Snacks are an important part of a healthy diet. They can be a great way to stave off hunger between meals, allowing us better portion control during meal times.
Eating regularly during the day can also help with maintaining energy and keeping your mood positive. However, if you are choosing unhealthy snacks, they may be doing your diet more harm than good.
Ideally, snacks help you achieve daily recommendations for various food groups. This makes sweets or chips poor choices, as they do not really fit into food groups. Though they may have started as mostly grains or a potato, processing usually destroys the nutrients associated with the food group.
Most of us should eat more vegetables and fruit, so snacking on them throughout the day is a good way to add more to your diet. To make the snack more filling, I like to try to incorporate at least two food groups.
Healthy options
Here are some healthy snack ideas:
▶ Apples or celery with peanut-butter yogurt dip. Mix 6 to 8 ounces fat-free vanilla yogurt with 2 tablespoons of peanut butter for a great dip that will keep for five days refrigerated.
▶ Vegetables with dip. Fat-free plain Greek yogurt with a few tablespoons of ranch dressing or a little ranch seasoning makes a ranch dip that has more calcium than most. Fat-free cottage cheese pureed with a tablespoon of minced onion or garlic and a sprinkle of parsley also makes a tasty, calcium-rich dip.
▶ Whole-grain crackers or veggies with French onion dip. You can make homemade French onion dip by caramelizing an onion and pureeing it with a tablespoon of low-fat mayo. Then combine it with 6 ounces of plain Greek yogurt.
▶ Trail mix. Combine whole-grain cereal or crackers with dried fruit and/or nuts for a personalized trail mix. If you want to add seasoning, spray your crackers and nuts lightly with cooking spray, season to taste with your favorite spice blend, and bake on low for about 20 minutes on a baking sheet.
▶ Smoothies. Combine fruit, low-fat yogurt and milk or 100 percent juice to create a nutritious and filling drink. If you do not have a blender, use the fruit and yogurt to make a parfait.
▶ Baked apples. Microwaving a cored apple with a little maple-brown sugar oatmeal is a great sweet treat.
SUBSTITUTE SOME
Not every snack choice will be a healthy one, but be cautious about choosing unhealthy snacks regularly. The types of snacks sold in convenience stores often have added sugar and excess fat and calories.
Snack-sized bags of chips and sugary beverages often contain more than one serving, so if you are finishing a two-serving package, multiply the calories and other nutrients by two. Excess fat or added sugar calories can add up quickly, and unburned calories inevitably lead to weight gain.
Take small steps toward healthier snacking. If you are eating two snacks per day that you could improve upon, start with substituting a healthier choice for one snack per day, maybe even just a few days per week.
Once you have been successful for a few weeks, make another small change. Keeping fresh or dried fruit, fruit cups canned in juice and washed and cut vegetables available makes healthy snacking convenient and is a great step toward improving your snacking habits.
Jordy Kivett is a nutrition educator at Cornell Cooperative Extension in Clinton County. For more information, contact her at 561-7450.
