If you’ve started off the New Year with a resolute intention to follow a strict diet or eating plan, then you might want to re-think your approach.
For, according to the Australian dietitian, Susie Burrell, we should instead be ditching certain foods from our lives forever.
Writing on her blog, Susie explained that this ‘black and white approach is clear and simple’, but she also said that in the long term your ‘diet and health will benefit’.
Here, FEMAIL reveals Susie’s seven foods you need to remove from your day-to-day life – and what you can replace them with instead.
TURKISH TOAST
If a large latte and Turkish toast with Vegemite and butter are your morning go-to, you might want to reconsider:
‘The harsh truth is that a typical serve of Turkish toast from the local cafe has a similar amount of carbohydrates as at least four slices of regular bread,’ Susie wrote.
The reason why Turkish toast is so fattening is because the slices are much heavier than a normal slice of bread, as well as being ‘packed full of refined white flour’:
‘Turkish bread is also surprisingly high in salt, which is another reason to get rid of it from your diet, for good,’ Susie added.
Try switching it out for rye or sourdough.
BANANA BREAD
Another popular option among Australian workers in need of a quick breakfast fix, Susie warns that banana bread is ‘really cake’ and doing your waistline no favours:
‘With up to 80 grams of carbs, 20 grams of sugar and 30 grams of fat in a single slice, banana bread has much more in common with cake than it does with bread,’ Susie said.
By adding it to our daily diet, the dietitian explained that we are adding 300-400 calories to our diet – which we really don’t need.
Ditch the banana bread, and again replace with rye, sourdough or even a multi-grain bread. You’ll be slimmer in weeks.
MARGARINE
Many fat-fearing people forego butter in lieu of a thin spread of margarine.
But Susie said that ‘processed vegetable oil is the base of the majority of margarines’:
‘While there are some which claim to reduce cholesterol, it could be argued that there is no point adding in refined oils to the diet to achieve a relatively small outcome when you could get the same outcome by eating well, losing a few kilos and avoiding refined vegetable oils altogether,’ she said.
Instead, just go with butter.
FRUIT YOGHURT
To look at fruit yoghurt, it seems to have all the trappings of a health food.
Fruit, probiotics and goodness, mixed into a little pot – must be healthy, right?
But fruit yoghurts are for Susie a dietary demon as ‘even the healthiest contain close to four teaspoons of sugar’.
Get rid of the fruit option from your life altogether, replace it with natural or Greek yoghurt and if you need a sweetener, add real fruit.
WHITE RICE
Another seemingly harmless food choice, white rice is something we add to our stir fries and curries ‘without a second thought’.
‘[But] a single cup of white rice contains 45 grams of refined carbohydrates (a slice of bread contains 12-15 grams), and it is the type of carb that sends blood glucose levels soaring’.
Susie describes white rice as a ‘filler food’, which lacks the fibre and protein you get in the brown varietal.
Scrap it from your diet and fill up on brown instead.
FRENCH FRIES
One of the more obvious ones on the list, your penchant for French fries could be doing you no favours.
‘The issue with thin French fries is that they absorb more oil than fatter chips and are extremely easy to overeat,’ Susie said – adding that a single cup contains at least 300 calories.
Remove fries from your diet, and if you absolutely must have something similar, then choose thick cut chips.
BISCUITS
Last but not least, make 2018 the year when you step away from the biscuit jar at work:
‘A simple plain sweet biscuit is made of sugar, vegetable oil and refined white flour and offers nothing positive nutritionally,’ Susie explained.
Instead, adopt a ‘blanket rule of saying no to offers of plain sweet biscuits’.
It’s a sure-fire way to cut some of those mindless calories you find yourself munching through during the regular office day.
