A nutrient-rich snack will help keep cravings under control and up the nutritional value of your diet. The most popular snacks (even those that seem healthy) are stuffed with sodium, sugar, extra calories, and in some cases dangerous chemicals.
Potato Chips
Potato chips have added fat, calories, and salt, they have a high glycemic index, which will spike your blood sugar level. When chips are heated to high temperature, they release acrylamide, a dangerous chemical substance associated with neurological damage.
Healthy Alternative: One of my personal favorite snack is the “Good Health Natural Foods Crispy Original Apple Chips“, which looks and tastes like real apples.
Rice Cakes
Rice cakes, while blandly low in calories, come from refined rice, which has a high blood sugar spiking carbs content. Plus, many are loaded with sodium and sugar.
Healthy Alternative: You could try our whole wheat biscuits recipe or the “Go Lean Crisp! Bars Chocolate Almond”
Honey-Roasted Salted Nuts
The combination of sugar and sodium makes these very easy to overeat. Their sugar and salt content exceed any potential health benefits coming from their healthy fats.
Healthy Alternative: Eat a handful of almonds or some of the other natural appetite suppressants
Fat-Free Yogurt with Fruit
Unlike non-fat Greek yogurt, regular yogurt becomes watery and bland without the fat. When they take the fat out, they usually add high-sugar fruit mixture.
Healthy Alternative: Try our Greek yogurt dessert with honey and strawberries
Microwave Popcorn
In addition to all the refined carbs and sodium, some microwavable popcorn contains trans fats. Plus, the bags are often coated with chemical substances to prevent the popcorn from sticking. Just be careful around the fumes of buttered popcorn or buy a brand that does not use diacetyl [1].
Healthy Alternative: You can easily make home-made microwave popcorn. Take 3 oz of popping corn kernels and put them in a paper bag. Lay the bag down sideways in your microwave oven and push the popcorn button — or set your microwave oven as you would for any other bag of popcorn. That’s it!
Diet Soda
Diet soda contains aspartame, a potentially carcinogenic chemical, which also is associated with neurological issues. Diet soda has an effect on the craving centers in the brain, increasing your desire for food [2]. Most importantly, diet soda has elevated levels of phosphorous; calcium and phosphorous must be in good balance to maintain bone health, and when an excessive amount of phosphorous is present it can leach calcium from your bones.
Healthy Alternative: Try adding a slice of lime, lemon, watermelon or some 100% fruit juice to a glass of sparkling water if you want some flavor or try our green tea a là Mediterranean
Reference:
[1] Lockey, J. E., et al. “Airway obstruction related to diacetyl exposure at microwave popcorn production facilities.” The European respiratory journal: official journal of the European Society for Clinical Respiratory Physiology 34.1 (2009): 63.
[2] Yang, Qing. “Gain weight by “going diet?†Artificial sweeteners and the neurobiology of sugar cravings: Neuroscience 2010.” The Yale journal of biology and medicine 83.2 (2010): 101
