7 bad pantry foods

With the New Year nearly upon us it's time to clean out the pantry and make a fresh, healthy start

Whatyoucook as meals and wha r you eat is mainly determ ined by what is available in yo ur pantry. If it includes healthy nutritious food, that is what you would be eating; bur if your pantry is either no t stocked with healthy options or stocked w ith calorie laden foodstuff, you would eat out or get takeaways or end up preparing h igh- calorie meals.

The first step towards a healthy diet is co stock yo ur pantry w ith h ealthy foods and throw the extra calories, sodiw11, fat, sugars and preservatives into the bin.

Here is a List of food items t hat your pancry could do without:

Soda and high calorie sweetened beverages

One of the worse foods in the pantry is sweetened beverages, as these are just empty calorie s without providing an y nutrition Even diet soft d rink s have artificial sweeteners an d caffeine w h ich may n ot be good for us. Ioscead, ope for natural r efreshing drin k s like le m o n jruce,;,1!Jeem, coconut water, green tea or fruit juice Drink plenty of water, as it is the best drink.

High sugar snacks and cereals

High sugar cereals made ,v itb refined sugar and flour contribute no nutr itio n and do n or even satisf}• brmger for a long time, as these are h igh Gl. Some sugarla den cereals are even worse than candies. Loaded with white flour, most often from wheat, corn or rice, and refined sugars such as h igh -fruc tose corn syrup, most breakfast cereals are not a good way ro start the day. Cookies and cand y bars are also high GI carbo hydra tes and no nutrition, a nd will provide you with on ly m omentary boosts of energy.

Pick cereals and cookies wi th wbolegrains listed as one of the first ingredients and those that are hig h i n fibre.

High fat pre- packaged mixes and meals

These foods are with saturate d fats, trans- fats or hydrogenated fats. Trans - fats are chemicall y altered saturated fats that show up on food labe ls as 'par tially hydrogenated' or ' h ydrogenated oil' Hrdrogenared fars are created whe n oil has hydrogen added to it - a process designed to extend the shelf life of the products that contain ir. These fats raise level s of bad (LDL) cholesterol while loweri ng levels o f good ( HDL) cholesterol, which can lead to heart and other h ealth problems, and have also been associated with some cancers. These ar e also high in sodiu m and may cause hypertension. Try to make yo ur own sauces and gravies at h ome w ith fresh ingre dien ts, less sal t and no preserv atives.

Refined flour

Products made from refined flour such as white bread , bagels, pasta, crackers, mrtillas and cookies are low in Gl and do not make you full. White Aour h as been ground, processed and stripped off the outer layer of fibre and nutrients. Replace these w h it e flour products with produces made with wholegrain Aour w h ich contains m ore nutrien t s a nd fibre s u ch as muJtigrai n , soy linseed or pnn1pkio seed bread, wholewheat bagels and buns and oats. Replace rice w ith low G I brown rice or basmatj rice.

Processed meats

Processed m eats are high in saturated fats, calor ies and sodium These include sausages, salami and ham. The y also contain chemicals that are known to be carcinogenic. Try to avo id processed meats or at least limit your intake and balance by eati ng more fruits and vegetables. Even better, choose organ ic meat and unprocessed chicken and turkey, and round ir out by eating more fish as a smu:ce of pro tein to get more omega-3 Ears.

Chips

Open a packet of potato chips and it is gone. This is o n e food yo u start to ear and never seem to stop until the whole packet is fini sh ed, especiall y if you are si tting in from of the television o r wo.rking on a computer. But chips are h igh in salt, oil and m ostly trans - fats. These ju st add empty calories and provide no nutrition. Instead, try snacking on nuts or u n salted popcorn.

Salad dressings

Sometimes you sacrifice a high-calorie meal wi ch a s alad, but if it full of high calorie d ressings. Yo u are better off having a regular meal. It is sometimes surprising as to the amount of fats and suga r s in salad dressings And generally. far reduced salad dressings have more sugars than regular salad dressings. Most o f the bottled salad dressings are ve ry high in sodium too. Even i.f a bottled salad dressing is low in sugar, sa lt and contains no bad fats, most dressings bought at the supermarket contain preservatives, artificial food d yes - a nd some contain monosodium glucamare. These hoLidays, clean up and srock your pantry carefully and e n joy healthy food.