Potato chips, cake and cookies increase your daily caloric intake but don't offer any health benefits. Additional calories at meal time help you gain weight without indulging in high-calorie junk food that won't benefit your body. Whether you are underweight or you are trying to gain body mass, several healthy options will boost the calorie content of your meals.
Nuts
Nuts work well as a garnish for many dishes, adding calories to your meal. Add chopped or slivered nuts to oatmeal or yogurt at breakfast. For lunch and dinner, nuts work well on top of salads or in stir fries, or mixed in with vegetables. Finely chopped nuts may also go into a breading for baked chicken. In addition to the added calories, nuts contain unsaturated fat, omega-3 fatty acids and fiber, which increase the health value of this calorie booster.
Cheese
Cheese complements a variety of dishes, from breakfast through dinner. Grated cheese works well on top of eggs, grits, breakfast casseroles, hash browns or toast in the mornings. For lunch and dinner, add cheese to sandwiches, soups, salads, potatoes, casseroles and vegetables. Try different varieties of cheese to experiment with the flavor options.
Avocados
Avocados are high in calories, about 235 calories in one cup, according to World's Healthiest Foods. Avocados also provide potassium, fiber and folate to your diet for additional health benefits. Slice or chop avocados to add to your food. They work well on sandwiches, tacos, soup, salads and Mexican dishes. Mash avocados for a creamy spread in place of mayonnaise.
Olive Oil
Cooking your main dishes in olive oil adds calories to the resulting meal. Sauteing meats, vegetables and stir fries in olive oil is recommended by the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center. Olive oil dressings for your salads, olive oil dips for bread and pasta tossed in olive oil are other calorie-boosting ideas for your meals.
Milk
Milk adds a creamy texture to various dishes while increasing the calorie content. Breakfast offers several ways to add milk. A breakfast smoothie, scrambled eggs and oatmeal are often made with milk. Soups, casseroles and mashed potatoes lend themselves well to milk additions for lunch and dinner. Powdered milk can also be added to the dishes. Yogurt, cottage cheese and sour cream are other dairy products that blend into many different meals for increased calorie content.
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