5 Easy Swaps to Eat Healthier Starting Now with NOW Foods

NOW Foods offers so many products, but their natural food options are a great place to start when it comes to buying health food online. Have a look at these 5 easy swaps you can make to eat healthier now.

This post is in partnership with NOW® Foods. All opinions are my own.

It’s early Spring which means you know what’s right around the corner… bathing suit season. If you’re dreading it as much as me, then it’s time for us to make some healthy swaps in our diet! Here’s the thing – I’ve never been one to go on a diet.

I’ve actually never uttered those words because I know me… as soon as I say “Ok, I’m not eating chocolate.” I’ll be eating the largest chocolate bar I can find in less than 10 minutes after uttering the words.

Instead, I try to make healthier choices and these 5 swaps I’m sharing with you today couldn’t be any easier… even for me! Let’s get started shall we?

Skip the coffee creamer and add Better Stevia in your morning coffee.

Before I visited the NOW Foods factory and headquarters last year, I had pretty much sworn off all alternative sweeteners. I cannot stand having an after-taste and all that I had tried had that same sweet, then bitter after taste. Then entered Better Stevia.

It’s quite the unique name, right? The employees at NOW assured me that Better Stevia was in fact, better than regular Stevia, and that I wouldn’t notice an after taste. I took them up on that challenge and, since it’s included in this post as an easy swap, of course I loved it!

NOW® extracts the stevia from the leaves in a unique process, which is the only that I’ve found that I can easily tolerate.

Nowfoods.com offers Better Stevia in different flavors, which makes it a perfect compliment to your morning cup of coffee. If you’re used to adding milk or creamer, it can take a bit more time to get used to, but it really has been an easy swap for me and a generous saving of calories for me first thing in the morning!

Choose natural snack options like Crunchy Clusters

Anyone else get the munchies when you’re working? Or when you’re sitting in the school pick up line? Or when you’re lounging on the couch thinking about working?

NOW has a few different natural snacking options and these Cran-Bluberry Crunch Clusters are my absolute favorite. They have just enough sweetness, just enough salt, and the perfect amount of crunch to help get you right through those snack cravings, no matter what time of day it is.

Q Cups

Anybody else too ~~lazy~~ busy to take the time to make themselves lunch? Well, me neither, but just in case there’s someone like that in the world… Q Cups™!

Ok, I lied. I’m totally one of these people and Q Cups have become my best friend for lunch… and dinner. I love adding a grilled chicken breast when I’m looking for a bit more when it comes to dinner time, but they’re perfect by themselves at lunch too.

The Southwestern Barbecue Q Cup is my favorite of the 3 on nowfoods.com and they are all ready in just 5 minutes or less [depending on whether you make them with the microwave or hot water method].

We take the goodness of naturally gluten-free quinoa and fire it up with black beans, corn, red pepper and our own blend of southwestern spices for a delicious snack or meal that you won’t believe came out of a cup.

Skip the soda for these drink mixes

Remember how I told you that I was pleasantly surprised with NOW Foods’ Better Stevia sweetener? It’s the same sweetener that they use in their drink mixes and teas.

Can we talk about the afternoon slump snack-a-thon? At around 1:30 every day I feel like I crave the worst food possible – but that’s all about to stop (🤞🏻) as I swap out the junk food in our cabinets with better choices. #AD I drink water all day but this former soda-loving gal sometimes needs a little something extra. These Slender Sticks from @nowfoodsofficial are Sugar Free (sweetened with their own Better Stevia), contain 10 super fruits in this delish Pomegranate Berry flavor, and have only 15 calories. Better yet – they mix up super easy and clean and don’t have a weird after taste like so many other sugar-free drinks. I’ll be sharing more healthy swaps soon – but don’t wait, head to Amazon and buy yourself a box of these today! You can thank me later. 😘 #NOWWellness #NowFoods #Nutsaboutberries #betterstevia #sugarfree #afternoonsnack #afternoonslump #healthysnacking

A post shared by Lindsey G. (@lindseyblogs) on Jan 30, 2018 at 9:38am PST

I usually just drink water during the day, but I do still get a little soda craving every now and then. I’ve found that these totally help me kick that craving and with just 15 calories and NO sugar, it’s a super easy and so healthy swap!

Gluten free pasta options

This last healthy swap is one that I never thought I would do. We’ve tried gluten free pasta before when I felt like it would be a good healthy choice for my family and I never bought it again. I didn’t fool anyone with that swap. But when I was in Illinois, visiting the NOW headquarters, we had a delicious baked macaroni and cheese and I loved it… only to find out it was made with gluten free pasta! WHAT?!

The secret is the NOW Foods Quinoa Pasta and in fact, it’s not just gluten-free, but allergen free. That means it contains NO eggs, dairy, soy, nuts, or corn! It cooks up just like regular pasta and I would be willing to bet that no one in your family will even notice a difference. You can find 3 different varieties on nowfoods.com including Macaroni, Penne, and Spaghetti.

Want some other super easy swap ideas from NOW Foods?

Ditch butter for these flavored coconut oils.
Switch your usual chocolate chip cookies to this gluten free chocolate chip cookie mix. We’ve tried all the dessert mixes and we LOVE them!
While I enjoy Better Stevia, I love having an alternative sweetener for baking and this Sugarless Sugar is one that tastes great when baking and is a 1 to 1 replacement.
Last but not least, I’ve become totally obsessed with cooking with Avocado Cooking Oil. It’s replaced our usual EVOO – Ellyndale^® Naturals Avocado Oil is from expeller pressed avocados and has beneficial monounsaturated fats and Vitamin E, making it one of the best cooking oils available today.

If you’re ready to make super simple swaps to eat healthier, these 5 ideas are the perfect ones to get you started with minimal effort AND swaps that you’ll hardly notice the difference! Check out NOW to find out even more about their natural food lines. These natural foods are available for purchase at your local NOW Foods retailer [find yours here] and on Amazon.com.