1. Comfort Food: Potato Chips

Replacement food: Baked Lay's
I have a craving for salt that almost rivals my sweet tooth. That's why I love replacing unhealthy potato chips with healthy foods, or at least heathier foods, like Baked Lay's chips. They taste just as good, but they're baked not fried, so they're a much better choice. You can find lots of different comfort food alternatives for this crunchy, salty vice.

2. Comfort Food: Milk Chocolate

Replacement food: Dark chocolate
Cheap milk chocolate, like the junk in the check-out aisle in the grocery store, is loaded with sugar and fat and even wax. It's not goo chocolate, and it's not good for you, either. Switch your cheap milk chocolate to rich dark chocolate, and you'll even reap a few health benefits, too. Hooray for healthy food!

3. Comfort Food: Double-whip Mocha Latte

Replacement food: Skim latte with sugar-free flavor syrup
Coffee has been proven to help prevent Alzheimer's, among other things, like giving you your daily caffeine fix... but don't opt for the fattening, calorie-laden specialty drinks. Instead, go for a skim drink, one without whipped cream, and if you like flavors, use sugar-free syrups instead. Sometimes finding comfort food alternatives just requires you to flip things around a little.

4. Comfort Food: Double Cheeseburger and Fries

Replacement food: Single burger, possibly soy, with a baked potato
Every once in a while, I crave a cheeseburger. With fries. Oh, yes, with fries. But this isn't such a good idea, is it? Why not swap the comfort food and choose something else, a healthy food? Change the beefy burger to a veggie burger, and try a baked potato with butter substitute (or a little real butter) instead of fries.

5. Comfort Food: Ice Cream with Fudge Sauce

Replacement food: Frozen Yoghurt with dark chocolate sauce
Can you believe there's a comfort food alternative for this tasty treat? This may seem like a strange sort of comfort food for mid-winter, but I can't help it... I love ice cream! But it's not healthy food, so sometimes I'll have frozen yoghurt with dark chocolate chips instead. Oh, yum!

6. Comfort Food: Loaded Brownies

Replacement food: Low-fat brownies
Brownies. I love brownies. Who doesn't? But they're fattening and horrible. But fear not, my dears. If you're craving brownies, there are several low-fat, low-calorie options. Make them yourself low-fat, or buy them in the organic foods store.

7. Comfort Food: Smashed Potatoes

Replacement food: Indulge, with care…
Okay, this is the ultimate comfort food, so it requires the ultimate comfort food alternative. The thing is, it's just so unhealthy the way most people prepare it, with loads of butter and cream. So make them without all the fattening add-ins, or... indulge, a little, once in a while. That's right. An occasional indulgence is okay... isn't that what comfort food is all about?

It's such a relief to know that there are so many comfort food alternatives for my favorite winter time treats. I freely admit that I don’t always have the willpower to pass on all of my favorite comfort foods, but some of these comfort food alternatives are so tasty they feel like real deal anyway! Which of these comfort food alternatives do you think will satisfy your cravings? Which are too pathetic to do the trick? Do tell!

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