I often have food cravings at the end of the day and I have to get through my long commute home before I eat dinner. I usually end up buying some baked chips out of the vending machine along with a diet soda. Sometimes have some leftover grapes to snack on. Are these healthy choices to satisfy my commuter cravings?
In order to combat cravings, we have to understand what’s causing them. Are you stressed? Thirsty? Do you eat out of habit? Do you eat what is easily accessible? Unbalanced, carbohydrate-heavy meals could be leading to uneven blood sugars, which lead to cravings. To amp up our commuter snack, we want to include a good source of hydration and some carbohydrates that are balanced with protein or fat. Plan ahead and get your snack ready the night before, avoiding that last minute dash to the vending machine.
You may feel like you are making a better choice by choosing baked chips and diet soda, but these products aren’t too much better than their fried or sugar-laden counterparts. Baked potato chips may have slightly less fat but they have more sodium than fried chips, and a regular intake of diet sodas could lead to sugar cravings and weight gain.
Baked chips combine carbohydrate and fat, which is good, but let’s swap it for a fat source that also contains protein and less sodium — almonds and almond butter.
Keep the fresh produce, but swap the grapes for celery sticks for fewer carbohydrates. Load them up with some protein and health fats. Add 1 tbsp of nut butter, topped with 1 tbsp raisins and 3 tbsp whole almonds to make nut butter boats. And switch the diet soda for a flavoured green tea. The tea’s catechins may help control cravings and will provide hydrate without the artificial sweetness that diet soda brings.
Nutritional values
Your current snack (one small bag of baked chips and 3/4 cup grapes) contains 280 calories, 9 g fat, 400 mg sodium (17 per cent of required daily value), 52 g carbohydrate, 2 g fibre, 20 g sugar and 2 g protein.
Your new nut butter boat snacks with green tea contain 240 calories, 18 g fat, 35 mg sodium (2 per cent daily value), 17 g carbohydrate, 4 g fibre, 7 g sugar and 7 g protein. - [source: thestar.com]
