18 Must-Have Low Fat Cooking Ingredients

Wednesday, May 7, 2014, 12:43 [IST]

We all want to lose weight but our kitchen shelves do not agree with us. You usually see high calorie foods like butter, cheese, mayonnaise in all kitchens. However, some smart substitutions with low fat ingredients can make your kitchen more diet friendly. Low fat cooking ingredients have to be present in your kitchen if you intend to be on a proper diet to lose weight.

Low fat food substitutes can help you to cut down on the calories you are consuming in home cooked food. But you can eat diet food only if some special low fat ingredients are already present in your kitchen. For example, you will make low fat pizzas and pastas only when you have low calorie ricotta cheese available in your refrigerator.

PACKAGED & PRE PROCESSED FOODS TO AVOID

Using diet food substitutes is more a question of what is available to you. That is why you need to keep some low fat cooking ingredients handy. For example, if you are trying to lose weight, then just stop buying butter. You must buy low fat margarine instead. Low fat ingredients help you to count calories while you are eating at home. Otherwise, there is hardly any point in eating home cooked healthy food.

Here are some low fat cooking ingredients that you must have in your kitchen.

Low Fat Mayonnaise

Mayonnaise is one of the kitchen ingredients that make your food delicious. So, enjoy low fat burgers and wraps with low calorie mayo.

English Mustard

English mustard is a very handy ingredient to have in your kitchen. It is for spice lovers. It is a sandwich topping that has little calories but loads of spicy taste. You can also add it to curries.

Margarine

Butter should be a total no for dieters. So to resist the temptation, stock your refrigerator with low calorie margarine for bread spreads.

Honey

Low calorie sugar or saccharine is highly carcinogenic. It is much better to opt for a low calorie natural sweetener like honey.

Unsweetened Dark Cocoa

If you want to have hot chocolate, then let it be free of extra calories. Get a glass of dark and unsweetened cocoa with milk to snuggle up before bed.

Brown Rice

Brown rice is one the ingredients that is essential in an Indian kitchen. Indians are big rice eaters. So, have brown rice but you still need to control your helpings and portion size.

Vegetable/Chicken Broth

Broth or stock makes cooking easy. The best way to get low calorie broth is to make it yourself. Whenever you boil chicken or vegetables, store the stock separately. Homemade broth is healthy and without preservatives.

Low Fat Yogurt

Yogurt is good for health but not always fat free. So you have to buy low fat probiotic yogurt consciously if you want to lose weight quickly.

Dalia

Dalia or broken wheat is another Indian cereal that is very useful for weight loss. You can use dalia as a replacement for rice or any other carb intake in your diet.

Tofu

Tofu or soy chunks are very useful protein replacements for meat. You must have tofu in your kitchen if you are a vegetarian.

Oats

Oatmeal is an extremely healthy and fibrous breakfast cereal that helps to lose weight. Oats are also heart healthy and help reduce cholesterol.

Toned Milk

You need milk in your house for many different purposes. So when you buy a basic ingredient like milk, let it be low fat toned milk.

Olive Oil

Refined oil may be heart healthy but olive oil is the only cooking oil that will give you omega-3 fatty acids. Buy extra virgin olive oil and use it sparingly to maintain a strict diet.

Whole Grain Bread

Most brown breads are brown in colour. It is much better to buy multi-grain or whole grain bread for choosing a source of carbohydrate that is rich in dietary fibres.

Low Fat Cheese

Low fat cheese is usually very useful when you want add a low calorie salad topping or make low fat pasta. Choose softer cheese because they always have less calories.

Lean Portions Of Meat

Buy skinless chicken always and make sure you buy only the lean portions of the chicken like the legs and breasts. You can remove the extra white fat with your fingers before you cook the chicken.

Leafy Greens

Green leafy vegetables have minimal calories and a powerhouse of nutrients. So, always have leafy greens like spinach, lettuce, kale extra in your vegetable basket.