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Four easy ingredient swaps for healthy eating

If you're trying to cut out sugar in your diet, you might feel intimidated by making big changes all at once. Instead of attempting to overhaul everything you eat, why not start out with a few simple ingredient swaps? These suggestions from I Quit Sugar are a great way to get started and experiment with different flavours in your food!

1. Swap maple syrup for rice malt syrup

These delicious turmeric and blueberry pancakes go well with rice malt syrup. Source: I Quit Sugar/Hannah Fong
These delicious turmeric and blueberry pancakes go well with rice malt syrup. Source: I Quit Sugar/Hannah Fong

Think maple syrup is okay because it’s “natural”? Unfortunately, it still contains up to 40 per cent fructose, the addictive sugar many people are really trying to quit. (Table sugar is 50 per cent fructose, to give you the comparison).

One go-to sweetener you can substitute is rice malt syrup, a blend of glucose and maltose (so, fructose-free)!

You can use rice malt syrup in place of maple syrup, honey and agave In most recipes. It tastes particularly great drizzled over the Turmeric + Blueberry Pancakes pictured above.

TOP TIP: Don’t forget too much rice malt syrup can still muck with your blood sugar levels. I Quit Sugar recommend further cutting the sweetener in any recipe if you can, and sticking to a smaller portion size.

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2. Swap dried fruit for fresh fruit.

These spiced apple muffins have sweet potato puree instead of dried fruit. Source: I Quit Sugar/Meg Yonson
These spiced apple muffins have sweet potato puree instead of dried fruit. Source: I Quit Sugar/Meg Yonson

Dried fruit does not a healthy snack make. The dehydration process strips the water out of your fruit, leaving concentrated sugar that puts a real strain on the liver to metabolise.

That’s why it's a good choice to choose fresh, whole fruit to snack on or add to morning oats.

TOP TIP: You can also sub out dried fruit for fresh fruit in most baking recipes without totally destroying the end product (frozen berries usually work a treat!).

Case in point? Click here to make spiced apple muffins with wal-nutty crumble.

3. Swap bottled barbecue sauce for sugar-free barbecue sauce.

Yikes! Bottled barbecue sauce has a lot of sugar. Source: I Quit Sugar
Yikes! Bottled barbecue sauce has a lot of sugar. Source: I Quit Sugar

Sorry to break it to you, but most bottled barbecue sauces are teeming with the sweet stuff. Some are even made up of more than HALF sugar. Yikes!

TOP TIP: Banish the bottle and make your own sugar-free Homemade Barbecue Sauce instead.

4. Swap canola oil for extra virgin olive oil.

Just because it has the word “vegetable” in it, does NOT make highly processed vegetable oils (like canola, sunflower and soybean) good for you. Swap these for extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil wherever possible.

TOP TIP: Don’t believe the hype – you can cook with a good quality extra virgin olive oil. It actually has a smoke point of about 215 degrees celsius, much hotter than any domestic pan is going to get!

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