Healthy Ingredient Swaps You Need To Try

Trying to live a healthier lifestyle is always a great idea. Any quick Google search will return millions of hits for ideas about how to start living your best healthy life. And it's with good reason, too. The choices we make now with regard to health could potentially dictate what happens later down the line, as Harvard Health Publishing points out. That's why starting with smaller things, like picking just one change to make to your health at a time, selecting achievable goals for your health, or breaking down seemingly large ambitions into smaller chunks (like aiming for a short walk instead of an hour-long run) is a great place to start.

And in the same vein, making smaller, healthier choices with your diet as opposed to trying to revamp it all in one go is not only way more of a realistic aim, but more beneficial than you'd think. These days, there's a multitude of healthy ingredient swaps you can make that can have your food tasting even better than normal, and that can expand your culinary horizons to places you never even thought. Take a look at some of our top picks here.

Ice cream is pretty much the food of the gods, but like most things that are really super delicious, regrettably, it's pretty unhealthy. So what if we said you could make ice cream with just one ingredient? And a healthy one at that. It's true. All you need are some ripe bananas and a blender. Trust us on this one — it's gold.

Take the bananas, peel, and slice them. Place them in a freezer bag or container and throw them in the freezer for at least two hours. Once they're frozen solid, place them in the blender, and process, process, process. After a while, the banana will, quite magically, turn into an ice cream texture. Freeze it for a little longer and then enjoy: no fat, no added sugar, all taste.

Naturally, you can add anything you want to the dessert, like ice cream. And due to bananas being total health bombs that are high in fiber, antioxidants, and packed with vitamin B6 among various other benefits, according to San Diego-based nutritionist Laura Flores, this is essentially a health food in a delicious creamy vessel (via Live Science).

There are few things more enjoyable in life than biting into a loaded taco. However, with three hard shells containing 3 grams of saturated fat and 19 grams of carbohydrates, looking for swaps to hold your fillings wherever possible can be a good option.

This is where the humble lettuce leaf comes in. Butter lettuce is "a great bread replacement for anyone looking to go low-carb," says Kelly Kennedy, registered dietitian and staff nutritionist for Everyday Health told the website. "You can make a traditional sandwich and serve it on butter lettuce, or even roll the ingredients inside the leaves to create a sort of 'wrap' in place of a tortilla."

What about iceburg lettuce? Kennedy acknowledged that it "can be used just like butter lettuce (as a salad, on top of a sandwich, or as a bread replacement)," but she tends to advise people to eat other greens instead. "I don't usually recommend iceberg lettuce because there's not much nutritional value to it — I usually tell people to just have a glass of water instead," she explained.

"Healthy chocolate" might seem like the biggest oxymoron ever, but subbing chocolate for a different type of chocolate is a quick swap that can boost your nutrient intake. Classic milk chocolate gets its rich flavor from its higher whole milk and sugar content, which comes at the expense of the chocolate liquor (a combo of cocoa butter and cocoa solids) that contains the good stuff, says Today's Dietitian. Dark chocolate contains at least 35% liquor, meaning it has a much higher concentration of the minerals and vitamins that cocoa provides.

A single one-ounce serving of high-cocoa dark chocolate contains 19% of your daily manganese intake, 17% of your copper intake, as well as magnesium, iron, potassium, zinc, selenium, phosphorous, and several types of B vitamins and vitamin K. The cocoa in dark chocolate is also a natural source of theobromine, a powerful antioxidant which can help to maintain healthy blood pressure and reduce inflammation. Bear in mind that dark chocolate has a more bitter taste than milk chocolate, so if you're swapping it in recipes, you may need to consider the sweetness of your meal.

Using breadcrumbs in dishes is tried and tested, but it comes at a cost. Pre-packaged breadcrumbs can often be treated with corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, and sodium, according to Livestrong. All of these ingredients can have negative consequences if consumed too regularly or in too-high quantities. Breadcrumbs also contain gluten, which can be a nightmare for people who have gluten sensitivity.

Oats, on the other hand, are pretty much the nutritional MVP. Not only do they contain excellent levels of soluble fiber, which can help to control blood sugar levels, contribute to proper digestion, and lower harmful LDL cholesterol, but they contain several key minerals like calcium, phosphorus, and protein to boot (per Good Housekeeping).

Try using oats as a binder in meatballs instead of breadcrumbs, as Good Housekeeping suggests, or as a topping for bread. If you're opting for oats to reduce gluten, however, be warned: "What many people might not know is that oats are inherently gluten free, but may come in contact with wheat, rye and barley at the farm, in storage or during transportation," Kristin Harris, senior principal scientist at Quaker, told the publication. Make sure the oats you choose are explicitly marked as gluten free.

If you haven't tried zucchini noodles yet, we're prepared to go all in with the persuasion. There are a few reasons why zucchini noodles have become a much-loved straight swap for spaghetti, with the first one being, simply, the visual appeal. "We eat with our eyes, and it absolutely looks like pasta," registered dietitian Tanya Zuckerbrot, who practices in New York City, told Vogue. Subbing out something as beloved as pasta for something that looks identical to it can help you make a healthier choice without missing the noodles.

Zucchini noodles (or zoodles) are also a food sub that come packed with nutrients. With just 17 calories, a 1-cup serving of zucchini will deliver 40% of your daily recommended intake of vitamin A, and a high amount of antioxidants, particularly carotenoids (the pigments that give carrots their orange hue). Zoodles also provide soluble and insoluble fiber, which can aid with digestion and satiation.

It couldn't be easier to make zoodles, so don't be intimidated by the process: Simply grab a julienne peeler or a mandoline with a shredding attachment and place the zoodles in boiling water until just softened.

Look, we hear you: it can be frustrating to swap out things like rice or pasta for vegetable alternatives and pretend that it's the real thing. That's why this swap is slightly closer to home, and one which we think you'll love. By swapping rice for quinoa, you maintain the grain aspect of your meal while making a healthier choice.

As a complete protein, quinoa delivers all of the nine essential amino acids that your body requires, which rice does not, according to UPMC. As you might assume, this also means that its protein content is higher than rice, with 8 grams per cup. Furthermore, the grain is slightly lower in carbohydrates and higher in micronutrients including zinc, manganese, magnesium, and iron. In fact, quinoa's nutrient content is around three to four times higher than brown rice — which means that it'll even higher than the content of white rice.

Quinoa also contains more fiber. Crucially, though, quinoa and brown rice have roughly the same amount of calories for an equivalent serving size, which means you won't be left unsatisfied in a way that other ingredient swaps can sometimes result in.

Have you ever wondered what the difference between cocoa and cacao is? Turns out, it's more than just a two-letter difference. Both cocoa and cacao powder begin their lives as beans from the cacao plant, but cocoa is processed at a higher temperature than cacao, and can often have additions like sugar and dairy products, whereas cacao is processed at a lower temperature from beans that are fermented (per All Recipes).

Cacao ends up with a slightly more bitter flavor — but the difference doesn't stop there. Cacao powder is packed with flavonols, compounds that have an antioxidant effect on the body. Cacao also serves as a great source of magnesium, iron, and has a fiber content. Due to the intensive processing of cocoa, however, these qualities can be lost, and cocoa products can often have a higher caloric content due to added ingredients. Try using cacao in a healthier twist on a hot chocolate, or sprinkle it onto cakes or into desserts in place of cocoa. Just bear in mind that you'll lose some of the sweetness that cocoa supplies by doing so, so adjust your other ingredients accordingly if necessary.