Five Fresh Snacks

Our Mothers used to tell us not to snack between meals because it would "ruin" our appetites. Yet we know now that it's healthier to eat smaller meals five or six times a day. This means we now have the green light to snack! However it's important to realize that portion size is important in order to reap the benefits. Beginners to a healthier lifestyle can sabotage themselves by thinking they can eat more because it's healthy. While that's true to a certain extent, i.e. vegetables, it's not a good rule to follow. With a little planning and preparation you can always have a few healthy, well portioned and interesting snacks at hand.

A sweet and refreshing summery treat is frozen fruit. Buy some grapes and your favorite variety of melon. Wash and dry the grapes and cut the melon into small bite-sized chunks. Freeze snack portions in snack sized sandwich bags. The frozen fruit is not only a cool relief in summer's heat but it will slow you down so that you end up consuming less.

Salsa and chips are a popular snack but usually high in fat, sugar, and carbohydrates. Quite a few salsas use high fructose corn syrup or some type of sugar. A good quality fresh salsa sans sugar will also help you to include a serving of vegetables to your day. Generally a 16 ounce container of salsa has around 150 calories. You can divide it into 4 storage containers or mentally divide it as you eat. Most tortilla chips are high in fat but there are varieties of baked chips on the market. When you return from the store, pre-portion the chips into sandwich baggies according to the servings on the nutrition label. You can re-use these bags when you purchase your next bag of chips.

Thomas' brand of English Muffins now makes a light muffin that is whole grain and only 100 calories. Split, toast, and spread with a wedge of your favorite Light Laughing Cow cheese. These little wedges are creamy and delicious and only 35 calories apiece. Then top with a few leaves of spinach or arugula and a couple of tomato slices. For less than 150 calories you have a tasty snack that includes complex carbohydrates, veggies, and light dairy.