Portable healthy snacks are the latest trend in the snacking industry. Wrapped stringed cheese, Go-Gurt (portable yogurt), individually packaged vegetable portions with low-fat dip and 100-calorie potato chips or cookies are helping us to eat healthy, even when we feel we have no time to do so.

To maintain a healthy weight and reduce our risk for heart disease or cancer, we have to be more mindful of eating a balanced diet packed with nutrients and controlling our calorie count. Grab-and-go fruit snacks can prevent us from skipping breakfast, while raw foods, like carrots or broccoli spears, prevent us from eating that second helping at dinner. Forget the dreaded food coma; small meals are where it’s at!

healthy snack foods
Do you rarely have time for a pleasant sit-down breakfast? Luckily, there are a number of morning-friendly, healthy food snacks to wake up your metabolism and provide you with the nutrients you need to get a fresh start.

For a quick solution, try half a peanut butter sandwich on whole-wheat bread, low-sugar whole-grain granola bars (with at least 3 grams of fiber), 4-6 ounces of low-fat yogurt, some high-fiber cereal with dried fruit or a bowl of instant oatmeal with sliced peaches, if you’ve got five minutes.

Throughout the day, nothing kills our motivation like a heavy 30-minute lunch. Instead, fruit snacks can keep us pumped throughout the day. Dietician-recommended options include a handful of unsalted or lightly salted dry-roasted nuts, a single serving pack of unsweetened applesauce with healthy foods, a small apple with two tablespoons of peanut butter or one ounce of low-fat cheese, half a string cheese with a few pieces of fruit or whole grain crackers or pretzels with low-fat cheese.

Raw foods, like vegetables, can be jazzed up with nacho cheese, low-fat ranch or no-fat veggie dip. Yet cracker manufacturers have also come a long way to offer some healthy food snacks options.

healthy diet
“Look for snacks that contain protein with healthy carbohydrates and fats, and eat your snacks slowly so they fill you up,” advises Baylor nutrition Professor Suzy Weems, PhD. There are many healthy snacks to choose from, so it can be easy to lose track of how our weight loss is stacking up throughout the day.

The consensus seems to be that 100-calorie packs are good to have around the house but we shouldn’t rely on them solely as meal substitutes.

Tim Somers
MaineCoastLobster.com