By Anna Smith

When anyone talks of eating healthy, we immediately picture raw, band vegetables or boiled soup or something so unpalatable that it takes away the appetite. Perhaps it is more difficult for hardcore foodies to stay away from the devilishly delicious junk food. At the same time we can no longer keep ignoring the fact that the way our dietary habits have evolved, it is making us more vulnerable than ever to numerous health problems- be it high blood sugar level, high blood pressure, cholesterol, skin infections, obesity, hair fall, tooth decay, etc. everything is somewhere or the other connected to the kind of food we intake. To food lover’s delight we now have options that are good for the body and health and please the taste-buds as well.

Some of the common foods that can do you good include:

* Double churned ice cream: It tastes like your regular ice cream and is just as creamy, just that being churned twice, it has more air and as it is mostly made of real cream, it is less likely to contain artificial sweeteners. Look for labels ‘slow cold’ or ‘low churned’ they are even better.

* Bake the fries! French fries- the yummiest, most addictive and a very unhealthy snack option. The easy and tasty way out is to bake them! Sweet potatoes make for the healthiest option as they are rich in fiber and are a great source of Vitamin A. Coat the sweet potato wedges with olive oil, add a bit of your favorite herb for added flavor and shove it in the oven! You have the healthiest fries which are not fried and are just as yummy .

* Please your sweeter side with some dark chocolate. Cut down on milk chocolate. Contrary to the popular belief, dark chocolate need not necessarily be bitter, though the sugar component would almost always be less than in regular milk chocolates. Once you’ve adjusted your taste buds to the bitter-sweet savoir, you’ll start relishing this healthy treat. The best thing about dark chocolates is that they contain flavonoids, an antioxidant which helps reduce blood pressure.

* Another much more pleasurable healthy option is red wine. It lowers your cholesterol, protects your heart, controls blood sugar levels, boost your brain, helps you keep common cold at bay, keeps you away from cancer, trims your waistline and makes your dinner much more interesting. Ask any of the women around, what is a better way to distress than to chat over a bottle of wine.

Replace mayo with avocados. Use walnuts and almonds in your muffins and brownies. Switch to whole wheat bread, buns, pasta etc. Another replacement for the sinful mayo is hung-curd. All you have to do is get some natural flavored yogurt, put it in a muslin cloth and hang the cloth with the yogurt overnight. By morning you are left with the cream. Add some mustard powder or finely chopped mint leaves or any other herb or spice of your choice to give it a nice flavour. You can use this instead of mayonnaise in almost all the recipes. It’s just as tasty only a lot healthier.

These healthy options let you go on with your life deliciously. Be diligent about the meals, the oil they are cooked in, the portions you take, the salt added etc. These seemingly unimportant things add up to give you a healthy body.

– With an unparalleled passion for health and beauty, Anna Smith, a skin infection professional loves to share tips and tricks and her experience on the same.