A junk meal is rarely one food. It is a sugary cereal at breakfast, a packet of crisps at lunch, soy sauce poured over dinner, a biscuit in the afternoon and a can of cola alongside all of it. So the fix here is not one magic food. It is five swaps, one for each part of the day.
The swaps come from the NHS Healthier Families page on healthier food swaps (nhs.uk/healthier-families/food-facts/healthier-food-swaps), which splits its ideas into five groups: breakfast, lunchbox and lunchtime, dinner, snacks and puddings, and drinks. The page itself says that "even just 1 or 2 everyday swaps can really make a difference". Each swap below is then checked against USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy records, updated April 2019), so you can see what actually changes per 100 g.
1. Breakfast: frosted flakes to porridge oats
The NHS names sugar and fat as "the biggest things to watch out for at breakfast time". Its swap-from list starts with chocolate cereal and frosted flakes, and porridge is on the swap-to side.
The numbers make the case quickly. Frosted flakes carry 39.3 g of total sugars per 100 g in FDC record 172990. Plain dry oats (record 173904) carry 0.99 g. Energy is close, 389 against 379 kcal, so this swap is about sugar, not calories. Fibre moves the other way: 1.2 g for the flakes, 10.1 g for the oats.
Porridge is also a natural place for dates. The NHS says a 30 g portion of dried fruit, "such as currants, dates, sultanas and figs", counts as 1 of your 5 A Day, "but should be eaten at mealtimes, not as a snack between meals, to reduce the impact on teeth". A few chopped dates stirred into a breakfast bowl fit that advice exactly.
2. Lunch: salted crisps to plain popcorn
For the lunchbox, crisps sit on the swap-from list, and the swap-to list offers "plain popcorn, plain rice cakes or raisins".
Here the useful figure is salt. Salted plain potato chips (FDC 169677) have 527 mg of sodium per 100 g. Air-popped popcorn (FDC 167959) has 8 mg. Fat drops from 34 g to 4.54 g, and energy from 532 to 387 kcal.
3. Dinner: soy sauce to lemon juice and spices
The NHS says salt and saturated fat "can really add up at dinnertime without us noticing". Salt and soy sauce are on its dinner swap-from list. The swap-to side reads: "different herbs, spices and seasoning, like paprika, oregano or lemon juice".
Shoyu-style soy sauce (FDC 174277) holds 5,490 mg of sodium per 100 g. Raw lemon juice (FDC 167747) holds 1 mg. You will not pour 100 g of either onto a plate, but the gap is the point: a squeeze of lemon adds sharpness with almost no sodium.
4. Afternoon snack: biscuits to fresh fruit
Biscuits head the NHS snack and pudding swap-from list, and "fresh or tinned fruit (in juice, not syrup) or fruit salad" is one of the options on the swap-to side. The page calls sugar "the main watch-out here".
A regular chocolate chip cookie (FDC 172716) has 492 kcal and 32.9 g of sugars per 100 g. A raw apple with skin (FDC 171688) has 52 kcal and 10.4 g. The NHS counts 80 g of fresh, canned or frozen fruit as 1 portion of your 5 A Day.
Dates are a different case, and worth being straight about. Deglet Noor dates (FDC 171726) have 63.4 g of sugars and 282 kcal per 100 g, more sugar per 100 g than the frosted flakes above. The NHS puts dried fruit at mealtimes, not between meals, to reduce the impact on teeth. Keep the dates for the breakfast bowl or as part of dinner, and reach for fresh fruit at four o'clock.
5. Drinks: cola to water
The drinks section opens with a hard number: "a quarter of the sugar kids have every day comes from sugary drinks". Cola and other fizzy drinks are first on its swap-from list, and water is first on the swap-to list. The NHS also says to "keep juice drinks to mealtimes only to help prevent tooth decay".
Regular cola (FDC 174852) has 9.94 g of sugars and 42 kcal per 100 g, so every 330 g works out at roughly 33 g of sugar and 139 kcal. Tap water (FDC 173647) has 0 kcal. Of the five swaps, this is the simplest to make. If plain water feels dull, the page suggests adding chopped fruit "like frozen berries, kiwi and apple".
Putting the five together
None of these swaps asks you to give up a meal. Breakfast is still a bowl of cereal, lunch still has something crunchy, dinner still has seasoning, the afternoon still has a sweet bite and there is still something to drink. What changes is the sugar at breakfast and in the glass, the salt at lunch and dinner, and the calories in the snack. The NHS line bears repeating: one or two swaps are a fair start.
If you are adding dates to the breakfast part of the plan, there is a Malay-language site on Kurma Piarom: go to my site. More about this site is on the About Us page and the contact page.
This article is general food information, not personal dietary advice. If you have a medical condition or follow a special diet, talk to your GP or a registered dietitian before changing what you eat.