ZeroGrav – Q2 2020 – Healthy snacking

Bring me the snacks!  The healthy snacks that is.

I have been trying to eat healthy for a few years now, with the past couple years being more of a focus.  Healthy eating in general seems to come up very often when with family and friends, as meals and snacks and refreshments is one of those things we all have in common.  I guess I just want to share some thoughts on snacking in particular though.  Full meals and all that are great, however I have a long ways to go in terms of learning to actually cook and it is a pretty broad topic, so let’s just talk about snacks.

For me, snacks are almost better than meals.  I’d rather have small snacks all day than anything else.  While that doesn’t always pan out (pun!), sometimes it is very energizing.  (Aside from the occasional drought of calories, woops).

What I have learned about eating healthy and snacks is that it purely comes down to availability.  If there are donuts on the kitchen table, they will be eaten.  If there are baked goods and ice cream desserts after dinner, it will be eaten.  It is almost guaranteed, in the game of statistics maybe 9/10 times a person will opt for whatever junk food/dessert/sweet is in front of them, even though they are ‘trying to eat healthy’.  And so only by removing these things entirely from the equation do we have a good chance of success.

If there are no donuts, no desserts, no cookies, no soda, no candy, nothing with added sugar, etc in the household then we are in a very good starting spot to eat healthy.  From there it’s just a matter of stocking up on healthy snacks and having them readily available for when hunger strikes.  Here are some go-to’s for me:

Seltzer water – natural fruit flavors, zero sugar, zero sweetener
Apples, bananas, grapes, blueberries, strawberries (any fruit actually..)
Nuts
Cereal (cheerios, kix, corn chex, etc)
Granola bars
Carrots
Celery
Peanut butter
Pretzels
Oatmeal
Organic chips (vege-stix, blue chips, etc – Even though they are still potato chips they have some redeeming qualities)
Triscuits whole grain
English muffins
Fruit & vege smoothies (no sugar added)
Unsweetened apple sauce

To recap – Step 1; remove all junk food from house.  Step 2; you will be hungry.  Step 3; make sure you have some healthy snacks laying around.  Step 4; success, you are now eating healthy!  That’s it, haha.

I typically like to think about the conspiracy theory side of things, and this topic is no exception.  Everywhere you go there is junk food and fast food, at many restaurants/stores/events it is the only option.  It’s all about availability and convenience for the consumer, and profits for the manufacturers/big brands.  When is the last time you went to the movie and they actually had even a single healthy item available?  Okay well I am not really making my best case here, however I would recommend to question anything that has added sugar, just think about what are the reasons it is there.  Is it really what you as a consumer wants or rather are there just not many other apparent options?

PS – I highly recommend not eating anything with gelatin in it.  And it is in a surprisingly lot of things.  :/

While we may all have different motivations for what we eat and drink, I think everyone would agree that good health is a common goal.  So try it out sometime, have some carrots and an apple as a mid-afternoon snack or after dinner.  See how you feel and whether you have more or less energy that day and the next day, and any other subtle changes you might become aware of.

Cheers,

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