Better Snacking In 2012

You're a month into your resolutions to eat better in 2012. How about healthy snacking? The calories from snacks add up quickly and unfortunately, the nutrition that should come with the calories may be missing.

In the big health picture, snacks can be a positive part of our health and still add to our sociability and enjoyment. Here are some resolutions that might work for you:

• Think of snacks as mini meals, a part of your total day rather than an add-on to whatever else you are eating!
• Aim for a beverage that complements your snack with limited calories. Water always works but so does milk (lower fat of course), or coffee or tea (plain or with low calorie sweeteners). Diet sodas have a role but may compete with the flavor of the snack.
• Plan for higher calorie beverages to be the snack. This is where smoothies, those luscious coffee or tea drinks and even that glass of wine, beer or 100% juice fit into your lifestyle. It's ok to add some munchies but kept them light and low calorie.
• Read labels of the usual snack foods to choose ones that offer more than calories. Look for fiber and less sodium and fat (the not-so-good nutrients). The choices are there but you have to buy them first.
• Try unsalted nuts for a change and keep the portion reasonable. Nuts and nut butters (including soy and sunflower seeds) add protein to the snack and staying power to low fat crackers. Better yet, enjoy nut butters with celery sticks or apples for fiber, crunch and great eating.
• Look ahead and plan accordingly so that snacks are timed to fit your appetite and energy needs but not just fill time. Too often snacking becomes the habit when we enter the car, sit on the sofa (in front of the TV) or are just plain bored. That is not a reason to snack. Especially when it is close to another mealtime!
• Remove the snacking temptations from view. It's ok to have the chocolate, cookies, nuts, trail mix, chips and other temptations in the house but keep them in a place where you have to deliberately find them. It's too easy to reach into an open dish or cookie jar!
• Know and observe the reasonable portion rule? That means recognize the amount you can calorically afford to enjoy. Few foods are free!
• Keep the fridge and pantry full of choices with a healthy profile. Yogurt, pretzels (low salt or whole grain), lower fat popcorn, wholegrain crackers and chips, fruit, low fat cheese, and of course raw veggies ready to enjoy like carrot and celery sticks, bell pepper strips, artichoke hearts, radishes - the clue is "ready-to-eat!"

Get more nutrition advice - from Nutrition and You by Judy Dodd, MS, RD, LDN, Giant Eagle® Corporate Nutritionist.