There are many healthy snacks that are nutritious, delicious and filling. Snacking seems to have a bad reputation, but so long as you eat the right foods, it can actually be beneficial to your diet.; something as simple as an olive dip can provide you with a great tasting snack and satisfy your hunger until your next meal. In fact, scientists recommend that you eat 6 smaller meals per day as opposed to 3 large meals. This can be done easily with simple and honest healthy snacks.
What Snacks are Healthy?
By thinly slicing some potatoes and laying them on a cookie sheet with a spray of low calorie olive oil and a pinch of salt, you can bake crispy and delicious potato chips in less than 10 minutes. You can then experiment with your own flavors; why not try adding some cracked black pepper or paprika? You can even make fruity crisps using apples and pears; just add a little oil and dry them out. The flavors develop and become really deep and concentrated; they are simply delicious. By leaving the skin on you can make sure you get all of the goodness.
Any vegetable can make a great alternative to bread sticks. Carrot sticks, peppers and celery taste great when dipped in hummus. Opting for a low calorie hummus will cut out half the calories of normal hummus and provide a bulk of your daily fiber intake. You can even make a batch of your own with some chick peas, a little tahini and lemon juice.
Fruits make great snacks; they are full of vitamins and taste great in both sweet and savory dishes. You need to be careful with fruit as some are actually high in calories and sugar. While the sugars are natural and far surpass the processed kind, the acids can still have an impact on your teeth.
Nuts and seeds, such as pumpkin seeds and pine nuts, provide a great snack which are filling and thoroughly nutritious. They can be mixed in with homemade bread, fruit and homemade biscuits to make less healthy food a little better for you. They can really make something boring taste great.
Yogurt is a fantastic ingredient and food on its own. You can make a 0% fat cheese alternative, to be mixed with anything, which can be spread like a cream cheese or eaten as a dip. By placing yogurt in a double lined muslin bag and placing it in the fridge overnight, you will be left with soft yogurt cheese with none of the calories of normal cream cheese. Place it on granary crisp breads with some apple and pepper for a great mid afternoon snack. There are many different foods that are healthy to snack on, from olive dip to pumpkin seeds, which taste great and are good for you!
Jake Alexander is a free lance writer who enjoys blogging about health and wellness. Follow him @JakeAlexander17.
