4 Healthy Snack Alternatives
March 1st, 2011Many people today have gotten used to junk food or unhealthy options when snacking. These selections may be bad for us but are usually quite tasty and convenient. You can just grab sweet, salty, frozen, liquid or solid snacks when on the go. So, oftentimes, when someone tells us to eat healthy, we usually think that we need to be eating rice cakes or Medifast snack bars (which you should buy using Medifast coupons by the way) that are not very tasty. Hence, we stick to what we have known for a long time. But eating healthy doesn’t mean that you have to consume flavorless foods. There are actually countless, savory and nutritious foods available. You just need to change your mindset about your eating habits.
Snacking is not a bad thing. It is actually good if you do snack wisely. This means that you consume healthy foods in small portions. This will give you more energy for the day and you will be less hungry; hence, not readily waiting for the next big meal. If you’re hungry, you tend to overeat, and you can avoid this by snacking on healthy tidbits whenever you feel the urge to nibble.
Here are five easy and yummy snack alternatives that you can try. This will not only keep hunger at bay, but might also help you in losing a few pounds.
Fruits and Vegetables
Instead of mindlessly consuming copious amounts of chips or ready-made cookies, it is better to snack on fruits and vegetables. Fruits can be fresh, canned or dried, while vegetables can be eaten fresh with salsas or in salads. Fruits and vegetables are great sources of vitamins and minerals, as well as fiber that aids in digestion; thus, helping in cleansing the body. You can make fruit slices or vegetable sticks and put them in a container that you can easily carry to school or work. When you feel hungry, it’ll be so easy to just chomp away without feeling any guilt. Fruits and vegetables also contain sugars that our body needs for energy.
Smoothies and Yogurt
To appease your hunger, you can opt for fresh fruit smoothies or yoghurt, instead of ice cream. As smoothies are made from fresh fruits, you will get vitamins, minerals, fiber, as well as sugars for physical and mental energy. As for yoghurts, these generally contain more calcium and protein than regular ice cream.
Brown Carbohydrates
When eating rice, pasta or bread, go for brown instead of white. Brown carbohydrates are also known as whole grains. These are foods that have not undergone any physical or chemical processes that usually diminish the nutritional content of foods. To explain, in order to create white rice, grains go through a milling process that removes the outer husks. Once these are removed, you get brown rice. To create white rice, brown grains are polished using glucose or talc. This polishing process gets rid of the bran or inner husk, and a lot of nutrients also get taken away during this step. Thus, opt for brown carbohydrates because these have more vitamins and minerals, like Vitamin E, Vitamin B6, Niacin, Iron and a lot more; and these are also very fibrous.
Substitute Meat Products
Meats are protein sources, but you can also get a lot of protein from nourishing foods. Some examples of healthful protein-rich foods are legumes, eggs and nuts, the unsalted types. Legumes include beans, peas and lentils. Meats, especially those that aren’t lean, contain large amounts of saturated fat. This type of fat should be avoided as this can cause heart illnesses and weight gain, among others. Consuming meat substitutes, like the ones mentioned earlier, is better as these are low in fat, rich in iron, B vitamins, and other minerals. You can also enjoy these as dips or as baked food, as in bean dips or baked beans.
Snacking has many positive benefits, especially if you eat the right things. You can ensure that you have enough energy for the day, and be healthier as well. Just make sure that you snack when hungry and that you’re not just mindlessly eating out of habit.