Tweak recipes for better health
Whether you have diabetes, heart disease, or are just trying to follow a better way of eating for overall health, it is possible to lower the fat, salt/sodium and sugar in foods, and increase the fibre, by substituting some foods or by choosing different versions of the same food.
How to lower fat content
Ingredients and their alternatives:
- Full cream milk - replace with: Reduced or non-fat milk
- Full cream evaporated milk - replace with: Low-fat or lite evaporated milk
- Yoghurt - replace with: Low-fat or diet yoghurt
- Cream - replace with: Low-fat or lite evaporated milk; low-fat yoghurt
- Sour cream - replace with: Low-fat yoghurt, small amounts of reduced-fat sour cream
- Coconut cream - replace with: Low-fat evaporated milk plus coconut essence; lite coconut milk or dilute the coconut cream
- Cream cheese - replace with: Ricotta or cottage cheese
- Regular cheese - replace with: Lower-fat hard cheese such as Edam (25%)
- Butter - replace with: Mono/polyunsaturated margarine and vegetable oil, eg. canola or olive oil
- Cooked chicken with skin on - replace with: Remove chicken skin, choose breast meat. Cook chicken on a cake rack
- Fatty meats - replace with: Lean meats - remove all visible fat
- Streaky bacon - replace with: Middle eye rasher
- Fried food - replace with: Grill or microwave food
- Luncheon meat - replace with: 97% fat-free ham
- Tuna or salmon in oil - replace with: Tuna or salmon in spring water or brine [note: brine has salt content]
- Puff and regular pastry - replace with: Filo pastry and spray with a small amount of oil.
How to lower salt or sodium
| Ingredient |
Replace with |
| Salt in cooking |
Lemon juice, curry powder, spices |
| Canned vegetables and sauces |
No added salt varieties, fresh or frozen |
| Canned or smoked fish |
Fresh fish or canned in spring water; canned salmon with no added salt |
| Corned meats |
Fresh meats |
| Soy sauce |
Lite soy sauce |
| Tomato sauce |
Lite tomato sauce |
How to lower sugar
| Ingredient |
Replace with |
| Sugar |
Reduce quantity of sugar, or use artificial sweetener |
How to increase fibre
| Ingredient |
Replace with |
| White flour |
Wholegrain or wholemeal flour |
| Refined cereal (cornflakes) |
Wholegrain and bran types |
| White rice |
Brown rices, Dongarra |
| Plain pasta |
Wholemeal pasta |
| Peeled or boiled vegetables |
Unpeeled or raw vegetables |
| White breadcrumbs |
Wholemeal breadcrumbs |
Related topics
Also see: Different names for fats, salt and sugars and Reading food labels - 'how to' guide
Original material provided by Diabetes New Zealand, 2008. Edited by everybody, August 2011.
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