By: Zoe Zahra
We take a look at the ways you can turn a healthy plate of food into a calorific disaster.
Marinades
You've bought a great cut of chicken from the supermarket and are going to grill it so you can be as healthy as possible but then you add a yummy barbecue marinade for some extra flavour. Wrong! Some store-bought marinades contain high levels of sugar, so while they may taste nice they are undoing all the goodness of your grilled skinless chicken.
The healthy alternative
Spice up your plain food with home-made marinades. Slather your chicken in a little olive oil and flavour with some chilli powder and paprika. Or for something a little less fiery crush some garlic and mix with rosemary and a little olive oil. Spread over the chicken and voilà a lovely bit of chicken.
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Salad dressing
It's lunch time and you've made yourself a plate full of salad with fresh vegetables packed with vitamins and minerals but then your smother all that goodness with a salad dressing. Shop-bought dressings such as mayonnaise and thousand island are loaded with sugar, preservatives and salt, which contains sodium which is harmful in high amounts.
The healthy alternative
Instead, why not opt for a light dressing of olive oil, lemon juice and garlic. Add a tiny bit of mustard if you want a little more punch.
Added extras with your coffee
Your daily cup of tea and coffee has been found to have some great health benefits including reducing the risk of heart disease and diabetes. But it's the added extras you have that can hike up the calorie count. Having a flavoured syrup or topping it off with whipped cream can add a whopping 400 calories to a regular cup of brewed coffee which can have as little as 4 calories a cup.
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The healthy alternative
Swap your flavoured syrups for flavoured coffee beans like caramel or vanilla to supplement the taste of the bean itself. Also by switching from semi-skimmed milk to skimmed you'll be dropping the calorie count and switching your spoonful of sugar for a sweetener will help as well.
Olive oil
Extra virgin olive oil is high in "good" monounsaturated fat which can help lower cholesterol but it is also high in calories. So be careful with the amount of oil you use to cook your food in.
The healthy alternative
When grilling food glaze it with a pastry brush dipped in oil. And if you're whipping up a stir-fry, dribble a little olive oil on a paper towel and work it around the wok before adding the ingredients.
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Dipping sauce
It's time for X Factor and rather than grab the packet of crisps or tub of ice cream you've made yourself a plate full of crudités but what's that in the middle of the plate? A jar of sour cream? Covering your fresh vegetable sticks in calorific sour cream is defeating the whole purpose of a healthy snack. Three tablespoons of a traditional creamy dip can contain a huge 210 calories and 22 grams of fat. Even some shop-bought hummus and salsas which are considered to be health can be packed with calories and fat so make sure to check the labels when you're buying them.
The healthy alternative
If you're dying to dip why not mix fat-free plain Greek yogurt with zingy seasonings such as cayenne pepper powder or horseradish. Or why not give making homemade hummus a go as it tends to contain less calories than those often bought in the supermarket.
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