Remember when Scooby Doo refused to cooperate until he gobbled up the mysterious Scooby snack? Here is a guide to your very own healthy snack (without the mystery)!
Remember when Scooby Doo refused to cooperate until he gobbled up the mysterious Scooby snack? Here is a guide to your very own healthy snack (without the mystery)!
While the concept of snacking hasn’t been around for very long, it’s still an immensely popular habit with an astonishing 94% of Americans snack at least once per day! I personally choose to snack happy, and encourage all of my readers to as well!
With so many awesome snacks to choose from, how do you know that your snack fits the Scooby test? You know, the healthy snack that suddenly makes you feel like you can take on the whole world (with no mystery ingredients?).
Just as popular as snacking are the marketing tricks that the food industry likes to play on us, making it more important than ever to be paying attention to what we’re snacking on. But even when you’re paying attention, it can still be hard to identify a healthy snack from an unhealthy one. Here are a few words of wisdom on how to make healthy choices when it comes to snacking.
- Check Out the Nutrition Facts. Make sure you’re turning that package over and looking at the nutrition facts! Try to stick to snacks that are higher in protein and fiber to help promote hormones that make us feel full. Additionally, try to skip out on the foods that are higher in sugar content or else you might be left still feeling hungrier than you were before (a good rule of thumb for sugar is less than 9 g per serving).
- Read the Ingredients. If you were to just read the nutrition facts, you wouldn’t see that all the dyes, sweeteners, chemicals, and preservatives that are prevalent in so many packaged foods. That’s why it’s important to be reading the list of ingredients as well. A good rule of thumb is the fewer ingredients, the healthier the snack, so try to stick to snack foods that have as few ingredients as possible. So if you find yourself reading a long list of ingredients and you’re unable to pronounce most of them, then that’s probably not a healthy snack choice.
My Facebook community is hip to this- and frequently look out for few ingredients! Have you joined our community yet? Click the image to join.
Be wary of foods that are marketed as fat-free, low-sugar, light, and the like. While they might actually be fat-free like they say, there’s a good chance they’re full of harmful sweeteners and other chemicals to maintain the taste of the product! (In fact, here is a fascinating read on just how many scientists are involved in flavoring our food- see The Dorito Effect book review).
- Go For Whole Grains. If you’re having something like crackers, popcorn, a granola bar, or any other carbohydrate-based snack, look for whole grain options. Make sure you still read the ingredients, though. Many “whole grain” snacks don’t actually contain many whole grains, so read the ingredients and make sure the whole grains are within the first couple ingredients listed!
Better yet- make your own version of a granola bar, or what I call a “Super Bar“. Download the recipe here.
- Be Good To Your Gut. Haven’t you heard? Your gut health is crucial to your overall well-being. In case you’re not aware, there’s actually billions of bacteria living in your gut. When the bacteria are healthy and happy, so are you! But failing to take care of your gut microbiome can result in different disease states including chronic inflammation, autoimmunity and neurological disorders. So how do you keep your gut bacteria healthy? Eat fermented foods! That means things like sauerkraut, yogurt, and pickled vegetables. Or if you want to try some less common fermented foods, check out kombucha, tempeh, or kefir!
- Snack on Wholesome Foods! While the bulk of this post has been about packaged foods and reading labels, an even better option is to just stick with wholesome foods. Try to snack on whole fruits, veggies, nuts, and seeds when you can to get the most nutritional bang for your buck!
While snacking on whole foods is ideal, it’s almost impossible to always have a banana with almond butter on hand at all times. Sometimes life just gets in the way and we need to grab something impromptu. So here are some healthy snack options to keep in mind when hunger strikes unexpectedly.
- Rx Bars. Rx bars have the fewest ingredients out of just about any other bar on the market and there’s a bunch of flavors to choose from! They even have a decent amount of fiber and protein as a bonus.
- Mary’s crackers. These crackers have very minimal ingredients, especially compared to most other crackers. There’s even a healthy dose of omega-3’s from the flax seed in these. These are perfect for those who have multiple allergies, including dairy, nut and gluten allergies.
- KIND Snacks’ granola bars. KIND bars can’t quite compete with the minimal ingredients in Rx Bars, but they’re still a pretty healthy option and they’re made with 100% whole grains. Most varieties are gluten-free.
- SkinnyPop’s popcorn. Most popcorn products on the shelf contain artificial butter and other whacky flavoring agents, but this popcorn only has three ingredients: popcorn, sunflower oil, and salt. Also a good source of fiber! Most varieties are vegan.
- Larabars. Larabars are very similar to Rx Bars, just with a few more ingredients, but they have a fair amount of fiber and also come in a bunch of flavors! Not only are these non-GMO, but they are also vegan!