One of the easiest ways to cut calories from carbs is to swap standard wheat tortillas for lettuce. Pretty much any of your favourite meat or veggie fillings will work well cased in these lighter wraps, but for something filling and flavoursome try slow-cooked pork mince flavoured with ginger, soy and fish sauce.

Get the recipe for pork lettuce cups here

Cut carbs and calories (and sneak in an extra veg portion) by swapping standard rice for cauliflower rice. To make, roughly chop a de-leafed cauliflower and blitz it in a food processor. The resultant “rice” can be microwaved for about 3 minutes, or patted into a baking tray, drizzled with oil and roasted for 12 minutes at 200°C (400°F). For something punchier, try a kheema-style spiced cauliflower rice.

Get the recipe for spiced cauliflower rice here

Whizz frozen banana slices in a sturdy blender for soft scoop “ice cream” that has no added sugar and less than 100 calories in two scoops (plus it counts as one of your five-a-day). Compare that with Ben and Jerry’s Cookie Dough, which has 235 calories per two scoops, along with 8g of cholesterol-raising saturated fat (that's 40% of a woman’s daily recommended limit).

Nutritional yeast, such as Marigold Super Engevita Yeast Flakes (or if you're in the US a brand like Braggs Nutritional Yeast available from Walmart) is a low-sodium, slightly cheesy seasoning that can be used as a substitute for salt. Just 2tsps supplies more than 50% of the NRV* of vitamins B1, niacin, B6 and folic acid, as well as 100% or more of the NRV of vitamin B2, B12, zinc and vitamin D. (*NRV = Nutrient Reference Value, the replacement term for Recommended Daily Allowance.)

Upgrade the nutritional value of your standard caesar salad by swapping pale, crunchy iceberg lettuce for deeper green baby kale. Kale is top of the crop when it comes to leafy greens – an 80g serving has 420mcg or 52% of the NRV of vitamin A (needed for the immune system), along with 13% of the NRV of bone-friendly calcium, and 10% of the NRV of anaemia-protective iron.

Get the recipe for vegan kale caesar here

Mushrooms produce vitamin D when they are in bright sunshine – just like we do in our skin on a sunny summer day. Compared with standard mushrooms (grown in the dark) with only a trace of vitamin D, UV-exposed mushrooms, such as Tesco chestnut mushrooms have 5mcg vitamin D (100% of the NRV) in a 4 to 5 mushroom serving.

Switching your usual breakfast cereal for a bowl of All Bran is an easy win for your digestive health. A 40g bowl has 11g fibre, way ahead of the same size bowl of bran flakes with 4.2g. Fibre reduces your risk of colon cancer and builds healthy gut bacteria, but on average we only get about 18g of the 30g-per-day recommendation.

A tortilla doubles as a lower calorie and lower carb alternative to a dough base – top with spinach, mozzarella and egg for an approximately 500-calorie pizza.

Get the recipe for Fiorentina spinach and egg wrap pizza here

Old-school squidgy malt loaf is a healthier sweet snack than most cereal bars – for example a 30g Jordans Blueberry Frusli bar has 113 calories and 9.9g of sugar, while a 30g Soreen Lunchbox Loaf (no butter) has 91 calories and 5.1g of sugar. Malt loaf also has a medium Glycaemic Index, so it won’t send your blood sugar soaring.

Prawns are a satiating, low-fat source of protein, so with tomatoes and mustard seeds – not lots of oil and cream ­– a prawn curry is a much better choice for your waistline than a typical chicken tikka masala or korma.

Get the recipe for mustard prawn curry here

Switch yellow onions for red to get an extra boost of antioxidants. Researchers at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada showed red onions were the most potent at killing cancer cells in the lab, because they have high levels of both quercetin and anthocyanins (the red colour), which work together in scavenging rogue molecules. These tests need to be repeated in human studies.

Can’t shake a sweet craving? Go for a jaffa cake, with only 46 calories, versus the 83 calories in a chocolate digestive. Jaffa cakes are higher in sugar though, so aim to limit yourself to one or two at most.

Love this? Now check out chips, chocolate and other surprisingly healthy foods

For this feature we used the UK’s official McCance and Widdowson’s food composition tables. A list of Nutrient Reference Values (formerly known as Recommended Daily Allowances) for vitamins and minerals is here.