Comfort food is exactly that; comforting. Because of that, it tends to have a truly special place in many people’s hearts, and it’s something they turn to whenever they’re feeling unwell, need a pick me up, or just want to enjoy some lovely nostalgic moments.
It sounds great, but the issue is that a lot of comfort food is horribly unhealthy, and as much as it might be ideal for your mental health, it’s not good for your physical health. The good news is that although you’ll often find that comfort food contains a lot of calories and unhealthy fats, there are ways you can make it healthier so you can still enjoy it without the health issues attached.
If that sounds like something that could work for you, keep reading because we’ve got loads of ideas about how to make comfort food much better for you, ensuring you can enjoy it when you need it and not have to try to curb your cravings (too much). Read on to find out more.
Choose The Right Ingredients
One of the easiest ways to make comfort food much healthier and better for you is to choose the right ingredients from the start. When you switch some of the more traditional but unhealthy items for healthier ones, you’re instantly making the food better for you. If you choose wisely and plan things ahead of time, you won’t have to sacrifice any flavour either, and in fact, it could be that you make things taste even better.
A good example is mac and cheese. That’s a huge favourite when it comes to comfort food because it’s warm and hearty and reminds so many people of their childhood – of course, we’re going to choose to eat it more often than not. But what if you swapped out the standard pasta for wholewheat pasta or even something like pea pasta (or similar things)? You’ll have the texture and flavour you want, but you’ll have done away with some of the unhealthiness. And then there’s the cheese sauce – you might make it with double cream right now, but you could change that and use Greek yoghurt instead, which gives you a gorgeous creamy texture but much less fat.
Make It Yourself
Following on from the point above, perhaps you buy your comfort food ready-made at the moment. In the past, that wasn’t possible, and you would have had to make it yourself a lot of the time (in fact, that was part of what made it so comforting because there was a whole routine involved, and you might have made it with a parent or grandparent, which adds to the positive feelings associated with it), but today lots of businesses have realised that people love their comfort food, and it’s now right there, ready to go.
The issue is that you don’t know what ingredients are in it. Of course, everything will be listed out, but you won’t know the exact quantities or the full details (often because it’s a manufacturing secret). That means you might be eating food that’s a lot more unhealthy than you think, causing you lots of problems.
When you make everything yourself, you won’t have that issue. Firstly, you can switch ingredients as we mentioned above, and secondly, you’ll know exactly what you’re eating and how healthy it really is. So if you’re craving cornbread, don’t buy it and run the risk of bad food; make it yourself, and you’ll taste the difference right away.
Reduce Saturated Fats
Saturated fats are not good because they’re bad for your heart, but the problem is that they’re often found in food that you would call comfort food. The more you eat, the worse it gets, and because we do love comfort food, the risk of eating far too many of these saturated fats is pretty high.
Luckily, there are some easy changes you can make that will instantly reduce the amount of saturated fat you eat. One thing you can do is to stop using butter when you’re cooking and use olive oil instead. Or when you need to use milk, opt for low-fat or non-dairy versions. Do your homework and determine what ingredients contain saturated fats, and then you’ll always know which ones to avoid and what to use instead.
Portion Control
Maybe the last thing you want to do when it comes to your favourite comfort food recipe is to change anything – after all, you love it just the way it is, and that’s the reason you keep going back to it. In that case, what can you do?
The answer is another simple one: portion control. When you eat less, even if it’s still unhealthy food, it’s better than eating a lot of it, so this could be an ideal option to get you started at least. Get smaller plates and bowls, and your portions won’t look so different from usual, helping you enjoy them just as much.
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