27th January – Choose healthy snacks

I think snacks are one of the biggest challenges to healthy eating. Finding something that is easy to have to hand, that can be carried in your bag for whenever needed without getting squashed or gooey, that doesn’t melt or leak, or that doesn’t have lots of crumbs and bits to drop all over, and that can be eaten without getting sticky or messy…

It’s almost impossible to buy healthy whole foods from most places that are easily accessible for snacks. The average cafe/takeaway offerings are sugar-laden cakes/cookies/baked-goods or highly processed pastries. Most quick snacks from convenience shops are brightly coloured shiny packets – crisps, sweets, chocolate and similar. Packets of nuts or seeds or other ‘healthy’ options like protein bars are becoming more common, but quite often these are not always what they seem – I picked up a nut bar the other day and then noticed that it was stuck together with melted caramel.

Ideally I avoid snacking between meals, but if really hungry, I choose whole foods – things that are in their natural stat, no processing, no preparation, nothing done to them. My go to solution is an apple – easy to pick up and put in your bag. My other options are nuts & seeds, chunks of chopped veggies, or cubes of cheese – basically anything that will fit in a little mini-tupperware tub for easy transportation.

To manage this, i find the best option is a bit of pre-planning. I don’t wait until I get hungry and then think, what can I get? I have a snack available in my bag, so I have healthy food options to hand for if I need it. Here are my snacks for tomorrow – apples, a box of nuts and a banana – all ready to pick up on my way out of the door tomorrow.

Happy snacking!