When we think of the word ‘snacks’, our mind gets filled with unhealthy food that is detrimental to our health. Such snacks might be good for keeping your stomach full for the time being but they have adverse effects on our health and body’s system.
However, that doesn’t need to be the case, there are healthy snacks that can keep your stomach full and aid in weight loss. Weight-loss friendly low sugar snacks are usually high in fibre and protein. Just like CarnivoreSnax, Jerky, and Salads.
It is beneficial to make healthy snacks a part of your routine diet as they prevent you from unhealthy overeating and reduce untimely cravings. Healthy snacks are satiating and fulfilling. These food combinations not only burn your calories but they also kill your cravings for unhealthy food. Here mentioned below are seven of the best weight-loss friendly snacks:
1. Mixed Nuts:
If you’re looking for a snack to end your untimely craving, nuts are always considered to be an ideal nutritious snack. Nuts provide the perfect balance of healthy saturated fat fiber and proteins. They contain 120-150 calories in every 28 grams on an average serving. Nuts are also beneficial in reducing the risk of heart diseases, few types of cancer and depression as well.
There are many researches that prove that moderate eating of nuts instead of unhealthy snacks helps you lose weight. Nuts have high amount of unsaturated healthy fats resulting in high energy and are a great replacement of high saturated fat food products such as biscuits, cakes and chocolates etc.
2. Yogurt and Mixed Berries:
Greek yogurt is different from your normal yogurt because it goes through a straining process for removal of whey; a kind of sugar in all dairy products. Greek yogurt is not only rich in calcium, potassium and proteins but it is also very low on sugar. The process of removal of whey makes it thicker and creamier with a tart taste.
Greek yogurt is linked to improved bone health, reducing appetite and boosting metabolism while berries on the other hand are a great source to have antioxidants. Eating 100g of full-fat yogurt mixed with 50 grams of differently colored berries provides 10 of proteins and up to 150 calories. It is considered best to be taken between lunch and breakfast hours to satiate the untimely cravings.
3. Apple Slices with Peanut Butter:
Apples and peanut butter when paired together are proven to create an ideal nutritional balance. Apples are high in fiber and iron. A single apple can provide up to 17% of RDI fiber, which plays an important role in developing a healthy digestive and immune system. They are also considered as a rich source of plant compounds which is beneficial for reducing stress and inflammation in the human body.
Peanut butter, on the other hand, is quite similar to nuts in regard of nutrition. Peanut butter could be a great boost of protein and healthy monounsaturated fat that is best for protecting and promoting the health of a human heart. Apples provide whole-food carbs and fiber while peanut butter is a healthy dose of proteins and beneficial fats. A normal medium sized apple paired with 15 grams of peanut butter can provide around 200 calories.
4. Pizzelles:
Pizzelles are traditional Italian waffle cookies made usually with sugar, flour, butter and vegetable oil. It is typically known to be a crispy mixture of these ingredients but recently due to certain changes in ingredients, it can either be crispy or soft or chewy or hard. There are 63 calories in one wafer of Pizzelles cookie. It contains 35% healthy fat, 54% carbs and 7% of proteins. However, you can’t make this without buying the respective appliance that is needed. I recommend you read the following article to know about a pizzelle maker.
5. Kale Chips:
Kale is a type of cabbage with curly leaves and fresh flavor. When kale is baked, it becomes crispy with nutritional value greater than those of potato chips. Kale contains low amount of vitamins and minerals while high amount of sodium and healthy fats. Kale leaves can also be fried in olive oil to have a better taste.
One cup of finely chopped Kale leaves contain 34 calories while one tablespoon of olive oil contains 119 calories, on adding up these kale leaves on, an average serving have up to 153 calories. It is a good replacement of unhealthy fat snacks like potato chips, donuts and cookies etc. Kale leaves are linked to reducing blood pressure and lowering the risk of having colon cancer.
6. Celery Sticks with Cream Cheese:
Celery is a low calorie vegetable which is light green in color with large stalks. Celery is rich in cellulose and carbohydrates. It serves a fair amount of minerals and vitamins as well. One medium stalk of celery contains only 6 calories and 1.2 grams of carbohydrates.
Cream cheese, on the other hand, is a healthy alternative to butter. Cream cheese is not always low on calories as compared to butter as it depends upon the brands you buy if from. Normally, one ounce of cream cheese contains a hundred calories. When paired together, it could be the best low carbs healthy snack. Five celery sticks combined with two ounces of cream cheese contains up to 200 calories.
7. Cottage Cheese with Flax Seeds:
Cottage cheese is quite popular for its low fat and low calories benefit over other types of cheese. It can be a staple of many low calorie diets along with having a complete calorie restricted diet of its own where the person only eats cottage cheese for every meal and loses weight quickly because other sweet beverages and sugars are avoided.
A biochemist, Johanna Budwig, developed a formula in 1950s for cancer treatment that involved cottage cheese and flaxseed oil mixture as a medicine for reducing and stopping the cancer growth at all. Flax seeds, on the other hand, are a good source of antioxidants and fiber. They are known best to reduce the risk of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. They are also beneficial for weight loss, blood sugar control and lowering the risk of breast cancer. Cottage cheese when mixed with flax seeds on serving of 15 grams can provide up to 150 calories.
If you’ve read the above mentioned list of things, you surely know about a few healthy snacks that you can make a part of your regular diet in order to lose weight. If you think there are other weight loss snacks I should have mentioned, mention them in the comments below.
About the Author:
This post is written by Line Arias who has been working as a nutritionist for ten years now. She recently collaborated with health and fitness spa, NYC, and since then, she has been working on weight loss’ meal prep plans.
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