Healthy snacking
With everyone under lockdown, suddenly everyone has too much time on their hands and everyone seems to be eating their boredom away by snacking.
In most cases, the snacks that we eat are unhealthy, everyone seems to love junk food however snacking does not have to be unhealthy.
Nutrition plays a huge role in our overall health and unhealthy snacks such as sweets, potato chips, fizzy drinks, etc contain a lot of unhealthy substances like fat, sugar, salt and lastly they lack vitamins All of these factors put us at a high risk of developing cancer, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes and bloating.
Let’s go for healthy snacks. Eating healthy snacks improves overall health, reduces cravings, fights weight gain, regulates mood, boosts brain power and gives you the energy you need to keep going all day.
Snack ideas:
- Nuts
- Greek/plain yogurt with mixed berries
- Apple slices with peanut butter
- Sweet potato/ butternut chips
- Cucumber slices with cream cheese/cottage cheese
- Boiled eggs with paprika
- Carrot sticks with dip (try putting chick peas in the blender with peanut butter)
- Celery sticks with peanut butter
- Popcorn made with a tiny amount of oil/butter
Easy recipes to try:
Apple chips: https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/a55596/healthy-apple-chips-recipe/
Sweet potato chips: https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/a49369/sweet-potato-chips-recipe/
Spicy chickpeas https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/a27496150/cool-ranch-chickpeas-recipe/
Fruit yoghurt bites https://www.eatsamazing.co.uk/family-friendly-recipes/snack-ideas-recipes/cooking-children-frozen-fruity-yoghurt-bites
Potato chips in the microwave https://www.practicalmommy.com/homemade-potato-chips-in-the-microwave/
Honey garlic Cauliflower bites (use instead of siracha) https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/a47636/honey-garlic-cauliflower/
Benefits of healthy snacking:
- Prevents overeating: healthy snacking helps to keep you from getting overly hungry between meals and prevents overeating at your next meal
- Keeps blood sugar levels steady: healthy snacking helps to keep your blood sugar levels even, especially if you eat a consistent amount of carbs at each snack. This will prevent mood swings
- Provides nutrients: eating nutritious snacks will help ensure that you meet your daily nutrients intake
Tips:
- Do not snack before a meal.
- Snacking out of boredom and for emotional reasons is not healthy and can lead to overeating and weight gain.
- Have snacks that are less than 100 calories
- Pick snacks that are low in added fat and sugar and high in fibre and water.
- Challenge yourself by not buying unhealthy snacks. Out of sight out of mind.
- Remember that a snack is not a meal
Tlou Mpai