So you have decided to try healthier eating and then the holidays arrive. It’s party season, you are at a get-together and you cave in and have a treat. Before you know it you’ve eaten a whole heap of unhealthy food and decide that healthy eating is too hard and definitely won’t work during the holidays!

It doesn’t have to be that way and it certainly doesn’t have to be difficult, in fact I want you to keep it as simple as possible and I am going to show you how.

I nearly always take a plate of healthy food to a party, and that way you know you can at least have something you know is good for you.

So let’s dip in to my top tips for choosing the healthier option for dips and crackers.

Most crackers are full of monosodium glutamate, MSG, used to enhance the flavour of food, making it more intense. It also makes you want to eat more of it. It’s also commonly found in chips, potato and corn.

Symptoms: can cause headaches, rashes, rapid heartbeats, nausea and hyperactivity.

But, you will rarely see MSG on a list of ingredients. Instead it will be listed as a number: 620-625, 627, 631, 635, or as “hydrolysed vegetable protein”. So, you will need to look at the ingredients on the back to make sure they don’t contain anything like this.

Here are my shop swaps for chips and crackers:

Sakata (plain) and Peckish (no added salt)

If you are having potato chips, or corn chips, always have plain salted, never the flavoured variety. (Note: I don’t usually recommend corn chips because most are made with genetically modified corn, so you may have to go to a health food store to get GMO free. I get mine from Mrs Flannerys and it is Australian corn which at the moment is GM free)

Alternatively, you don’t have to have crackers with dip, in fact I generally will have chopped vegetables with mine. Slice up carrot, celery, cucumber & red capsicum into dipping sticks, and serve alongside the dip.

The best way to know what’s in your dips is make them yourself, BUT I want to make it easy for you, so I have found some that you can buy at the supermarket that you can swap right now.

Most dips at the supermarket contain a lot of additives and preservatives, so the main ones you will find in dips and want to avoid are preservatives 211 (sodium benzoate) and 202 (potassium sorbate).

202 (Sorbates) have been associated with asthma, eczema, contact dermatitis, behavioural problems in children.

211 (Benzoates) have been associated with hyperactivity, dizziness, headaches and trouble sleeping.

So the dips I have chosen are the ones without any of these harmful preservatives in them.

These are my shop swaps for dips.

The Pure Produce Company dips came out on top with the full range of dips being preservative free.

The Jamie for Woolworths brand was preservative free, but some dips were better than others.

The Wattle Valley brand only had one which was preservative free and that was the Fresh Basil dip, all the others contained some form of preservative or additive.

Woolworths Macro hommus was preservative free as well.

The only way to make sure you have a quality product is to make your own, but I know that a lot of us are time poor but if you want to have a go at some easy dips, hommus, pesto, cream cheese & chilli and tzatziki, are all pretty easy to make. You can find the recipe for my easy cream cheese & sweet chilli dip here.

I would love to hear from you if you found this swap helpful? Leave a comment below or come and join in the conversation on Facebook  and comment there.

Have you ever been standing in the chocolate aisle at the supermarket staring at all the chocolate and been overwhelmed by choice?

This happened to me recently. I was in the chocolate aisle and I was just standing there staring at all the chocolate. I knew exactly which one I wanted to buy and put it in my basket, but I kept standing there, just looking at it all – there was so much of it. Then it struck me: so many of you love chocolate and feel guilty about eating it, so I thought I’d share with you what I look for when choosing a good quality chocolate.

So let’s talk about CHOCOLATE!!!!!

Yes, that’s right, the stuff we turn to when we are stressed, happy, or for no reason at all except that we feel like it, because let’s face it, it’s pretty darn yummy.

So guess what? Chocolate can be good for you… if you eat the right kind!

Now I am not talking about your regular sugary milk chocolate here. I am talking dark chocolate. The higher the percentage of cacao, the better it is. It will also have a lot less sugar and other additives than the milk chocolate variety.

I like to look at food in stages, where you have good, better, and best, it’s the same when choosing chocolate.

So here are my top tips when choosing chocolate:

Good: Regular dark chocolate

Always choose dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate as it’s very high in sugar and other additives. Be mindful that some bars will say dark chocolate on the packet, but they contain milk solids and are high in sugar.

Better: Dark chocolate with 70%+ cacao

Cacao is high in antioxidants & magnesium, and basically leaves you feeling happy and revitalized

There are so many boutique chocolate brands out there but I use this as a guide and try and tick as many of these as possible.

• 70% cocoa or higher
• Fair Trade
• Non GMO – some manufacturers use GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms), which often is Soy Lecithin. This is an emulsifier which prevents water and fat separating.
• Sugar should NEVER be the first ingredient on the list.

My Top ShopSwaps for 70%+ chocolate are:

Alter Eco Dark Blackout,  Green and Blacks 70% and 85% cacao or Lindt 70% & 85%. Available from the supermarket.

There is also Moser Roth, from Aldi.

Best: Raw chocolate, either bought or made yourself

So the best type of chocolate is raw chocolate. You can buy this from the Health food store or online, or make it yourself at home, I’ll be sharing some of my own recipes in a later post.

These are my two favourite raw chocolate brands. You can buy these online or find them in your local health food store.

Loving Earth www.lovingearth.net

I am a big fan of all the Loving Earth products because they have a beautiful philosophy. Their principles are Healthy, Sustainable and Fair. They care about the environment and where and how their ingredients are grown. They are also an Australian company, which is very important to me.

Pana Chocolate www.panachocolate.com

My favourite would be the Sour Cherry which has coconut sugar in it, which I find preferable to Agave syrup used in some of the other flavours.

Above all please enjoy and take pleasure in eating your chocolate. I find that I can only eat small amounts of dark chocolate, and I love putting a small square in my mouth and sucking it till it melts and really savouring the feel and flavour. Seriously, give it a try! Also remember that it is still a sweet treat, so just because cacao has lots of health benefits, it still needs to be eaten in moderation.

I would love to hear from you, so did you find this helpful? Do you have a favourite brand of chocolate? I am always on the look out for better options to share with my community so if you find one that you love, please jump over to my Facebook page and share it with everyone.