It’s hard to imagine someone who doesn’t like potato chips. Or M + M’s , which just might be the perfect candy, especially if one is thinking of peanut M + M’s. And then there are Toblerones, the fancy movie theater candy you have probably heard about, but not eaten.
But chances are that if you’ve been indulging in these very worthy treats throughout the past year, you’re now noticing the physical repercussions and you don’t love them! And hey, if they were balanced out by the mental benefits of treating yourself during a hard time, it was worth it!
But that doesn’t mean there is not a place in your diet for some more nutritious snacks to balance out the Sour Patch Kids of the world. And you’d be surprised what classic snacks are as healthy as some of the ones you probably are first hearing about just now.
You may not have realized at the movies that you were shoveling handfuls of one of the healthiest snacks around into your craw, but that’s popcorn! Of course, your variety is more apt to be air popped and less laden with butter and salt, which kill a lot of the benefits- but what you’re left with is a fairly low calory food that comes with good protein and fiber!
But matching popcorn bite for bite is a nut you may have thought was one of the worst health-wise. Surprise, it’s about the best! The mighty pistachio is not just flavorful, it’s one of the lowest-calorie nuts, also offers good protein and fiber, and its fat is almost entirely of the unsaturated variety. Plus shelling nuts yourself tends to make you more conscious of your portions.
Meanwhile, if you are determined to satisfy a sweet tooth, you have lots of options there too. When you feel hunger pangs, you may just reach for a fruit and nut bar from any of several top brands. They’re tasty, and filling since they promote more gradual digestion. On top of that, they are light on calories and sugar and heavy on protein and fiber as well. Try the many excellent offerings from Kind!
Or there’s that old standby, the protein shake, whose nutritional benefits are self-evident and which come in any number of delicious fruit or chocolate flavors that you’d swear should be making you feel far more guilty than you do. And something else apart from the protein that you’re getting here is a heaping portion of calcium to promote good bone health!
Of course, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. So it stands to reason that breakfast adjacent morning snacks are the most important snacks of the day! And if you’re building out an extension of your breakfast, you’re not going to do any better than hard-boiled eggs. If you still feel empty after breakfast, just one hard-boiled egg is liable to be enough to fill you, and with the side benefit of giving you needed omega 3s, plus vitamins B12 and D. It’s win-win!
But back on the sweet tip, there’s Greek yogurt. A cup of Chobani makes for a great, easy and nutritious snack. And at the end of a day of grazing on it and the other above snacks, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find you did more good than harm!
