Keeping healthy does not automatically mean bland meals, strict rules or saying goodbye to comfort food. The foods you love can still fit into a balanced diet – the key is making them work a little harder for you.
We asked nutritionists for five easy ways to give your favourite meals a nutritious boost, from clever add-ins to simple portion tweaks, so you can nourish your body without feeling deprived.
1. Add, don’t restrict
Instead of cutting things out, start by adding more goodness in. Gopi Chandratheva, a registered nutritionist, says focus on adding more nutritious foods packed with colour and variety – this means you’ll boost fibre and nutrients while still keeping the dish you love at the centre. “If you are having a pizza, why not serve it with a side salad and add more nourishing toppings. If you’re craving pasta, try a creamy pasta bake using roasted vegetables as a sauce, add beans or tuna for protein and top it with cheese and breadcrumbs.”
It’s about filling your plate with good stuff rather than policing what’s already on it. Adding more veggies, wholegrains and high-protein foods to meals can naturally improve the nutritional quality of your diet without leaving you feeling deprived.
“Healthy eating isn’t about never having pizza, chocolate or dessert. It’s about what you do most of the time,” Gopi adds. “Enjoy your comfort foods guilt-free as part of an overall balanced diet. All foods have a place in our diet and the focus should be on diversity, colour, taste and enjoyment.”
Nourishing boosters
Clare Thornton-Wood, paediatric dietitian, shares four simple ways to give your favourite meals a nutritious boost.
- Sprinkling things on your cereal can really boost its nutrient content. Keep a jar of mixed seeds handy, such as sunflower, pumpkin and chia seeds. These will provide fibre, protein and omega-3.
- Keep a tub of nutritional yeast handy and add a spoonful to soups, cheese sauce and casseroles. It’s a great source of B vitamins including B12, which helps you produce red blood cells and helps to combat tiredness.
- You can make a really simple salad dressing with tahini, olive oil and a pinch of mustard, a squeeze of lemon or other flavouring of your choice. Tahini is a great source of calcium; use instead of mayonnaise.
- Sesame seeds and olive oil are a great addition to vegetables: sizzle lightly with olive oil and then sprinkle with sesame seeds. The seeds will provide calcium and healthy omega fatty acids.
2. Be smart with portions, not prohibitions
You don’t need to give up your favourite indulgent foods, but being mindful of portion size can help you enjoy them without overdoing it.
Try serving comfort dishes with a generous portion of vegetables or salad, plating up slightly smaller portions and eating more slowly. These small shifts can help you feel satisfied without overdoing it.
“Aim to fill half your plate with vegetables, a quarter with protein, and a quarter with carbohydrates to create a balanced meal and don’t forget a small amount of healthy fats such as olive oil,” says Gopi.
Clare also notes how easy it is to eat larger portions than intended of snack items, such as nuts. “Always decant into a dish rather than eating straight from the packet. A portion is a handful or 30g.”
The good news is that a takeaway doesn’t have to be off-limits. Choose a smaller portion, share a side or pair your meal with a nutritious salad. These small adjustments can help you enjoy it without feeling deprived.
3. Upgrade your ingredients
Try a few simple swaps to make your comfort foods more nutritious, without changing their essence. This doesn’t mean you need to cut out foods or overhaul your favourite meals; rather, incorporate more of the foods which provide more nutrients without anyone noticing the difference.
“Sometimes it can be useful to read the ingredients of a product to see what is actually inside it – the more ingredients it has, the more processed it is likely to be,” says Gopi.
This can include:
• Wholemeal pasta instead of white
• Brown rice instead of white
• Greek yogurt or coconut milk instead of cream in sauces
• Wholemeal/seeded bread instead of white
• Sweet potato instead of regular fries
• Nuts and seeds for garnishing
• Porridge oats instead of sugary cereals
• Water/fresh juice instead of fizzy drinks
• Fruit oat bars instead of protein bars
These small changes can boost protein, fibre, vitamins and slow-release energy while keeping flavours familiar.
4. Cook more at home
Preparing your favourite comfort dishes at home can be an easy way to improve their nutritional value while enjoying the same satisfying flavours. “Research consistently shows that people who cook at home more often tend to have higher-quality diets, with a greater intake of vegetables, whole grains and fibre and lower intakes of added sugars and saturated fat,” says Summra Nasir, a public health nutritionist.
While it’s perfectly okay to enjoy a takeaway once in a while, daily consumption or excess will lead to long-term health complications such as obesity, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.
Summra notes that preparing meals from scratch gives you greater control over portion sizes and what goes into your food, so you can adjust the amount of salt, sugar and saturated fat while adding more vegetables, fibre and protein. “Cooking simple, balanced homemade meals most of the time can make a meaningful difference to your overall health,” she adds.
It doesn’t mean every meal has to be made entirely from scratch, though, says Nichola Ludlam-Raine, registered dietitian and author of How Not to Eat Ultra-Processed. “Convenient ingredients such as frozen vegetables, tinned beans, microwave wholegrains and ready-made sauces can still help you create a balanced meal quickly,” she says.
Rather than giving up on comforting favourites entirely, Nichola suggests making a few simple changes: “add lentils and vegetables to a bolognese, serve a curry with extra vegetables, or top a shepherd’s pie with a mixture of potato and root vegetables. Homemade isn’t automatically healthier, but it provides more opportunities to improve the overall nutritional balance.”
Two dishes to try
These comfort food alternatives are lower in salt, sugar and saturated fats and higher in fibre, protein and good fats.
Pizza
“Instead of a takeaway or frozen pizza, make your own using a wholemeal base (pitta or wrap), tomato sauce, plenty of vegetables, lean chicken, tuna or other protein sources and a moderate amount of mozzarella” – Summra.
Burgers and chips
“Choose a homemade lean beef, turkey, chicken or bean burger served in a wholemeal bun with salad and oven-baked potato or sweet potato wedges” – Summra.
5. Upgrade your snack drawer, one item at a time
Snacking can still be part of a healthy, balanced diet. “The goal isn’t to label foods as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ or to ban treats altogether,” Gopi says. “An all-or-nothing approach is rarely sustainable. Instead, aim to make healthier choices the easiest option most of the time, while still leaving room to enjoy your favourite snacks in moderation.”
Gopi suggests choosing options that are both filling and nutritious to keep cravings at bay: “Stock your cupboards with snacks like unsalted nuts, roasted chickpeas, air-popped popcorn, fruit, Greek yogurt, trail mix, oat bars, rice cakes with hummus, vegetables crudities, wholegrain crackers with cheese or a few squares of dark chocolate.”
Nichola adds that pairing fibre-rich foods with protein or healthy fats, such as fruit with nuts or crackers with cheese, can make a snack even more filling. “You can still keep biscuits or crisps available too; the aim is to create more choice and make the nourishing option just as convenient,” she says.
