
- Swap cauliflower rice for white rice
- Replace inflammatory oils and fats with good fats like avocado, olives, nuts and seeds
- Upgrade your eggs to free-range organic eggs and meat to grass-fed meat
- Skip farm raised fish and replace with wild-caught fish
- Get your omega-3 index tested with an at-home OmegaQuant test to see if you need to make any changes with your dietary fat sources
Recommended Reading
Newsletter Sign-Up
Learn how plant-based diets can skyrocket weight loss, health & longevity!
Medical Disclaimer
The above statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The products mentioned are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Check with your doctor or nutritionist before starting a new supplement program.
The Functional Nutritionist maintains this website for education, information, and communication purposes. Nothing on this website should be construed as a solicitation or promotion for any products, or for the use of any product in a particular way that goes against the laws and regulations of the country where the user is located.
Sources
- Malik VS, Willett WC, Hu FB. Sugar-sweetened beverages and BMI in children and adolescents: reanalyses of a meta-analysis. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009;89:438-9; author reply 9-40.
- Ludwig DS, Peterson KE, Gortmaker SL. Relation between consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks and childhood obesity: a prospective, observational analysis. Lancet. 2001;357:505-8.
- Malik VS, Popkin BM, Bray GA, Despres JP, Willett WC, Hu FB. Sugar-sweetened beverages and risk of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes: a meta-analysis. Diabetes Care. 2010;33:2477-83.
- January C, Wann L, Calkins H et al. 2019 AHA/ACC/HRS Focused Update of the 2014 AHA/ACC/HRS Guideline for the Management of Patients With Atrial Fibrillation. Circulation. 2019. doi:10.1161/cir.0000000000000665
