Simple food swaps can stop you from gaining weight this winter, including chips over mash

Comfort food and winter are two elements of the latter part of the year that are sometimes perceived as going hand in hand. As the mercury falls, we spend more time inside, and wondrous treats amass on the shelves of the high street there is a temptation to indulge.

However, experts have warned that persistently giving way to the temptation of often ultra-processed tasty treats could have negative health consequences.

The reason for this is because they can be high in saturated fats, sugars, and salt which can have a negative impact on all parts of the body particularly the cardiovascular and immune system. However, some nutritionists and dieticians have said it is still possible to indulge in edible warmth and comforts without breaking the body, including switching from potato mash to chips.

On this particular food swap, nutritionist Laura Southern told the Times that if mashed potato is produced with cream and butter it can add unnecessary quantities of fat. However, a healthy alternative could be to scrub an unpeeled potato clean and to turn it into oven cooked chips.

She warned that people should avoid using low-calorie oil sprays because they are processed and have high levels of “emulsifiers”. Laura instead recommended: “A controlled drizzle of extra virgin olive oil or cold-pressed rapeseed oil adds polyunsaturated fatty acids which can help lower cholesterol.”

Alongside swapping cream and butter enhanced potato mash for oven cooked oil drizzled chips, swapping hot chocolate for hot ginger tea was another recommendation to obtain winter warmth without the cardiovascular consequences.

For those looking for an evening tipple, Laura advised putting the whisky down and picking the red wine up. She ruminated that a glass of red wine “with dinner will enter your bloodstream slower and have less impact on your sleep, liver, and blood-sugar levels than a late-night whisky”.

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Whilst red wine is less powerful than whisky, it important to note that a healthier option would be to go without alcohol at all with multiple studies showing the ill-impact of alcohol over a long period of time.

The British Heart Foundation recommended: “Red wine is sometimes seen as a healthy choice, particularly as we associate it with the Mediterranean diet. But while it is often included in the traditional diet, it isn't an essential part and should be drunk in moderation.”

It isn’t just alcohol and main course accoutrements that are on the food based swap list, but honey at breakfast too. One of Laura’s first suggestions was to swap the morning dollop of honey with known to be healthy oats for cacao nibs because of the way the bee-produced substance affects one’s blood sugar.

Laura warned: “Honey is less processed than refined sugar but still spikes our blood sugar in the same way.” Cacao nibs, on the other hand, are “mitigating the carbohydrate hit from the oats and getting a comforting chocolatey feel as well as the health benefits”.

Whilst honey can spike blood sugar, one nutritional therapist told GloucestershireLive that raw honey can help boost the immune system. Phoebe Liebling told the publication that raw honey is “naturally antibacterial and antiviral so can be wonderfully protective against things like respiratory viruses”.