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.