Smart Snacks for People on the Go!“0 Comments”
admin | 3:54 pm | August 10, 2011 | Uncategorized
The corporate lifestyle can pose a real challenge to the attainment of a healthy, balanced diet. Skipping meals, bad meal planning, eating on the run and relying on quick shops and vending machines for snacks are just some of the challenges we face as we juggle work and life. Ideally, busy people, and especially those of us that also remain fairly active throughout the day, should plan to eat three balanced meals a day and include two to three healthy snacks in between meals.
Regular snaking is particularly important in the context of a high stress environment. Our brain and pituitary gland respond to stress by releasing adrenocorticotropic hormone. This stimulates our adrenals to increase production of the hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine, which essentially increase the metabolic rate, preparing the body for stress. Our energy reserves are burned up faster, which means we need to eat more regularly in order to keep blood sugar levels, and energy more sustained. Stress also means that our bodies’ nutrients get used up more rapidly to meet the increased biochemical needs of metabolism. So the more nutritious snacks we eat, the more essential nutrients we get in to replace those lost during stress.
The secret to healthy snacking lies in eating the right foods, in the right amounts at the right times.
The right foods
Choose snack foods that are as close to nature as possible. The following make ideal choices:
Fruit
Fruit is a source of carbohydrate energy and is packed with fiber, vitamin C and minerals. Fresh, raw fruit contains its own enzymes and is digested easily and naturally on its own. During times of stress, when blood is diverted from the digestive system to other organs, fruit is a perfect snack. Fruit can also form the basis of a meal, like a breakfast smoothie or fruit salad.
Dried fruit is also an option, and will provide similar nutrition to fresh fruit. The problem with dried fruit is portion control. It is very easy to eat 10 dried peaches but it would take you much effort to eat 10 fresh peaches. So as long as you control for portion size, dried fruit is a suitable alternative to fresh fruit.
Fruit generally also has a very favourable low glycemic index (GI), which means that it delivers its carbohydrate slowly into the body resulting in a sustained release of energy. Deciduous fruits (like apples, pears and plums), citrus fruits and berries have a lower GI than tropical fruits (like bananas, papino and mangos).
Vegetables
Vegetables provide the lowest kilojoule snack with the highest fiber and antioxidant content. Vegetables also have a naturally low GI. Raw veggies, like carrot sticks, sugar snaps; broccoli and cauliflower florets and baby tomatoes for example make an excellent snack. In winter, you could make a pot of thick vegetable soup and take to work in a flask for a warming snack.
Nuts and seeds
Nuts and seeds are powerhouses of energy in the form of essential fats and are mostly comprised of mono-unsaturated fats, which help replace saturated animal fats in the diet to improve lipid profiles and prevent heart disease. Nuts also contain a good amount of protein and are rich in B vitamins and many essential minerals, like magnesium. Any nuts or seeds are acceptable to eat as all have a similar fat content. Almonds are often referred to as “the king of nuts” as they are the most nutritionally balanced. Brazil nuts contain large amounts of the antioxidant mineral selenium and flaxseeds and walnuts are particularly high in omega-3 fatty acids.
Throw some nuts and seeds over your breakfast cereal, add them to a smoothie, smear nut butter on wholegrain toast or crackers or simply chew on a handful for a satisfying snack.
Yogurt
Yogurt is a good source of calcium and the B vitamin, riboflavin. Yogurt is also a complete protein source, which means it contains all 8 essential amino acids. The fat in yogurt is saturated fat and excess consumption has been linked to chronic diseases of lifestyle, like heart disease and cancer. However, compared to cheese, even full cream yogurt has a relatively low fat content of about 5g per 100g (cheese contains about 20-40g fat per 100g). Low fat and fat-free yogurts contain less than 3g fat per 100g and less than 0.5g fat per 100g respectively. Yogurt also has a very favourable GI, which means that it delivers it carbohydrate slowly into the body resulting in a sustained release of energy.
Crackers
Smear some peanut butter, cottage cheese, fruit jam or mashed avocado on a wholegrain cracker or rice cake. Choose varieties that are relatively lower in fat and salt and that contain wholegrain wheat, rice or rye rather than white flour.
Health bars
Certain commercial products like cereal bars, protein bars and dried fruit bars can provide for a good snack. When making a choice, it’s always a good idea to read labels for fat and carbohydrate content, as some bars tend to be too high in one or both of these. A cereal bar should contain no more than 25g carbohydrate per bar and no more than 5g of fat (unless it is a seed or nut bar, in which case the fat content will be higher). Protein bars generally contain as much fat and kilojoules as a chocolate and are more designed for meal replacement or for after heavy sports activity then as a regular snack.
Biltong
Provided you choose a low fat variety of biltong (either fat-trimmed beef, ostrich or game biltong), it is a good high protein low fat snack. Avoid visible fatty bits and choose biltong over wors, which is much higher in fat.
The right amount
Vegetables should be eaten in abundance but limit the more starchy vegetables like sugar snaps to 1 cup at a time. Too much fruit is not a good thing because of its high sugar content (in the form of fructose), so stick to 2-4 portions per day. Nuts are high in fats and kilojoules so should be limited. A portion of nuts or seeds at one snack should be 15-30g, so plowing through a 100g bag of nuts is over-doing it. A daily recommendation for dairy products including yogurt is 1-3 portions per day and a portion of yogurt is 125ml. One starch serving is 1 slice bread, which is equal to 4 small crackers or 2 larger crackers. Cereal bars should be kept to a minimum, rather focusing on whole foods as snacks. About 3 bars per week is a good reference limit. Biltong is dehydrated, which means it would typically weight about three times more if it were fresh. About 25g dried biltong would be a suitable amount as a snack.
The right time
Eating your snacks at the right time is also of the utmost importance. It doesn’t help to skip breakfast and lunch, then eat a few snacks and dinner towards the end of the day. As a general rule, to balance blood sugar and keep the metabolism and digestion fuelled, eat something small every three hours, starting with breakfast, which should ideally be eaten within 3 hours of waking up.
Treats and Cheats
If you are someone who has become accustomed to high fat and high sugar snack foods like sweets, chips and chocolate for example, start to reduce your intake and substitute with healthier options. If you don’t really eat them much at all- don’t start now! It is important not to totally deprive yourself. Allow yourself a very small treat each day if you must, otherwise limit treats to 2 or 3 a week. 60g chewy or gum sweets, a 30g packet crisps or 40g chocolate would equal 1 treat.
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