5 Ways to Make 
Your Recipes Healthier

Most recipes, including family favorites, can tolerate a healthy renovation without affecting the taste or texture of the food. The next time you make a new or familiar recipe, see if you can use one or more of the tips below to make the recipe even healthier.

Reduce the Amount of Fat, Sugar, and Sodium
With most recipes, you can reduce the amount of fat, sugar, and sodium without losing the flavor. By cutting fat and sugar, you also cut calories. How much can you leave out without affecting the flavor and consistency of the food? Use the following general guidelines:

• Fat. Use half the amount of butter, shortening, or oil; replace the other half with unsweetened applesauce, mashed banana, mashed ripe pear, or prune puree. If the recipe calls for 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, use ½ cup instead.
• Sugar. Reduce the amount of sugar by one-third to one-half. Try adding or increasing the amount of seasonings that enhance the sweetness of foods, like certain spices such as, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg or flavorings like vanilla extract or almond flavoring.
• Sodium. Reduce salt (sodium chloride) by one-half in baked goods that do not require yeast. However, for bread products made with yeast, ¼ teaspoon of salt per cup of flour is necessary for adequate rising of dough. For most main dishes, salads, soups, and other foods, you can reduce the salt by one-half or eliminate it completely.

Make a Healthy Substitution
Healthy substitutions not only reduce the amount of fat, calories, and/or sodium in your recipes, but they can sometimes boost the nutritional content.

• Use whole-wheat pasta in place of enriched white flour pasta to add fiber, magnesium, iron, and B vitamins to your meal. Likewise, use brown rice instead of white rice.
• Use fat-free milk instead of whole milk to save 60 calories and almost 8 grams of fat per cup.
• Use lower sodium ingredients (low sodium bouillon, low sodium soy sauce) in place of the regular, higher sodium ones.
• Use Splenda (sucralose, an artificial sweetener) in place of sugar.
• Use cooked beans (garbanzo, Great Northern, etc.) as a partial substitute for some of the ground beef in a recipe.

Omit an Ingredient
In some recipes, you can omit an ingredient altogether.

• Skip the high calorie toppings like frosting, whipped cream, coconut, and chopped nuts.
• Leave out optional condiments like pickles, olives, butter, mayonnaise, syrup, jelly, and mustard, which add unnecessary sodium, fat, and sugar and/or calories.

Use a Low Fat Cooking Method
Low fat cooking techniques can capture the flavor and nutrients of your food without adding extra calories from fats and oils.

• Choose recipes that rely on baking, broiling, poaching, braising, grilling, and steaming instead of frying.
• If the directions say to baste the meat or vegetables in oil or drippings, use wine, fruit juice, low sodium vegetable juice, or low sodium broth instead. Using nonstick pans or spraying pans with nonstick cooking spray will help minimize the amount of fat needed to prevent sticking.

Reduce the Portion Size
No matter how much you reduce, switch, or omit ingredients, some recipes may still be too high in sugar, fat, or sodium. In these cases, simply choose to eat a smaller portion. Eat slowly, so you can savor every bite!

Putting it All Together
As you look over your recipes, decide what to change and how to change it. Make notes of any changes, so you can refer to them the next time you prepare the food. You may have to make the recipe a few times, adjusting your changes, before you get the results you want. Finding the right combination of ingredients for the desired taste, consistency, and nutrients is well worth the trouble!!

Reference and Resource: Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Recipe Makeovers: 5 Ways to Make Your Recipes Healthier. www.mayoclinic.com. (Accessed 10/06).