Choosing healthy and nutritous snacks is one component of living a healthy lifestyle. Whether you are trying to maintain your current weight, lose weight or gain weight, healthy snacking is important, because it is a good source of nutrition for your body. Because of this, it is important to choose healthy snacks instead of choosing snacks that are full of calories that don't provide your body with any nutrients.
Produce
Fresh, canned and frozen produce are healthy and nutritious snacks because these foods contain nutrients, such as vitamins and minerals that the human body needs to function. You must choose a variety of produce each day. When choosing produce, try to choose a variety of colors. For example, choose blueberries and an orange as fruit snacks. If you choose to snack on vegetables, try fresh carrots, cauliflower and cucumbers. You can add a small amount of salad dressing made with a heart healthy oil such as canola or olive oil.
Dairy Products
Dairy products are a good source of vitamin D and calcium. When you choose dairy products, you have to pay attention to the calorie and fat content in the product. Also check to see if salt or sugar were added to the dairy product, especially if you are eating a fat-free product. Low fat string cheese, fat free yogurt, a milk shake made with skim milk and low fat ice cream, and yogurt made with milk are some good dairy snacks.
Grains
There are two types of grains: whole grains and refined grains. Generally, whole grains are more healthy for you than refined grains. Some whole grains that make good snacks foods include whole wheat crackers, whole grain tortillas, whole grain toast or popcorn. Refined grains suitable snacking include corn tortillas, hard pretzels without added salt and crackers. Try to stick to grains that are as close to their natural form as possible as many processed grains have sugar or salt added for flavor.
Proteins
Snacking on egg, nuts, nut butter or seeds is a good way to get protein. A boiled egg is a healthy choice for a snack. You can also scramble an egg, but a fried egg isn't a healthy snack. Cashews, pecans, peanuts and almonds are some examples of nuts you can snack on. You can also opt to eat nut butter as long as the nut butter, such as peanut butter, is all natural. Pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds are also good snacks, but make sure there isn't much, if any, added salt.
Other Snacks
Some manufacturers have low calorie versions of popular snack items, such as cookies and chips. While these snacks are better than the full-calorie versions, they should be chosen sparingly as snacks since they don't provide nutrients comparable to other healthy snacks. Frozen snacks like fruit bars or frozen yogurt are suitable as long as they don't contain a lot of added sugar and you choose the low-calorie version.
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