Why You Need To Eat Healthy Snacks for Adults
First of all, eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner is the normal eating behavior for millions around the world. While the next popular eating behavior is either breakfast and dinner or lunch and dinner. However, drop in blood sugar levels between meals, or feeling stressed, or simply being idle, may make you hungry. Therefore, eating healthy snacks for adults relieves the hunger while taking away the temptation to eat unhealthy foods.
Above all, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends that four to five or even six small meals spread across the day is better able to maintain blood sugar levels steady and stop hunger. Indeed, if people maintained an eating schedule and ate small healthy portions, they are more likely to maintain their weight. Moreover, small portions of healthy snacks between lunch and dinner may quell your hunger and keep you from overeating during dinner.
Why Eat Healthy Snacks for Adults
Above all, the primary reason people snack is hunger. But other reasons include:
In fact, even if they are not hungry, people snack when there is easily accessible, appetizing food. Furthermore, a study found that overweight and obese people chose unhealthy snacks because:
Finally, snacking can help people avoid becoming very hungry. When you go too long without eating, you become so hungry and you end up eating many more calories than you need.
How Healthy Snacks for Adults Effect You
Effect of Healthy Snacks on Burning Calories
Incidentally, snacking every few hours does not increase your metabolism. In fact studies show that meal frequency has no significant effect on how many calories you burn. For example, a study found that people who consumed an equal number of calories by eating either two or seven meals a day, burned nearly the same amount of calories.
On the other hand, another study found that a high-protein, high-carb bedtime snack may increase the metabolic rate the next morning.
Effect of Healthy Snacks on Blood Sugar Levels
Most noteworthy, it’s not necessary to eat frequently to maintain stable blood sugar levels. In fact, a 2014 study reported that eating only two large meals a day resulted in better insulin sensitivity, lower fasting blood sugar levels, and greater weight loss than eating six times a day.
Meanwhile, other studies found no difference in blood sugar levels when the same amount of food was eaten as meals or as meals plus snacks.
In fact, low-carb, high-fiber snacks have the best effect on insulin and blood sugar levels than high-carb snacks in people without diabetes. Also, snacks with high protein content may improve management of blood sugar.
Finally, a study showed that consuming a high-protein, low-carb dairy snack led to lower blood sugar levels before the next meal compared to a high-carb dairy snack.
Benefits of Healthy Snacks for Adults
Because healthy snacks are high in fiber and/or proteins they are more filling. Consequently, you may feel satiated faster and eat less healthy snacks or regular meals. Most of all, healthy snacks also provide you with valuable vitamins.
Also snacks with high energy helps you burn more calories, which is helpful if you are going to work out. On the other hand, snacks with better metabolism helps you quickly digest the snacks that you ate.
Features of Healthy Snacks for Adults
Above all, if you want to lose weight eat snacks that are low in salt, low in sugar, low in saturated fats, and low in simple carbohydrates. Also, snacks made from non-processed foods are better than snacks made of processed foods.
Moreover, snacks need to be low in calories but high in volume or density so that they take up more space in your stomach. Consequently, you feel satiated from your full stomach. Therefore, snacking between meals helps you manage your weight.
Next, healthy snacks for adults should be low in added fat, low in sugar, high in fiber, and high in water. For example, it’s healthier to eat an apple than munch on chips. In addition, eat whole-grain snacks such as whole-grain bread, vegetables, fruits or drinks made from fruits, and low-fat dairy.
Next, healthy snacks for adults have a combination of proteins and carbohydrates that keeps adults the fullest for the longest period of time. Finally, choosing healthy snacks high in protein and fiber are best to reduce hunger and keep you full for several hours.
Portion Sizes
Incidentally, when you eat healthy snacks for adults, look at portion size on the label and stick to that portion size. In fact, instead of eating straight out of the container, always portion out what you need. Furthermore, portion size should be enough to satisfy your hunger but not so much that you overeat and put on weight.
As an example, only eat the nuts in small portions. Because, eating straight out of the container, will make you most likely eat too many nuts and hence eat too many calories.
Healthy Snacks for Adults under 200 Calories
Incidentally, it’s best to eat snacks with about 200 calories and at least 10 grams of proteins to stay full till the next meal. Furthermore, if you are very active you may need to eat 2 to 3 snacks a day while if you sedentary, you may need at most one snack.
A sampling of snacks under 200 calories, that you can try, follows.Half a Slice of an Apple with One Tablespoon of Natural Peanut Butter
First of all, this snack has 157 calories along with protein and fiber. Also, half an apple has 63 calories while one tablespoon of natural peanut butter has 94 calories along with 8 grams of fat. And, if you desire, you can use seed butter instead of natural peanut butter.
Ten Carrot Sticks with Two Tablespoons of Dip
Two tablespoons of creamy veggie dip is about 132 calories, while the inclusion of ten carrots add up to less than 200 calories.
Two 100 Calorie Bags of Popcorn
Two 100 calories bags of air-popped popcorn is a good source of fiber. And the air-popped popcorn takes up a lot of volume in your stomach, which makes you feel full.
10 Baked Tortilla Chips with ½ a Cup of Salsa
Ten baked tortilla chips has about 120 calories while half a cup of salsa is about 42 calories. Meanwhile, avoid salsa with a lot of sodium. Or, you can make your own healthy salsa using a masticating juicer.
½ a Whole-wheat Pita and ¼ Cup Hummus Snack
½ a whole-wheat pita has about 85 calories while ¼ cup hummus has about 93 calories. Whole-wheat pita provides the fiber while hummus provides the proteins.
Medium Sized Apple Together with a String Cheese Stick
A stick of low-fat string cheese is between 60 to 80 calories while a medium sized apple has about 126 calories. The string cheese provides calcium and protein so the blood sugar won’t rise too fast from the apple.
Half an English muffin and Two Tablespoons of Cream Cheese
½ an English muffin has 64 calories while 2 tablespoons of cream cheese has 99 calories.
¼ Cup of Almonds, Walnuts, Cashews, or Pistachios
Unsalted, raw or dry-roasted almonds, walnuts, cashews, and pistachios are all protein and fiber rich with monounsaturated fats. But because the nuts are high in calories eat only small portions. For example, almonds have 132 calories per ¼ cup, walnuts have 131 calories, cashews have 39 calories, and pistachios have 173 calories.
Protein Bar
Get protein bars with very little added sugar, low calories, large amount of proteins, large amounts of fiber, and made with natural ingredients.
½ Cup of Frozen Yogurt Snack
Should have less than 150 calories per serving. Frozen yogurt has low-fat while supplying protein and calcium.
½ Cup of Cottage Cheese with Mandarin Oranges
Good source of protein and calcium with natural sweetness of the fruit. ½ cup of low fat cottage cheese has about 97 calories and one cup of mandarin oranges has about 72 calories.
½ Cup of Sorbet or Sherbet
Sherbet is about 140 calories while sorbet can range from 80 to 200 calories.
Two Large Hard-boiled Eggs
2 large eggs provides 12 grams of proteins and 155 calories. Moreover the 12 grams of proteins will make you feel full for a while.
Turkey & Cheese Roll-up Snack
Roll one ounce of turkey and one ounce of cheese for 140 calories. Lean meats like turkey are a good source of protein, while cheese is a source of calcium. You can choose a low fat cheese such as, for example, Swiss cheese. For lower sodium use baked turkey breast meat instead of the sliced deli meat.
English Muffin Pizza
First, toast English muffin, top off muffin with cheese and melt it in a microwave. One ounce of low-fat mozzarella has nearly 72 calories, one slice of tomato has about 5 calories, and ½ an English muffin has about 64 calories.
8 Ounces of Fat-free Chocolate Milk
Most of all, the 8 ounces of fat-free chocolate milk has 135 calories plus the milk provides protein and calcium.
Cereal with Nonfat Milk Snack
First and foremost, a cup of skim milk and a cup of cheerios has about 183 calories. Moreover, choose cereal with more fiber than sugar.
6 Ounces of Nonfat Plain Greek Yogurt with Strawberries
First of all, a cup of strawberries provides vitamins and antioxidants along with 46 calories. Greek yogurt provides calcium, and 18 grams of proteins in a cup, while, a 6 ounce serving of Greek yogurt is just 100 calories. Also, it’s important to eat only nonfat plain Greek yogurt because other types of Greek yogurts carry excess sugar along with other unhealthy ingredients that don’t help you lose weight. And, for something different, you can add reduced sugar strawberry jam to the yogurt. Or you can even substitute other fruits like bananas, blueberries, blackberries.
Thin Sandwich with Turkey
Sandwich thins are about 100 calories and one 3 ounce serving of turkey is another 60 calories with 12 grams of proteins.
Fruit Smoothie
Meanwhile, try a fruit smoothie using a cup of frozen blueberries with about 83 calories, ¾ cup of nonfat milk with about 83 calories, and ½ cup of Greek yogurt with about 50 calories.
More Healthy Snacks for Adults
Celery with Cream Cheese
Simply spread one tablespoon of reduced-fat cream cheese on the stalks of celery. And, add a few raisins for some sweetness.
Cottage Cheese Snack
Most of all, cottage cheese has lots of proteins and calcium, making it a healthy snack. And for variety, you can pair the cottage cheese with fruits or vegetables.
Fruits and Vegetables
First of all, because they are full of vitamins and low in calories, fruits and vegetables are excellent healthy snacks for adults. Also, some whole-wheat crackers and cheeses are other good examples of healthy snacks for adults. Indeed, whole-wheat crackers with peanut butter gives you plenty of proteins and fiber.
Still more examples include apples, bananas, raisins, dried fruit puree without added sugar, carrots, snap peas, nuts, whole-grain dry cereal, pretzels, low-fat or non-fat yogurt, toasted whole-wheat English muffins, cherry or grape tomatoes, and pumpkin seeds in shell.
Lime Avocado
Cut a complete avocado with skin in half, remove the seed and sprinkle lime juice and black pepper on the avocado.
Chocolate Chip Yogurt Snack
Add 1 tablespoon of semisweet chocolate chips to a six ounce nonfat plain Greek yogurt.
Hummus
With its protein and fiber, hummus makes you feel full quickly. Or you can combine hummus with vegetables, such as carrots, for a greater punch.
Roasted Chick Peas
Because of their low sugar content, high fiber and protein content, roasted chick peas make for a healthy snack.
Edamame
Edamame is a legume with protein, fiber, potassium, iron, and magnesium. Consequently, eating edamame makes you feel full while your body gets lots of good nutrients.
Air Popcorn with Cinnamon
Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon on air-popped popcorn.
Snacks to Avoid
First and foremost, always avoid processed, high-sugar snacks because you will feel hungrier an hour or two later. In fact, definitely avoid snacks that list sugar as one of the first few ingredients. Next, avoid snacks and drinks with added sugar. Indeed, fresh fruit is better than a fruit flavored drink. Finally, foods and drinks that list corn syrup as one of the ingredients should also be avoided.
How to Handle Unhealthy Snacks
Above all, snacks such as candies, cookies, chips, and ice cream have to be avoided at all costs. Consequently, the best thing you can do is not to even have these in the house.
The second thing you can do is storing these tempting snacks so that they are hard to see and also out of your reach. For instance, store the chips, candies, and cookies in the back of the highest shelf while storing the ice cream in the back of the freezer.
And, instead of putting out a bowl filled with tempting candies, put out a bowl filled with fruits. Lastly, if you must snack when you are watching TV, just leave a portion of the snacks out for munching.