Healthy Snack Ideas That Taste Great

 

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When craving a snack, most of us opt for unhealthy foods such as candy, a bag of potato chips or milk chocolate. These types of snacks taste fantastic, but typically have very little nutritional value and are instead loaded with fat, salt, sugar and artificial ingredients. Eating too much of them can cause us to gain weight, damage our teeth, increase our blood pressure and put us more at risk of diabetes.

By making the switch to healthy snacks, you can satisfy your cravings without damaging your body. Below are just a few examples of healthy snacks that taste great. 

Quinoa cookies

Quinoa is a whole grain that is full of nutrients. By making your own homemade cookies using quinoa, oat flour and almond butter, you can create the perfect guilt-free snack. Foods like carrot, peanut butter, cranberries and maple syrup can all be used to add extra flavoring. Try not to add too much sugar or chocolate. 

Anzac biscuits

Anzac biscuits are another healthy and tasty cookie alternative. They incorporate rolled oats and maple syrups to provide a crunchy sweetness while containing more nutritional value than your average cookie and a lot less sugar. Bake a few of these at home and store them in a tin with some quinoa cookies.

Banana bread

Home cooked banana bread could also make for a tasty healthy snack. The presence of bananas provide sweetness along with some extra vitamins. Unfortunately, store-bought banana bread is often full of refined grains and added sugar. By making your own banana bread, you can limit sugar and use wholemeal flour. 

Hummus

Hummus is a savory dip made from chickpeas and spices - it is full of nutrients and very tasty. You can enjoy it with some pitta bread or you can dip carrot sticks in it for an extra healthy snack. 

Guacamole

Guacamole is another dip that can make for a tasty healthy savory snack. This dip is made from avocados, tomato, onion and lime. Switch out corn chips for slice of pepper or celery when using this dip.

Frozen banana

Craving some ice cream? Frozen banana is known to take on the texture of ice cream while being much more healthy. You can mix frozen banana with ingredients like honey and peanut butter to give it that extra burst of flavor. 

Smoothies

Smoothies are a healthy alternative to milkshakes. Some store-bought smoothies can contain added unhealthy ingredients, so you’re best making your own at home (you’ll need a blender, if you haven’t already got one). Experiment with different fruit and vegetables and create your own vitamin rich smoothies.

Mixed nuts

Nuts are very healthy - they’re full of protein and minerals, while being low on calories. You can buy mixed bags of nuts to snack on. Avoid nuts coated in sugar and salt as this typically counters any health benefits.

Dark chocolate

If you’re addicted to chocolate, why not consider moving to darker chocolate? While regular milk chocolate is mostly milk and sugar, dark chocolate typically contains less milk and more cocoa. This cocoa is rich with nutrients, making it actually quite good for you. Just make sure to look at the sugar content when choosing dark chocolate as some manufacturers add a lot of sugar.