47 Food Hacks To Make Your Food Healthier

I'll let you in on a secret last year I started a get shredded challenge I was getting shredded one finished book a wedding in Italy a wedding in the United States both of which for my wife and I and moving my entire company to a new city later didn't really get shredded I'm not making an excuse I'm just saying that I chose not to but as I start things up again it made me think about you I know a lot of people may have been in this boat before why is it so hard to diet and get healthy because most people make a drastic change without thinking about the big picture when it's actually about the little changes you make consistently and the secret to doing it right isn't just about how you eat but how you cook so here's the ship's approach to make your cooking healthier it'll help you stick to your diet get healthier and maybe get you to that goal weight or the incredible pair of buttcks you've been looking for these aren't just tips all of these have been verified by a professor of nutrition to make sure it's right for you so I'm going back on my get shredded Challenge and we're going to do this together let's begin the heavy cream substitution this is a big one you want to add cream to a curry or really anything you're missing the creaminess it's hard to do it without heavy cream I have a solution that will cut down the calories by probably I don't know 60 to 80% take a two to one rate ratio of milk to cauliflower put it into a pot bring it to a boil until the cauliflower is completely overcooked to a total mush straighten your cauliflower out add it to a blender and use your milk to loosen just until it's roughly the consistency of heavy cream while blending on high then optionally but highly recommended to get some extra lactose flavor you can add a little splash of heavy cream in there just for mouth feel now you have a very low calorie low fat substitute for heavy cream is it exactly the same no will it get the same results not necessarily but it will get you through your diet if you want to reduce food waste and have a healthier pesto instead of throwing away your Carrot Tops guess what you can eat the tops so for example make a Carrot Top pesto all the same ingredients as a pesto except replace basil or some of the basil with Carrot Tops blend it up and get a boost of vitamin C calcium potassium and you are one ingredient less of a food waster missing the extra fat in your diet kind of drags down the experience of eating something but there's a way around that adding layers of texture because fat ultimately provides texture so replace that with layering other ones crunch chewiness add a little bit of liquid to something we've said that before but that's technically a texture right I do have a cookbook about that it's called texture over taste maybe you wonder what that's all about links in the description if you're craving a soda I've got a replacement obviously juice is not an option it's got way too much sugar in it to keep you on diet so instead fill a cup full of ice fill that a quarter of the way up with any juice of your choosing now make sure you keep that juice sub a/4 cup otherwise the sugar content will go way up then at that point just top it off with saltz or water add some fresh herbs which have been lightly bruised with a little mix and you have a nice fizzy flavored drink that's lower in calories sugar and will actually provide some nutrients nonstick pan if you don't want to be forced to use lots of oil while cooking a non-stick pan is the answer to your problems obviously the lack of oil might cause the food to cook a little longer but you don't need it to cook in a non-stick pan as a matter of fact you actually don't need any oil to cook something like mushrooms you can still get gray color and flavor on mushrooms by cooking them with zero oil in a non-stick pan that's all mushrooms no calories be now I have a make everything taste better sauce it's very basic two roasted red bell peppers their stem removed and their seeds removed into a blender followed by four cloves of garlic 3 tbsp of white distilled vinegar 2 tbsp of light cream cheese 1 tsp of shirashi sth thing gum to thicken and salt to taste blend that on high until as smooth as possible and that's it feel free to add more acid or whatever you want to this but putting this on a piece of chicken putting this on some protein dressing a salad with it or just dipping raw carrots in it is going to taste great use this to diversify all of your meals to keep them from being boring I always miss steak when I'm on a diet you can't always have your big fatty ribeye the biggest issue is all these lean steaks are incredibly chewy and honestly not that flavorful but there is one and it is the flank steak it has the perfect balance to me for high protein relatively lean and it's tender or at least more tender than any of the other steaks you'll ever have it will satisfy that steak craving Embrace acid if you have a salt restrictive diet first off I'm sorry for you I will never ever manage my salt intake so sorry to my doctor but that being said if you have to that doesn't mean you can't make food taste interesting so before adding a little extra salt maybe try adding some acid now now it is different and it's not going to make the perfectly balanced flavor but it will add Intrigue depth brightness to what you're cooking acid is something every chef uses to amplify the flavor of their food and you can too multi-purpose creamy sauce everybody needs this okay you want to dip some baby carrots and do a little baby carrot time this is it this is for you it also goes on literally anything so into a bowl combine 1 cup or 230 G of full fat or lowfat Greek yogurt depending on your diet two gloves of garlic grated 3 tbp or 45 G of H sauce 1 tbsp or 15 G of wores sure sauce in a bowl wow that was the my best pronunciation of that one season to taste salt and pepper whis can tell fully combined and at this point listen you can add other ingredients you can add your favorite spice mix or fish sauce maybe even a spoonful of chili garlic sauce I don't care the point is it's multi-purpose not going to be as creamy as a Mayo Bas sauce but it's going to get your fix and you can add a lot of it on what you're eating zanan gum oh man you know bringing a little bit of that fine dining repertoire here today if you never heard of this it is the way that restaurants emulsify and add viscosity and richness to sauces that that normally may not have it this is a hydroc coloid and it does all magical things such as that typically you would use a fat some egg yolks to get those emulsifications this is a calorie free way to do that with just about anything it's like a magical dust my only thing that I would say is that really you should be blending on high speed and adding tiny little microscopic spoonfuls of zanen gum until it reaches the consistency and emulsification that you would like fun fact red bell peppers are one of the most nutritious peppers on the planet six times the amount of vitamin C as citrus fruit H she got some vitamin C to get the most out of them you can either lightly stir fry or broil or roast it's a great way to eat more vegetables the thing that's great about bell peppers is they're kind of like benign they're not spicy they're sweet they're fragrant but they're not intrusive they add a little bit of flavor but not that much they're just kind of there and they're nice little sweetness great into Curry fried rice soup stews chili you can chop this up and mix it up in your meat for like a meatball does that make sense air fry obviously deep frying your food is not really much of an option but I'm not going to lie after all my talking about the air fryer it does turn out it's not too bad only if you use a three tier set up flour egg wash and some sort of a breadcrumb that could be panko Corn Flakes Etc sprit slightly with cooking spray pop it into your Air fryer and there's varying temperatures you can do 375 all the way up to 425 fahit and that could be anywhere between 12 to 24 minutes depending on whatever it is you're frying so test around find your best temp and time but what do you do if you don't have an air fryer Josh well you can oven fry it's actually not too bad but it's definitely not as good you will have to go at a hotter temperature around 400 to 425 F and you will definitely have to flip halfway through cook times set that temperature can vary between 15 and 25 minutes so choose your fancy and what you want to spend money on an instant way to add diversity to already prepped ingredients that you have rice paper wraps for spring rolls make your own spring rolls or you can roll them up and then sear them and they get crispy on both sides it's real nice so keep a pack of dried rice papers for spring rolls take them out rehydrated water wrap whatever the hell you want any protein any vegetable with any sauce whatever fits your diet in your Macros and enjoy it's a healthy way to just diversify your diet a little bit measuring oil you want more consistency in diet let me just make this simple don't freehand your oil okay this is a great time to practice your cooking skills and by that I mean practicing discipline it seems basic but trust me it makes a difference okay so anytime you need to add oil to something or fat to something please do me a favor and measure it with a measuring spoon 1 tblspoon 2 tablespoons however many tablespoons just be aware that 1 tbspoon of oil contains 14 G of fat and typically I put three to four in a pan just to start cooking that is when I'm not measuring all right for all you munchers out there for all you who like to snack on Little Things popcorn it's underrated but you can season it with whatever you want if you make it yourself little tablespoon of olive oil in a large pot heat it up hot add as many popcorn kernels as you allowed to eat or if you're sharing more LD on constantly Shake over high heat pop pop pop open it up you got popcorn at this point you can season it with salt or whatever you want it is a great low calorie option despite the carbohydrates that are in it the cheese sauce replacement this is one of the most interesting healthy hacks I've ever found taking lowfat cottage cheese I know I know look I thought it was weird too I'm like where's the flavor you got to have the fat to be fair I do eat it when I'm on a diet to get that extra Protein that's low in calories but nobody really wants to eat it unless you're a bodybuilder so you take that you blend it on high until as smooth as possible in a blender and you end up with this sort of cream because of all the stabilizers and hydrocol that are in this it turns into a beautifully glossy emulsified almost mouret like cream cheese sauce you can use it as a dip dressing or as a replacement to sour cream or maybe a light May chances are you might have to give up bacon pork belly bacon that is let's be honest turkey bacon sucks at so a more flavorful and less congealed product would be either Canadian bacon or English back bacon now depending on what your Macros will allow that is English back bacon is obviously higher fat and it varies depending on the brand that you use but those two options are delicious high protein and a great substitute dry rubs and marinade you got a lot of lowfat proteins and unfortunately sometimes that means not a lot of tenderness and not a ton of Flavor now that's not always true but if it is true keep it simple add some dry rubs spices or marinades and let it sit on the protein overnight just trust me when it comes to dieting everybody says oh eat chicken breast use this chicken breast recipe chicken breast chicken breast breast breast breast forget it use chicken thighs instead the difference in the amount of fat is negligible assuming your diet can handle it it's like an extra 2 to four gram of fat but they're juicier they're easier to cook matter of fact they're very difficult to overcook and you're more likely to stay on your diet whereas chicken breast is the other way around hard to cook they go fry easily not as much flavor so you can listen to me about the chicken thigh and you're using chicken breast anyway here's how you can make it better after it's cooked shred it up and toss it with any low-fat low calorie sauce that could be low sugar barbecue sauce that could be like a creamy saiki yogurt Vibe it could be anything you want you got a little Fred chicken put it in a sandwich eat it over rice the world is your high protein oyster cooking vegetables big fun fact alert we are the only animals on the planet that cook our food but did you know that generally speaking it is healthier to eat cooked Foods than raw ones helps make certain nutrients more B bio available such as roasting carrots cooking mushrooms many other nutrients become much more easily absorbable by the human body because they are cooked real sorry it's science which cooking oil for high heat cooking you see you can't just use any oil smoke points too low you burn the oil free radicals all sorts of unhealthy carcinogenic compounds and generally not great for your diet so you need to use the right oil and if you don't want to use vegetable oil or canola oil then the best choices are either avocado oil or animal fat they both have high smoke points and they're very naturally derived if you will it's more of a health thing than a diet thing replace lasagna sheets with vegetables if you're really craving a Cheesy pasta dish but you can't have carbs well I'm sorry because honestly I don't know that said lasagna is kind of the perfect vehicle for this vegetable lasagna is a common thing zucchini or eggplant is what you'll usually see especially eggplant in Italy so considering the Italians seem to have relatively approved this one you slice thin lengthwise your vegetables and just like a normal lasagna you can use lower fat ground beef and less oil and of course you can use our Blended low fat cottage cheese cream creme but layer it traditionally cover with whatever cheese you can eat whether that's regular or low moisture pop it in the oven cook it down pull it out and honestly it works quite well ain't that nass lower carbohydrate lower calorie still lasagna Vibes add moisture to your food wherever possible that is the answer the problem with lower calorie which is typically going to be lower fat dieting is that you lack sufficient moisture and that's part of what makes food enjoyable it's not that you just need the fat I me granted it tastes great and you can do that with lowfat creamy op like yogurt broths stocks Salsas hot sauces I mean really any way you want those things can be added before cooking during cooking or even after cooking don't underestimate dipping you make a sauce that's dippable it's low enough in calories and fat it's going to make it more flavorful but more importantly it makes the eating experience more enjoyable and that's going to help you stick to your diet moist cooking on a grill an instant way to reduce the amount of fat that you need to use when you're cooking obviously you can heat and cook foods all the way through without needing much oil or fat and even better any fat that is on a piece of meat for for example will drip off into the Flames becoming nothingness instead of onto your thighs big problem you don't want to break down all those big vegetables like broccoli cauliflower you buy pre-cut which is insanely expensive maybe you just don't cut them maybe instead you just lightly rub them down with oil and you cook them whole in the oven at around 350 to 400° F till they're cooked through and nicely Brown just like a little roast and at that point you can take them out and then just cut them up with scissors as you need them then reheat on a plate and enjoy limited vegetables very minimal prep time the cover while roasting technique if you want to cook your food in an oven without oil there's a big problem here typically your food's going to get dried out it's not going to get caramelized properly so on and so forth that's why I cook with a lot of oil when I roast but if you're on a strict diet I found a trick whatever it is you're cooking lightly oil vegetables or in this case potatoes cover them tightly with foil bake at your desired temperature until just cooked through then remove the foil now at this point they're lightly damp but if they have any oil on them whatsoever even if they don't crank the heat all the way up and blast it until it reaches your desire level of color and maybe some extra crispness less calories extra flavor if you're on a diet and you're missing some sort of cheese more specifically a cheese pole like this is that even possible when you're trying to keep your calories low uh yes it is actually I'm not a huge fan of the lowfat cheeses I think they're weird and I don't know how they're made so I should probably research that that being said instead of using full fat mozzarella you can totally use low moisture part skin mozzarella you can bite it in blocks gr it yourself and enjoy it I use this actually all the time even in my non-diet recipes just because it gets great cheese pulse and has great mouth feel best part is it's actually lower calorie swap sour cream sauces so sour cream based sauces right things like Mayo things like Green Goddess let me make this really simple for you sour cream is already sort of kind of lower fat lower calorie than other options but if you swap it with non-fat Greek yogurt the discrepancy is pretty significant which is this sour cream 4 g of protein 27 G of fat for 5 ounces now for 5 ounces of non-fat Greek yogurt you got 15 g of protein and 0 g of fat so you know do whatever ratio you want that you can with in your diet and all joy you can still have a burger and be on diet but there's a trick so obviously we all know I'm a big proponent of high fat ground beef but that does not keep you on diet you can literally just swap it with lean ground beef but don't lose the technique this is what you do so you're going to ball it up and smash Patty it just like you usually would with another Burger but you have to be quick here keep your heat hotter than usual sear it and get color on both sides as quickly as you can because you don't have the fat to rely on so all you got is the juice that's in there to keep it moist another thing you could do is you could even do the cub style and add a little bit of sauce on top while it's cooking so it'll soak up those juices and keep it from being dry and boring obviously the golden rule for fat is 70% lean that's not diet friendly so you could use 90 or 95% lean to stay on diet uh and fun fact you want cheese you could still add American cheese is that the healthiest option no but it is weirdly macro friendly uh I didn't realize that maybe cuz it's not really cheese so put that American cheese on there still going to hit your Macros egg whites I've never really loved egg whites I've always seen it as a weird cop out but I get it high pro protein blah blah blah blah blah but when you're making french toast okay this is where things can go from off diet to on diet instead of using all whole eggs just use one whole egg and the rest egg whites to make your custard obviously using whole eggs is not necessarily bad for you but again sticking to your diet here low calorie then you just use all your other ingredients that you would usually use cinnamon maybe avoid sugar right a little bit of honey almond milk or any milk substitute dip your bread cook it as usual maybe use less oil in the pan higher protein lower calorie and you still get to eat mother french toast brother Chinese takeout sauces this seems to be one of the ultimate hacks that I don't see people taking advantage of most Chinese takeout things can be made into a macro-friendly or diet friendly option the biggest issue is they use so much oil whenever they're cooking it and I get it that's really what's taking it out of being macro friendly but a lot of them is like lean beef or lean chicken or lean pork in a sauce your favorite soy sauce a little bit of orange juice lemon juice some Chinese black vinegar and then heat it up and thicken it with cornstarch reduce the sugar reduce the oil and find recipes for takeout that are on diet you'll be able to continue to enjoy some of your most favorite foods all stay in macro friendly if you want to make a viscous sauce or more specifically a nice gravy without all the fat and the requirement of making a r you can make a nice flavorful soup broth or stock add flavorings of your choice add some lightly cooked onion to it two to one ratio of liquid to onion and then cook that down until the onion is extremely soft you know while trying to avoid reducing that liquid too much a lid helps add to a blender and blend until smooth as possible you're left with a low calorie highly flavorful sauce or gravy I mean look at this thing extra virgin olive oil can get expensive a cheaper alternative in moderation would be animal fat it's high in nutrients that a lot of us don't get and it reduces food waste so next time if you're trimming off a steak maybe save that and then cook it down to your own cooking fat later don't cook your garlic well let me clarify obviously yes cook your garlic when it's required to cook it but that being said understand that if you don't cook it anytime you add raw garlic that's been processed by being sliced chopped smashed that processing triggers the release of an enzyme called allisin Allison is an antioxidant anti-inflammatory and may improve metabolism granted that was only in mice and rats but sometimes late at night we can all be a little bit of a rat point is raw garlic is healthy this is an easy trick but a lot of people forget to think about it you're getting a sweet tooth craving or cherry pie apple pie or maybe you just stop for a second the easiest swap is obviously replace a Sweet Craving with a fruit now a lot of the time that surprisingly does work but I know what you're thinking Jos an apple is not an apple pie maybe find a way to get it hot doew your Apple lightly add a little bit of crush nuts on top you get the crunch you got the cooked Apple throw a little cinnamon in there now you have the essence of an apple pie without all the sugar fat Etc you can stay on your diet Curry a great way to eat more lean protein is to just make more curries if you're trying to stay on diet and low calorie then I suggest using lowfat coconut milk or any other cream Alternatives we've mentioned such as the cauliflower method but really it's up to you you may not need to use cream in your Curry which is even better but the point is the flavorful way to maybe accidentally eat a bunch of extra protein and maybe some vegetables is to make some form of a curry it diversifies heav eat grilled chicken breast every single night okay chicken fish shrimp Beef Pork you name it whatever's on diet this is an easy way to eat it adding olive oil and if you want to add a surprising addition of flavor and texture while simultaneously boosting the essential nutrients in something like a soup or really anything add a nice heavy drizzle of extra virgin olive oil okay I want that thing as extra virginy as you can get it it adds richness to your food but it also is incredibly nutritious steaming vegetables okay so don't boil your vegetables in water I mean you can but it saps a ton of the nutrients from them and if you're looking for the vital nutrients they're going to help you maintain energy lose fat all those different things then really you should either steam them or honestly surprisingly microwaving them retains even better nutrients than boiling them or just Grill them how about we just all Grill our vegetables because vegetables are always better when you grill them I'm tired of sweet potatoes you got to be too all right it's not Thanksgiving with the stupid little marshmallow topping yes it's a healthy option but you can still eat white potatoes assuming you're counting your calories and macros just don't peel them the next time you eat them because all the nutrients are in the skin let's be honest white potatoes from a un unversal cooking perspective a little nicer than just a sweet potato if you want something more luscious more fine dining in your typical diet food I don't know why more people don't think about this maybe because it's really expensive which I can respect this is a less budget friendly option but guess what Lobster are honestly very low in calories high in protein and if you want to keep it low calorie without the lemon and the butter despite how good that is you can inad make something like a light dressing such as a KN mom or a sesame dressing or something vinegret oriented so dress it up if you'd like place it in a lettuce cup put it in some buns if you can eat carbs excellent source of nutrients extreme lean protein plus it's fancy as B your pasta with vegetables when you can have pasta but maybe you're restrictive on how much you can have right you want a big fat bowl a great way to still have that feeling is to just add vegetables that blend in with the pasta in a way vegetables like zucchini slic thin because it adds a mouth feel that's reminiscent of pasta while bulking up that bowl and still being able to eat your pasta and it feels well like a sizable portion plus it slows down digestion of those carbohydrates lower insulin spikes better dieting Banana Pancakes if you want a lower carbohydrate panc P there's all sorts of fancy ways people have tried to do it and it sucks this is the only good way that I found and that is using a banana as additional starch and binder instead of more flour so make a pancake batter that has less flour in it it should be relatively thick similar to your typical pancake batter and then cook it as usual you don't even need to add sugar to this because the banana provides natural sugar for you and fiber so good poop cauliflower tortillas tortillas are notoriously high in carbs now listen you got two options you can either go corn or you can go cauliflower I'll talk about cauliflower in a second corn is already pretty low calorie pretty low carbohydrate oh but what if I'm not eating corn okay then fine here's another option for you just add the florit of one head of cauliflower to a food processor blend until the cauliflower is riced it looks like rice Place rice cauliflower into a microwave safe container and microwave that bad boy for 5 minutes you could also cook it in a pan after the cauliflower is cooked place that into a towel wrap up the ends let it cool so it's handleable by hand and squeeze out as much moisture as possible I did not wait for this to cool because I have asbest hands I would not recommend that for you because I don't want you to get a little burned you're going to add that back to a food processor with 3 tspoons or 45 G of a root powder 3/4 of a teaspoon or 3 G of fine sea salt then at half a teaspoon or 2 G of zanen gum three large eggs begin to blend till smooth 3/4 of a cup or 60 G mozzarella give that another blend a few times until completely Incorporated you get a baking sheet line with parchment then spoon that you're going to have sort of a soupy mess trust me it's okay place a couple tablespoon dollops onto your parchment spread it around into corn tortilla size circles you could also go as large as a burrito if you want then once you've filled that out bake for 8 to 10 minutes at 400 F or 205 C and you have a flexible soft tortilla like flatbread thing is it exactly like a tortilla absolutely not no it is not but guess what you can maintain your diet keep your carbohydrates extremely low and have sort of a taco another way to diversify your diet when you start to feel a little bored make your own sushi I'm telling you it's a big secret and you can control the amount of sugar that goes in that rice or take all the sugar out of it if you think about it it's literally just rice vegetables protein wrapped up in really high nutrient dense Nori just put whatever you want in it as long as it sticks to your diet enjoy it eat it and you sort of have something that feels like a night out while keeping you on diet spaghetti squash sorry Italians you like eating a lot of pasta all at once here's another solution for you again you can keep your carbs low while having a big bowl of spaghetti because spaghetti squash is well to me visually similar not necessarily texturally but somehow it Blends in perfectly with the strands of spaghetti so you're going to take a spaghetti squash cut it in half lengthwise leave it face down on a sheet tray and bake it in the oven at around 350 to 400° F until incredibly soft you pull it out sh it with a fork and you end up with very spaghetti likee strands which you can eat by themselves for a ultra low carb low calorie version or mix 50/50 with actual spaghetti to bulk that thing up that's a big dub and you yourself can have any of these dubs anytime you choose this shows that it is possible to make the things that you love and stay on diet you're welcome and good night oh

Channel: Joshua Weissman

Views: 1,611,967

Keywords: sat bawl pro, joshua weissman, healthy eating, healthy diet, how to start eating healthy, eating healthy, healthy eating tips, healthy eating habits, healthy recipes, how to eat healthy, healthy foods, healthy meals, clean eating, healthy eating hacks, healthy eating meal plan, healthy eating made easy, healthy cooking, macro friendly, low calorie recipes, low calorie meals, meal prep, joshua weissman healthy, healthy meal prep, new years resolution, how to lose weight

Id: aAzN2efRXns

Length: 23min 2sec (1382 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 03 2024