Three things in life are guaranteed: death, taxes and that the foods that are the most tempting result in big dollops of belly fat. However, there are healthy (and still tasty) alternatives, whether you’re cooking, nabbing a takeaway or nipping to the pub…
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What's the healthiest pub snack?
Pub snacks are notorious for drowning in saturated fat and salt. Pork scratchings are generally the worst offenders with around 400 calories and 35g of fat per bag. To put that in context, after eating a bag of pork scratchings you’d have to hit the gym hard for around 45 minutes to burn them off. That’s a lot of pedalling, pressing, pulling and perspiring. They’re tasty but not that tasty. The healthiest pub snack is arguably the humble popcorn with a hand-sized packet coming in at just 65 calories and 2.9g of fat. Enjoy a pint and popcorn. Hmm, or maybe not the pint…
Which alcoholic drink is the healthiest?
You can’t beat a pint of ale after a hearty walk in the country. Warm, rich and tasty, there is little on this planet we call Earth that comes close. The problem is, a pint of ale – in fact, a pint of lager, stout and cider – generally comes in between 200 and 250 calories depending on alcohol percentage. Four of those and you could break the 1,000-calorie barrier. Fifty-two of those – reportedly the number drunk by former Australian cricketer David Boon on a flight to England for the 1989 Ashes – and you’re looking at 13,000 calories. It’s why you should swap your pint – well, at least the occasional one – with a vodka or gin and slimline mixer. A single shot of either with cola and slimline tonic, respectively, is between 54 and 59 calories.
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What's the healthiest curry?
The moniker’s a giveaway – glorious, unctuous butter chicken is one of the most calorific Indian takeaways, touching 900 calories and 56g fat per portion. (On the plus side, chicken contains protein for rebuilding bicep muscle from forking said meal into your mouth.) Throw in a side serving of pilar rice and you could be touching 1,200 calories. And maybe a peshwari naan? Researchers at the University of Ulster found that the average portion of peshwari naan bread contained 748 calories. That’s around 2,000 calories, which is the recommended daily number for many.
According to the team behind the Leicester Curry Awards, lentil curry (dhal) is a tasty low-calorie alternative with an average bowl coming in at around 220 calories. It also contains essential nutrients and good amounts of fibre. Other low-calorie ideas are swapping creamy sauce for a tomato-based sauce, so chicken jalfrezi instead of chicken korma. And ideally your fish or meat is grilled instead of fried, like tandoori offerings.
Are chips healthy?
Chips are one of the UK’s most popular foods and have been for years; in fact, they were so popular in the mid-1900s that they weren’t rationed during or after the Second World War. The thought of strips of fluffy potato straight out of the deep fat fryer is mouth-watering, especially when sprinkled with salt and doused with vinegar. Unfortunately, plunging the spuds into a vat of bubbling oil results in a medium-sized serving of around 600 calories.
That’s why you should sell your fryer and replace it with a much cheaper roll of baking paper. Simply line a tray with the parchment, place your potatoes on said tray, pour a minor amount of oil and bake. You’ll cut calories by at least half and they remain extremely tasty.
What about the healthiest sauces?
Okay, your delicious oven-baked chips are ready. Normally, you’d do the right thing and keep things simple. Vinegar. Salt. Done. But you’ve just returned from Belgium and now fancy dipping your potatoes in sauce. But which should you go for? Your bottle of tomato ketchup or jar of mayonnaise? While this writer would refrain from both, when it comes to calories it’s got to be the ketchup that comes in at around 15 calories per 15g serving. Much of that’s from sugar so it’s still not the perfect option. However, it’s much ‘lighter’ than mayonnaise that’s creeping toward a whopping 100 calories per serving. That’s down to incredibly heavy oil content.
How healthy is a Cornish pasty?
Legend has it that try as he might, King Arthur could not budge the sword from the stone. Frustrating. But then the Lady of the Lake served up a Cornish pasty and, buoyed by the rich mix of meat, root veg and pastry, Mr Pendragon grasped the sword and withdrew it from the stone like a hot knife through the lashings of butter that go into making one of Britain’s best-loved foods.
That’s why if you’re making a Cornish pasty at home, you’ll have to replace the shortcrust pastry for filo pastry (which admittedly makes it a Cornish-akin pasty). Traditional shortcrust comes in at nearly 31.4g fat per 100g compared to filo, which is just 2.9g. That’s around 283 calories from fat alone compared to 26.1 calories.
How nice the alternative it remains to be seen as we’ve only enjoyed filo with Greek pastries. What’s clearer is that there was uproar in 2018 when the Royal Cornwall Hospital announced they were working on a healthier filo option because some visitors were working their way through three pasties a day (which would likely see them morph from visitor to patient). The experiment never made it to the shelves.
Main image: a man holding a Cornish pasty/Getty
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