If you have never looked up the definition of a snack, it might surprise you. According to Merriam-Webster [1], a snack is a light meal only eaten between meals.
Snacking can be great when you are trying to push through a long workday or busy day between meals, but eating empty calories can lead to weight gain and feeling unsatisfied after meals.
If you choose to snack, here are some of the best ways to avoid bad snacking and get the best out of your in-between meal snacks.
Make Good Food Choices
When picking out your snacks, try to avoid foods that are high in empty calories. Some examples of these foods are potato chips, cookies, donuts, cakes, and soda.
While they taste great, these snacks aren't high in protein or fiber, so they are not providing your body with any other benefits, so they are just going to leave you feeling hungry after eating them.
The foods you should be eating instead are going to be whole foods. These are foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, yogurt, cheese, and eggs. All of these foods are great examples of high protein, high fiber foods that are packed with nutrients [2].
A great alternative to snacking is to swap your calorie-heavy snack for our Slim Blend Coffee with Garcinia and Cambogia, which are natural appetite suppressants. While it might not seems like a lot, in one week that's 2,000 calories and in a month that is a pound or two.
Practice Portion Control.
While it might be tempting to snack until you are full, it is crucial only to have a specific portion of it. When we said nuts or cheese were a healthy snack, they will only remain a healthy snack when you eat the correct amount of them [3].
Here are some excellent examples of snack portions:
- 1/2 of a cup of Greek yogurt unsweetened with a 1/2 of a cup of blueberries.
- Small apple with a tablespoon of peanut butter.
- 1/4 cup of almonds.
- An ounce of cheese.
- 1/4 of a cup of hummus with some veggie chips.
Mindful Snacking
When you are snacking, it is essential to be aware of how much you are eating and what you are putting into your body.
We tend to snack without paying attention, whether we are in the office and are snacking on food because someone brought it in, or you are at home and watching TV, and eating popcorn without even thinking about it.
Be mindful about how and when you snack and snacks should only be consumed between meals and should have some nutritional benefit to them.
What is your favorite healthy snack? Let us know!
References
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[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/snack
[2] https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/7-ways-to-snack-smarter
[3] https://academic.oup.com/advances/article/7/3/466/4558044