The problem with healthy dinner is that we sometimes tend to use high-cal or high-fat ingredients into the menus. In fact, there are healthier choices for our meals. Besides lower in calories, these low-fat ingredients substitutions are not less delicious. Learn the list below for healthier dinner options.

Dairy products

This is by far the most commonly problem found in our meals. Often we don’t realize that full-fat dairy products can hamper our weight lost program. For instance, adding full-fat cream cheese for salad dressing will ruin the good benefit of the leafy green salad. Shift from the full-fat versions to low-fat or nonfat ones for healthier alternative. Examples of healthier dairy products are low-fat or nonfat yoghurt; low-fat,nonfat, or light process cream cheese; nonfat or 1% low-fat cottage cheese; evaporated skimmed milk; fat-free or low-fat milk; nonfat or low-fat frozen yoghurt; Neufchatel cheese; and nonfat, lite, or part-skim ricotta cheese.

Oils and fats

These ingredients tend to be avoided a lot in meals. In fact, we need fats for keeping our body functions well. Fats help fat-soluble vitamins to dissolve; they are also beneficial in beautifying our skin. Instead of avoiding fats and oils, choose healthy oils and fats which are high in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Some substitutions for less healthy mayonnaise, butter, and margarine include: reduced-calorie margarine; margarine made of safflower, corn, canola, peanut, or soybean oil; reduced-calorie stick margarine; nonfat or oil-free salad dressing; nonfat or reduced-calorie mayonnaise; olive oil; and safflower, corn, canola, soybean, and peanut oil used in reduced amount.

Meat, poultry, and eggs

Unless you are a vegetarian, you cannot avoid meat all the time. Instead of suppressing your meat craving, consuming lean meat is better. To substitute the regular bacon, you can use lean ham, Canadian bacon, or turkey bacon in your dish. On the other hand, if you fancy beef, veal, lamb, or pork, it is better to change them with chicken, turkey, or any lean meat trimmed off of fats. Other options for this area would be extra-lean or ultra-lean ground beef; ground turkey; skinned turkey or chicken breast; lean roast beef; turkey basted with fat-free broth; and tuna packed in water. As the egg yolk contains high fat, substitute with 2 egg whites or ¼ cup of fat-free egg.

Others

Sometimes you also want appetizers or dessert to accompany your meal. As not a few appetizer or dessert ingredients contain high calories, you can consider these substitutions of dessert toppings: fat-free fudge sauce; chocolate syrup; and toasted nuts. Meanwhile, if you love canned soup for appetizer, choose 99% fat-free or reduced-fat, reduced-sodium condensed cream soups.