3 Healthy Substitutes for the Foods I Crave the Most
Introduction
In a healthy diet, you likely need to avoid your favorite foods, including pasta and ice cream. Is there a way to still indulge without feeling guilty? You bet! Here are my top three substitutes that will convince you that they’re the real thing!
Coconut Ice Cream
Luna and Larry’s Organic Coconut Bliss Ice Cream
Ingredients: Coconut Milk (Water, Coconut, Guar Gum), Agave Syrup, Coconut Cream, Dried Coconut, Coconut Extract, Vanilla Extract.
Wedding Officiant Wisdom: Why I like it: It’s a non-dairy product with all of its fat coming from coconuts. While you still need to be mindful of your serving size, since it has 22g of fat and 16g of sugar, it will satisfy your craving for a milk-based product (which is more inflammatory)—an alternative to the alternative: any all-fruit sorbet with no added sugar.
Vegan Buffalo Sauce
Frank’s RedHot Buffalo Wing Sauce
Ingredients: Distilled Vinegar, Aged Cayenne Red Peppers, Salt, Water, Canola Oil, Paprika, Xanthan Gum, Natural Butter Type Flavor, and Garlic Powder.
Wedding Officiant Wisdom: I love buffalo sauce, but it’s typically 1 part butter, 1 part hot sauce — a no-no for an ideal diet. Frank’s Buffalo Wing Sauce is the best-tasting alternative on the market. You can add it to anything. Be mindful of your amount. It packs 460mg of sodium per serving. That’s a big chunk of the recommended 1500 mg of sodium per day in a healthy diet. Photo Credit: Live kindly.co
Banza pasta
Banza Elbows Made From Chickpeas
Ingredients: Chickpeas, Tapioca, Pea Protein, Xanthan Gum.
Wedding Officiant Wisdom: No way around it: All pasta is highly processed and loses some of its nutritional value during heating. The Banza pasta noodles give you a higher dose of the valuable fiber and protein (14g) than the white AND wheat noodle options. It also contains only four ingredients and avoids toxic additives and preservatives in other boxed foods. Cooking tip: Boil the noodles until they’re al dente, then rinse them under cold water to stop the cooking (otherwise they’ll soften too much).
About the Author: Michael Moody, Wedding Officiant
Michael Moody—author of the self-improvement book Redefine Yourself: The Simple Guide to Happiness and host of the “The Elements of Being” podcast—is an ordained minister serving Denver and other towns across Colorado. He is a 2023 WeddingWire Couples’ Choice Award winner in both Denver and Chicago (his eighth consecutive year), was named “Best Business of 2024 and 2025” by Three Best Rated, and earned “The Best Wedding Officiant in Commerce City, Colorado for 2024” from Quality Business Awards USA. Since 2012, he has officiated more than 300 weddings.
Specifically, Michael officiates wedding ceremonies in the Denver neighborhoods of LoDo, River North, Washington Park, Cherry Creek, City Park, Central Park, Capitol Hill, Cheesman Park, Park Hill, Highland, Platt Park, Lower Highlands, Sloan Lake as well as the zip codes 80215, 80214, 80204, 80203, 80205, 80207, 80218, 80219, 80222, 80223, 80224, 80246, 80238, 80221, 80022, 80230, 80231, 80202, 80209, 80247, and 80210. Michael also serves as an ordained minister in Golden, Boulder, Breckenridge, Frisco, Aspen, Vail, Estes Park, and more.
If your Denver neighborhood or Colorado town isn’t listed here, no worries! Please contact Michael to propose a wedding ceremony location in a different area!
