The Best Kitchen Gadgets for a Health Kick

For better health, better sleep, better everything, there is a magic solution: eating healthily. Nourishing your body with nutritious food will benefit your health immensely, and could even help you live longer. 

As we all know, it’s recommended that we eat our five-a-day - though scientists have said we should be aiming for ten! According to research, it could prevent up to 7.8 million premature deaths worldwide every year.

If you’re not sure how you’re going to get five into your diet - let alone ten - worry not: with the best kitchen gadgets and our healthy eating tips, it’ll be a much easier task. Find out everything you need to know below and start lengthening your life!

What is Healthy Eating?

Healthy eating is essentially ensuring you get a wide range of whole, nutritious foods in your diet, with minimal processed foods and plenty of water to keep you well hydrated. Fresh fruit and vegetables are essential to a healthy diet of course, and things like lentils and pulses are also excellent. For meat-eaters, it’s best to mainly have unprocessed fish and meat - i.e. not salted, smoked or cured like bacon or salami (the closer to its natural state, the better). Keeping red meat to a minimum is also advised.

Eating a healthy, balanced diet doesn’t necessarily mean you have to cut out less nutrient-dense foods, it just means you should be eating nutritious foods around 80% of the time. So if you fancy the odd biscuit or some chocolate after your meal, there’s no need to feel guilty - as long as the majority of your diet is nutritious, it’s fine. 

What are the Benefits of Healthy Eating?

There are a huge amount of benefits to having a healthy diet and it can improve your wellbeing dramatically. The advantages include:

- Increased energy levels

- Better quality sleep

- Reduced risk of all sorts of diseases like cancer, heart disease and stroke

- Improved immunity to common illnesses

- Improved concentration

The Best Kitchen Gadgets for Healthy Eating

The biggest hurdles in the way of eating healthy food every day are having a lack of time or knowledge, and cost. But eating healthily doesn’t have to be expensive - making soups full of veg and lentils is very inexpensive, for example, as is using pulses to bulk up stews and casseroles. Once you have the right knowledge and recipes, it’s easy to keep the cost down. 

As for time, there are some very handy kitchen gadgets to help you make healthy meals in a jiffy. 

The Best Kitchen Gadgets to up Your Fruit and Veg Intake

When it comes to how to eat more fruit and veg, what could be better than being able to bundle a whole load into a delicious drink in one go? Blenders are a lifesaver when it comes to getting your five- (or ten) a-day: simply pack in your veg, fruit, seeds, nuts, oats - whatever you want - for a health kick in mere seconds. The Nutribullet 600 Series Starter Kit is a great choice, and blends the toughest of foods down for the smoothest of smoothies. 

Juicers are also excellent for upping your fruit and veg intake. Why not maximise your options and get two in one with the Salter Juice & Blend Blender?

Make Healthy Snacks at Home 

Snacking certainly isn’t off limits when you’re following a healthy diet - in fact, it’s encouraged! If you can pack in some extra nutrients between meals - brilliant. There are lots of healthy snack ideas to make at home, as well as healthier versions of your favourite less-nutritious go-tos. 

- Hummus is a quick and easy snack to whizz up in a food processor: simply tip in a can of chickpeas, a clove of garlic, juice of a lemon, tahini and some olive oil, and tuck into your dreamy dip with carrots or cucumber sticks. The chickpeas count as one of your five-a-day, so with your veg sticks that’s two down in just one snack!

- You can also use your food processor to make delicious nut protein balls. All you need is dates (softened first by soaking in water for a short while), nuts and any other flavours you want to add, such as orange zest or chocolate (use cacao powder for the healthiest option). 

- Fancy some ice-cream? Make a heavenly, and oh-so-easy homemade sorbet instead with just two ingredients: frozen bananas and berries. Simply wait for them to defrost a little and blend them together with a hand blender or, for extra ease, a frozen dessert maker.

- If popcorn is your thing, make it yourself in minutes to avoid the additives in shop-bought varieties with the Salter Hot Air Popcorn Maker. If you like it sweet but want to avoid adding sugar, try a little honey instead with a sprinkling of cinnamon.

- If you really can’t resist your pancakes and cookies, at least know what ingredients are going into them and avoid any additives. Try a stand mixer for cakes and bakes, or the Giles and Posner Mini Snack Maker for smaller snacks.

The Best Time-Saving Kitchen Gadgets

It can be hard to find the time to make healthy food sometimes due to the preparation involved, so using the best kitchen gadgets to save you time is key. They’ll speed up prep and cooking time and make healthy eating a breeze. 

This Jamie Oliver by Tefal Chop & Shaker makes chopping a quick and easy process - simply pull the handle a few times to turn the blades and chop your veg in seconds. 

A soup maker is another great time-saving kitchen gadget as you simply need to add your ingredients to the jug and it will do the rest itself. If you’re looking for a good one, this Salter Jug Electric Soup Maker is one of our bestsellers, and we have a great soup maker guide too that details everything you need to know. 

Slow cookers are also excellent time-savers: you just add your ingredients and let it cook your meal while you get on with other things, or even go out to work and come back to a ready-made dinner. Read our slow cooker guide to find out more, including all the things you can make in one, and check out the Swan Retro Slow Cooker, one of our hugely popular models.

Kitchen Gadgets for Healthier Cooking 

No foods should be off limits when it comes to healthy eating; as we said earlier, it’s all about the balance. The secret is to find healthier ways to cook or prepare certain foods, such as chips or battered foods like onion rings, fish or chicken wings.

Using a hot air fryer is a fantastic way to enjoy healthier fried foods without compromising on the crispy texture or taste. The Salter Hot Air Fryer and the Tower Digital Air Fryer Oven are great options if you love fried foods. Check out our air fryers guide too to find out how they work and what sort of things you can cook in one. 

Steam Your Way to More Nutritious Meals 

Steaming vegetables helps to retain the vitamins and minerals they contain, rather than pouring them away in the water after boiling. Steamers are nice and easy to use: simply add water to the bottom pan and your chopped veg to the layer above, and put the lid on to keep in the steam.

The Russell Hobbs 3-Tier Food Steamer can help to free up hob space and make cooking veg for a large family a lot easier, allowing you to include a huge variety of vegetables in your family’s meals.  Alternatively, you could opt for a non-electric version like this Robert Dyas Stainless Steel 3-Tier Steamer, which you can simply pop on an oven hob. 

So whether you want to make a buddha bowl full of superfoods or healthier versions of your favourite snacks, there are plenty of options, and lots of different kitchen gadgets to help you achieve your goals. Once you feel the benefits of a healthier diet, you’ll never want to turn back. 

We hope you’ve enjoyed reading our healthy eating tips. May your healthier life commence!