It’s time to take a serious look at your snacking habits. All too frequently, snacks are confused with treats – which can leave you feeling empty and craving more. Follow my satisfying snack strategies and suggestions, featured in The Huffington Post (click here for full article), for better nutrition between meals. Here’s a taste of what can be found on their website:
Many patients and magazines ask me to come up with clever, creative and delicious snack ideas, but snacks shouldn’t be glamorous, nor should they be something we look so forward to eating. Snacks should just be a tide-me-over until I can get to a meal I will enjoy. Think of them as just a meal-to-meal bridge. It tends to be the opposite in our diet-obsessed culture — many people load up on low-calorie, boring “diet” food at meals, which isn’t satisfying, and then scavenge for delicious and exciting treats all afternoon and evening. Consider this the new norm: Enjoy creativity and variety at meals, but snack simply on filling and nutritious food.
Simple Snack Guidelines:
- Between 100-200 calories
- Contain the powerful combination of produce and protein
- Eaten only once or twice a day when it is most needed/hungriest time of day
- Limited in variety — too many choices at snack time can lead to overeating
My Top Ten Snack List
Each is about 150 calories and contains produce plus protein:
- Apple (small) and almonds (10)
- Celery (3 stalks) and peanut butter (1.5 tablespoons)
- Peaches (1/2 cup canned in juice) and low-fat cottage cheese (1/2 cup)
- Grapes (half a cup) and soynuts (1/4 cup)
- Carrots (1 cup) and hummus (4 tablespoons)
- Melon (3/4 cup) and cheese (1-ounce wedge)
- Berries (1/2 cup) and low-fat plain yogurt (6 ounces)
- Cucumber (1 cup) and tuna (3 ounces with 1 tablespoon light mayo)
- Tomato juice (1 cup low-sodium) and pistachios (30)
- Pear (small) and string cheese (1)