Sunday, January 4, 2009

The great food debate!

So I am on an online forum and have been reading some tips for healthy snacking ideas. I just wanted to share my personal insight (or beliefs) into healthy snacking. 

First someone recommended the following:
I would also say any yoghurt at all, especially ones with minimal or no sweetening (I don't think those artificial sweeteners are very good).

I also like apple slices and cheese. (Granny Smith apples and cheddar cheese is the best ever.)

I would watch the yogurt - while you may not like artificial sweetener mini yogurts are extremely high in sugar.

I believe that 5 g of sugar = 1 tbsp of sugar in a product

May not seem like a lot but when you consider the calorie count in most mini yogurts it is not worth it.

For example my daily snacks are like this
1 apple, 1 peach, 1 necterine are 300 calories (~100 each)
1 diet yogurt (usually go with splenda) (35 calories)
1 mini bag of popcorn (100 calories)

= total of 435 calories or roughly 1/3 of my daily caloric intake guide (I am for 1200 to 1500 calories a day.

The extra 100 calories from the snack bags or from a small yogurt isn't worth it especially when the yogurt isn't that filing so you are very likely to eat something else along with it.

As for apple and cheese - hard cheese is much higher in saturated fat

From the this website 
Cheese is a concentrated source of calories and saturated fat. Cheese made from whole milk generally contains 80-120 calories, 6-10 grams of fat (4-6 grams saturated fat) per ounce. An ounce of cheese is about the size of a pair of dice.

Soft cheeses are lower in calories and saturated fat - I usually get my cheese fix by using fetta cheese or shredded cheese on my salad for lunch (lots of cheese yumminess but cuts the overall amount you eat)

Second someone recommended:
Frozen blueberries with skim milk

Coolwhip non fat (the green container) It seriously makes me not feel like I am on a diet ( have it on Jello for a better treat(like 0 points), or berries if you need some points/calories

Almonds are an easy way to get a good fat in

apples sliced, sprinkle cinnamon and put in the microwave for 30 sec. Tastes like apple pie without the crust (yum!)


I totally agree with the above!! I love the non-fat or low-sugar foods!

Lastly:

I would make wraps for lunch..green wraps with 1 tablespoon of cream cheese spread out and dill pickles inside..it is so good and takes the edge off between meals. 

I stay away from wraps entirely! they are no more healthy for you than two slices of bread! Next time you are out at the store - compare the fat, calories, sodium, carbs and sugar (we focus on that plus fiber)

A single wrap has as many calories as two regular slices of bread and personally I find a slice of bread more filing than a wrap.

So one of my thoughts on eating now is to compare the calories on the food but also how filing something is because that affects how much other food I will eat.

For example -
100 calories worth of Carrots (about 10 oz of carrots) vs. yogurt
the Carrots will fill me and I am likely to eat less. the Yogurt while tasty is not filing and I will eat something else.

1 wrap vs. 2 slices of bread
Does not matter how full the wrap is I will feel more full from a slice of bread vs. the wrap. So what i do is eat my "wrap" filling stuff as a salad (cobb salad) and then add more filing aspects to it (pine nuts, dried unsweetened cranberries, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sliced almonds) That is my usual lunch.

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