Part One: Healthy Snacking

Greetings! After a small break away from the ol’ good food blog to concentrate on work, I am back at it now. As you can see from the title, this will be a three-part blog, ending on Sunday. What we will be discussing in each part is snacking, which is something virtually everyone loves to do, even if they don’t want to admit it; if you’d like to admit to snacking, it’s all good because I won’t tell anyone. This part will be about healthy snacking and what we can do to incorporate healthier snacks into our lives. The next two parts will be unhealthy snacking, finally ending with a combination of the two and how we can balance a little indulgence now and again.

When we think of healthy snacks, we tend to think of fruits and vegetables like apples and celery, but did you know you can also eat healthy chips? What?! Healthy chips?! Yes, healthy chips, such as chips that are baked, not fried. These are a great alternative to eating their greasy original counterparts, and they go great with sandwiches! There are many flavors and options to choose from, so there shouldn’t be a problem finding something that pleases the palate.

Speaking of fruits and vegetables, how often do you find yourself snacking on a bag of baby carrots or box of raisins? Eating fruits and vegetables as snacks is one of the best choices a person can make, as these are packed with essential vitamins and nutrients; did you know carrots are good for the eyes? That would be Beta-Carotene, which is why carrots are orange. Carrots and celery have always been two of my favorite vegetables to snack on, and there are so many different possibilities to make them more fun. It has probably been a long time since you’ve last had this, but ants on a log (celery with peanut butter and raisins) is a fantastic snack! The combination of celery and peanut butter with raisins packs a vitamin and protein punch, essential parts of our daily diet. Even though it is a kid’s snack, it should be more popular among adults in the workplace, as many jobs are behind a desk and filled with unhealthy snacking (preview of tomorrow’s blog).

Go ahead and start incorporating more healthy snacking options into your daily diet, and your body will thank you tremendously. When we eat healthy, we feel healthy; when we eat unhealthy, we feel… Well, unhealthy. Next week, I challenge you to come up with your own ideas for healthy snack options and what you can do to make it more a part of your daily diet. We need to become a healthier America, and this is a great start to getting our country back on the path to healthy lives.

Is it Soda or is it Pop?

Is it soda or is it pop? Depends on what part of the country you reside in, but it is all the same thing: carbonated goodness in a can that comes in all flavors, and sizes. We all enjoy one of these bubbly and sinfully good beverages on occasion because the taste of an ice-cold soda (or pop) can really hit the spot. There are many different varieties out there to try, such as root beer, grape soda, and orange soda. However, even though these tasty testaments to sugar and syrup have a place in many people's lives, they have many effects on our bodies.

Drinking too many carbonated beverages isn't just bad for your skin; it is also damaging to the stomach over a long period of time, which can cause ulcers, among other things. Most sodas produced in the United States all have one common ingredient in them: High-fructose corn syrup. I'm sure most of you have read about this throughout the years and how it has made its way into many of the foods and beverages we consume daily, but the next time you drink a can of soda, take a look at the ingredients and what you will spot is high-fructose corn syrup, well-positioned as the second ingredient. This component of the soda is what helps its sweetness, which is also much cheaper to produce than actual sugar. There is a lot of corn produced in this country, and it is big business for farmers and other companies making the actual syrup, so most of our sodas will contain this questionable substitute for sugar for the foreseeable future.

(Going off subject of soda for a moment, I wanted to mention a challenge about high-fructose corn syrup. I challenge you to look at labels of what you eat and read the ingredients. Does it contain HFCS? If you eat Ritz crackers, you bet it does. Ketchup? Yes, indeed. Don't forget about that Italian dressing, either.)

There are no real healthy sodas out there, even though some claim to have zero calories. What this does is it means zero taste. The market is big for these kinds of products because people want to lose weight and eat healthy, but they don't want to cut certain things out of their lives. If anyone is going to drink a soda, make it the classic and keep it in moderation because we don't want to have a bad acne and ulcer problem, now, do we? If you're serious about not wanting HFCS, try a Mexican soda. They don't contain HFCS and are made from real sugar. It's a hot summer, so enjoy a soda once in a while; I won't tell anyone.