5 Ways to Healthify Your Comfort Food
Blog post by Lindsay Mustard, Holistic Nutritionist
Right about now, we are all craving comfort food more than ever. With an ever changing environment and situation, we’re all trying to keep our tempers and moods in check with the help of sweet, salty and savoury comfort foods.
In this blog post, we’re going to delve into five ways to make your comfort foods something that you can feel good about eating! We’re going to healthify them to boost your energy, improve digestion, balance your blood sugar and design them to help you not eat the entire batch or pan!
Comfort food - what exactly are we talking about? These words means different things to different people. Comfort foods for one individual could be food that they grew up with such as curries, ramen, sushi...you get the jist of it. But for most of us, comfort foods are usually our favourite sweets and treats. These being ice cream, cookies, candy, chocolate, chips, nuts, burgers, fries, pizza, tacos… are your drooling yet? We thought so. Stay with us! We promise you’ll get as excited about these healthier versions as you do for the real thing!
Tip #1: Skip the Simple Carb
Before someone jumps in and shouts, “carbs aren’t bad for you lady!”, let me preface this by highlighting the word simple. This is the difference between consuming white pasta, bread, potatoes and sugar and eating whole grain, complex carbs made from beans, legumes, grains or from fruits and vegetables. There is a world of a difference, especially when it comes to your blood sugar. Our pancreas is responsible for secreting insulin to help us store the sugars that we consume from the sources above. This little organ only has so much power before he has to rest, which means that if we’re still consuming sugar even after our pancreas has capped out his insulin producing abilities, we’re storing the rest as fat for later. Shocker!
Skip the simple carbs simply means to pass on the bread, cereal, white potatoes, chips or white rice. If it's offered as a side, pass on it. Or better yet, make a healthier alternative such as whole grain or brown rice, chickpea pasta, beet chips or sourdough bread. It doesn’t mean you can’t have a version of it - you just have to find a healthier look alike!
Tip #2: When In Doubt, Add More Fibre
Fibre is king when it comes to helping you fill up faster, reducing the amount of comfort food you consume because your belly is full to the brim! Fibre is found in all of the healthy alternatives listed in point number one; whole grains, beans, legumes, nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables. These plant-based foods are loaded with high amounts of fibre that help you fill up faster and assist in the detoxification process - aka, helping you have a healthy bowel movement the next day! Water absorption and fibre intake have a direct correlation - this means that as you consume more fibre, more water will also be stored with it. This dynamic duo is key to helping signal your brain that you’ve had enough to eat through the help of leptin, your hunger satiating hormone, which triggers a neuronal reflex back through our bodies where we then choose to stop eating or push past that comfort point.
Tip #3: Limit the Sugar
Sugar is a dangerous fella. Numerous studies have shown the effects that sugar has on the pleasure centres in our brain. Imaging also shows that it is as addictive and powerful as cocaine in exciting our brain reward centres. What does this mean? The more we have of it, the more we want of it. It’s a dangerous relationship really - destined for failure from the get go!
Maybe you’re reading this and you’ve found yourself saying, “but I don’t use any sugar in my recipes or meals.” Fantastic! What you’re saying is that you don’t consume added sugar! Now if only you could tell my grandpa to stop putting sugar on his fruit bowls! Where the real heavy hitters are hiding is in the drinks, sauces, condiments, seasonings and the obvious, the candy. The next time you reach for one of your comfort foods, start to peel back the label - literally, sometimes they hide the ingredient list! Look at the number of grams of sugar in one serving, knowing that we often eat more than what is recommended and count how much you are consuming. In an ideal world, women consume 6 teaspoons of added sugar daily, while men consume 9 teaspoons.
If you’re feeling a little guilty for consuming foods that have been secretly packed with sugar, or angry for being duped by some “so called health foods” claiming to be a more nutritious alternative - you are not alone. Nowadays, there are thousands of health foods available to us. Take Zazubean chocolate for example - with dozens of bars to choose from, one you can never go wrong with is their dark chocolate, Buff or Nudie bar. Pure dark chocolate with next to zero sugar - and if it has a gram, it’s usually coming from coconut sugar instead of the refined stuff!
Tip #4: Portion Control
Above all other points, this one is hands down the most effective way for you to visually see how much food you actually consume. Gone are the days of guessing how many pieces of chocolate you ate or if you had ¾ or ½ of a bag of chips. This tool gives you a fast and easy way to catch yourself in the moment, pause and choose to keep eating or stop all together.
Start with your health food alternatives; your Zazubean dark chocolate, coconut oil popcorn, keto candies and nut/seed mix. Portion single servings into small plastic bags that are labelled and easily accessible. The next time that a sugar craving hits you, reach for your pre-portioned serving and you’ll discover how quickly it really goes! If you want a second serving, you’ll have to physically get up and get it, versus reaching further down the bag. Seeing your wrappers and having a visual cue of how much food you’ve consumed so far, is an easy way to prevent yourself from overeating even on the good stuff!
Tip #5: Intuitive Eating
Last but not least, if you’re at a friend’s house and they are serving the real deal, deep dish pizza with extra bacon, garlic bread and ice cream for dinner - this tip is for you. You might have already gone to the effort of cutting the simple carbs, scrapping the sugar, adding plenty of fibre and pre-portioning your servings. Your kitchen might look like a health food store and your food diary was a perfect score for the week - but sometimes, our plans go out the window and we have to adapt.
Intuitive eating is exactly as it sounds. Eating when you’re hungry, stopping when you’re full and not feeling an ounce of guilt for what you consumed. Most individuals are used to sticking to a meal plan or food routine that determines their portion sizes for them. We’ve become accustomed to being able to clear our plate because it “fits our macros” or because we had a hard workout. But what if, what if we ate until our body said, “hey friend, I’m good now! Thanks for the food.” It’s a crazy idea right? Except for the minor detail that we used to follow intuitive eating for years before technology and dieting apps evolved.
The next time you’re in a situation where the elements are beyond your control, take a deep breath and begin. Listen to your hunger cues, take small bites and chew until your food is the consistency of applesauce. If you’re hungry, have a second serving or scoop, if not, politely pass and carry on the conversation. If you’re hungry when you get home, make something else! When you wake up the next morning, don’t automatically jump back into your food routine. Wait until your body gives you the cue that you’re ready for more food and then get right back into your normal way of eating!
Next Steps:
There you have it! Five tips to help you healthify your favourite comfort foods simply by swapping the starch, scaling back the sugar, adding some fibre, portion controlling yourself and learning to eat intuitively. No one is a perfect eater, even if they say they are! So cut yourself some slack as you adjust to your healthier way of eating - these are habits you will keep for a lifetime!
Healthy Twix Bar
Ingredients
Shortbread Layer
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1/3 cup ghee or butter, melted
3 tbsp maple syrup
Caramel Layer
1/2 cup almond butter, creamy
1/4 cup ghee or butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup maple syrup
Pinch sea salt
Chocolate Layer
One Zazubean Nudie Dark Chocolate Bar
1 tbsp ghee or butter
1/4 tsp flakey sea salt
Instructions
Shortbread Layer
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine the coconut and almond flours with melted ghee and maple syrup in a large bowl. Stir until thoroughly combined.
3. Line a 6X6 baking dish with parchment paper and press down the shortbread mixture. If the shortbread mix starts to stick to the spatula, dip the spatula in water and try again.
4. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until its golden brown. Remove once done and let cool completely.
Caramel Layer
1. Combine the almond butter, ghee, vanilla, maple syrup and sea salt in a saucepan over the stove on medium-low heat and whisk together for 2-3 minutes.
2. Remove from heat and let cool completely.
Chocolate Layer
1. Break up the chocolate bar into a saucepan and add the ghee. Melt the mixture and stir until evenly combined. Remove from the heat and set aside.
Twix Bars
1. Once shortbread & caramel have completely cooled, pour the caramel sauce over the base layer, spreading out evenly and set in the freezer until it hardens. This usually takes about 1-2 hours.
2. Remove from the freezer once frozen and pour chocolate over the top, spreading out evenly. Sprinkle sea salt on top and set back in the freezer for 5-10 minutes to harden.
3. Once chilled, remove bars from the pan and lay on a cutting board. Slice into 1/2-inch strips, and then slice each strip into thirds. 4. Store in airtight container in the freezer or fridge.