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Snacks that aren't just sugar or crazy salty
Welp, I'm mildly allergic to nuts... and I'm trying to give up as much sugar as possible. What the hell do people snack on that is outside of this? I don't want to wind up making a ramp of carrot or anything
Alright, almost everyone is suggesting fresh and/or dried fruits, but hear me out... Pickles. The sour kind, of course, not the salty kind. You get a lot of variety (it's not just cucumbers), they're not actively unhealthy for you (in moderation, obviously), and have some nutritional value.
Hummus, guacamole, split peas spread (google: Greek fava) either by itself or on a carbohydrate of your choice
Mushroom chips, zucchini chips, eggplant chips, fries from fresh potatoes (not pre-fried and then frozen), all of these you can make at home in a convection oven or airfryer
Is there a celebrity who has a brand of pickles we can buy? I always prefer to know that a celebrity stands behind my fruits.
Yes, Mark Wahlberg
Have you tried nut- oh dang it.
If you want something that's sweet but not sugary, fruit is the king. No matter what you prefer, fresh is almost always the better choice. There's nothing better than a nice crisp apple in my opinion, especially one that's a bit tart. If you want something even more sweet, try dried fruit. Raisins are the cheapest and most readily available, but if you want the rolls royce of druied fruit, go find yourself some dates. Medjool is the sweetest variety, but I actually find they're a bit too sweet, so for snacking I'd go with Deglet Noor. I would recommend them with peanut butter stuffed in them, but that doesn't sound like it's for you!
If you want something sweetened but less sugar, then have you heard of our lord and savior dark chocolate? The darker the chocolate, the less sugar is in it.... though ironcally, that means there's more fat in it so it actually has more calories. Do beware, however, of "fake" dark chocolate. Ikea's dark chocolate bars, for instance, are adultrated with milk powder, and if the bar doesn't prominantly advertise the percentage of cacao in it, it's almost certainly ~50% or more sugar. You can actually get a rough aproximation of how much cacao is in a bar by looking in the nutrition facts, finding the amount of added sugar, and dividing that number by the serving size in grams. I say "rough" because those bars are usually adulterated with additional ingredients, so YMMV.
If you want to venture out of sweets, carrots aren't bad for snacking, you know. Add some hummus to dip it in and you can practically make it a whole meal. And yes, I say "practically" because I've done that a number of times.
Eh, fruit is also a lot of sugar. Generally find if you just eat a few pieces of fruit per day. But if you start snacking on a lot of fruit it really isn't good for you from that perspective.
It entirely depends on the fruit. Grapes will have a lot of sugar, but strawberries have surprisingly low levels of sugar. Blueberries even less so. Bonus points for a lot of fruit having good levels of fibers mitigating the effects of carbs*.
I've done a little stint of keto back in the day, and the challenge was lunch, not fruit.
*oversimplified
As far as my understanding goes, this has more to do with blood sugar levels not spiking and all that jazz. There is still a lot of energy contained in many fruits (although I am sure it varies) and it is easy to still consume way to many calories from that perspective.
This seems less relevant since OP says they are currently on a healthy weight. But I have seen people trying to lose weight being entirely confused gaining because they effectively switched to an all fruit diet but in the process also increased their daily calorie intake.
But you are right that if you are consuming fruit it is best to do so wholesale because of the fibers. Fruit juice lacks most fibers (even if it contains some pulp still) and effectively is as bad as soft drinks like cola. Smoothies are a little less bad, but in general eating the fruit whole will get you most health benefits.
This is… kind of true? It is true that most of the calories in fruit are typically in the form of simple carbohydrates, and that these calories are very accessible in the context of a hunter-gatherer diet. But in the context of a modern, agricultural diet, it's much less true. For example, an apple contains roughly 100 calories. If you're targeting 2000 calories for a day (which you probably shouldn't, that number is 100% arbitrary and quite high for an average American), you would need to eat twenty apples. This big ol' bag contains 13 apples. Do you think you could eat a bag and a half of apples in a day? One apple every 45 minutes? I think I could, but I really like fruit and I wouldn't enjoy it much. That's an extraordinary amount of bulk to consume.
In contrast, a big mac (apparently a standardized unit of unhealthy food…?) has 540 calories. I think most healthy adults could eat four big macs in a day. (I would struggle because I find fast food hamburgers gross, not because it's a lot or difficult to eat.) And those calories are more accessible than those in an apple; a bunch of them are coming from protein or fat rather than carbs, but there's virtually zero fiber for the gut to work around.
Now, if you're already getting most of your calories from calorie-dense meals and apples really are a snack, then yeah, you could pack a fair few calories in that way and go over your target. If you want to satisfy the urge to snack without consuming a lot of calories, you can certainly get less from eating more. (A stalk of celery has six calories, for instance.) But if you're replacing fried or sweetened packaged snacks with fruit, you would be very hard pressed not to improve things.
Thanks for the addition and correction. I could have sworn fruits have more calories in them but looking into it most of them don't. Bananas have slightly more compared to most fruits but also are very dense in fibers and the calorie count isn't that much higher.
As soon as you juice them you get much higher caloric density, so home-pressed apple juice is probably pretty bad (maybe not quite as bad as the equal volume of cola? I’m not willing to make a claim one way or the other, but still pretty bad) so maybe you got tripped up the same way I did?
“Apple juice is as bad as soft drink” and therefore my brain equates “fruit is as bad as the worst junk food” as a mental shortcut
Yes that's about right. I think it's undervalued too. Our carb intake has skyrocketed in the past decades, with diabetes following suit. Our general insulin response seems to be out of whack and becomes progressively weaker over time due to the amount of carbohydrates we consume. Fiber tends to smoothen out that response.
I'm not a nutritionist, but this is what I remember from my own research and conversations with (actual) nutritionist friends, though I'll admit I could very well be wrong since this was something I played around with a couple of years ago.
That is part of it, but it's also true that fruit and berries have a lot less carbs than we're inclined to believe. A bowl of strawberries doesn't come anywhere near an equivalent size bowl of rice. Most people believe it's the other way around (as did I until I saw a documentary where a nutritionist explained it).
Fruit is also a lot of fiber. The fiber makes you feel full and prevents you from overeating. It’s very difficult for the average person to over-consume fruit.
The fiber thing that you and @CptBluebear might be alluding to is how it affects the insulin response. That helps reduce inflammation which can cause immune and cardiovascular disorders over time.
While yes, fruit can contain a lot of sugar, it’s not the kind of sugar OP was asking about. Sugar in vernacular is refined sugar like from sugar cane or sugar beet. I don’t know what their diet is like but it’s incredibly unlikely that eating more fruit instead of added-sugar snacks would be bad advice.
Also I don’t know where juice came from. I never recommended juice. The only thing juice is good for in my mind is making wine. 😸
You didn't mention juice :) I added it because some people still think Juice is healthy.
I wouldn't worry too much about it. You'll get full before you'll overconsume most likely.
That being said, dried fruit is another thing. You can easily over-eat dried fruit - that's practically candy. Candy with fiber, but candy nonetheless.
see, this is the conundrum for me. its either super salty things, sugary things, fruits, veg... I am new to snacking and have never been into potato chips or whatever the fuck people snack on, but I was doing this bar mix like it was going out of style, which lead to me discovering that peanuts want me to die slowly :)
I thought about getting into the cacao nibs, but I just want to move away from chocolate and stuff completely, even though the darker stuff isn't bad.
so far carrots and shit is winning, I guess. Overall, I am absolutely underwhelmed by this category of foods. I've been doing clusters of granola... I'm just not impressed. haha
I'm not concerned about fat or anything. I'm middle-aged and at my high school weight (6'4" 175lbs)
I really need to narrow down the nut allergy. I know its hazelnuts and peanuts for sure, but if the others are fine, I am saved. Everything good in life is a nut.
edit: i just realized that i eat a lot of bananas.
This sounds like more than just a shift in what you're eating. If you're new to snacking it probably doesn't come naturally to you. I was the same way, wondering what it was people could possibly be eating between meals and how they decided how much.
I had to shift to eating 5-6 meals a day to manage my blood sugar. Doing this forced me to reevaluate what I considered a meal or snack to be. What I consider a snack now is basically a mini meal, a tapa. I do have to eat a starchy carb every time I eat, you won't have that restriction.
Because I eat so often I'm not going to make a big production every time I eat. I try to roast a lot of veggies once a week. Then I reheat small servings with some olive oil drizzled toast, rice, or some other random grain like barley. Usually I break a soft boiled egg over the top, those are easy to make in batches. I eat a lot of soup, both homemade and the good canned ones. I can't always finish a whole can, it's easy to reheat the rest later and mix in veggies or some cooked grain if there isn't enough.
In the summer I eat a lot of cheese and crackers with fruit. I also make sandwiches with one piece of bread or an English muffin.
If I'm in a hurry, I'll eat a bowl of cereal. I don't actually do this very often, I'm not a fan of cereal.
snacking is super weird, right? I'm still adjusting, I guess.
So, I've been doing small sandwiches like you quite a bit. Lots of one or two egg french omelettes, too; like an open-faced Hong Kong-style egg sandwiches.
I'm going to get into cheese and crackers. That's a great idea! I am very disappointed in the options.
I feel like this is sorta almost similar but maybe not, but a few years ago my partner went to a nutritionist (or whatever the proper protected medical job is — my partner made sure it was the legit one) and the advice was to make sure to have morning tea and afternoon tea and not just skip from breakfast to lunch to dinner.
The advice was fresh fruit or muesli bars (high protein) or yoghurt for snack between main meals. I’ve also picked up the yoghurt habit, particularly going for the high protein ones, and it really helps me feel fuller between meals even though it’s only like small 150g-200g tubs. Maybe that could go into your snack-based repertoire?
yeah, this is kind of what I'm doing. I went most of my life only doing a light breakfast at best and then dinner. I was going through a season of especially bad headaches and some rando on reddit had a post about snacking / eating more, so I did that and its improved everything dramatically.
yogurt is the best. I haven't dipped into cheese or crackers yet.... just more and more yogurt in my own probiotic + protein-heavy prison that I love.
Okay well all I’m going to say is that aged cheeses like sharp cheddar activate the same parts of your brain that cocaine would, albeit less intensely, and I’ll let you decide what you want to do with that information.
Best of luck with your soon-to-be cheese addiction!
haha. its such a struggle. I can't do a lot of dairy anyway, but this terrible neurologist I saw said that cheese before bed was good because casein is processed slower and easier by the body... so I started having a little cheese before bed. I've always been a good sleeper anyway, but sleeping with a little cheese in my system has me dead to the world.
It was a throwaway comment on their part, but its part of my routine now.
That’s fascinating, I’ve always been a deep sleeper but my partner is a very light sleeper, so maybe I’ll pass this on and see if it makes a difference?
if it works, you can thank this hack doctor. I was a light sleeper as a kid before I got into sleep hypnosis. its really easy to do, but not too far off from normal meditation.
Why are you starting it? The human body isn't supposed to be ingesting food all the time. After you've fed yourself and the body has digested all the nutrients, it goes into the fasted state, during which important things happen: removing damaged proteins and other unnecessary gunk, cellular repair and growing new neurons. You have lower inflammation levels in the fasted state, which contributes to overall health.
Unless you get hungry often (being hungry is not good for our health), there's no reason to pick up a snacking habit. If the reason is that you get hungry, I'd recommend eating more fat during your main meal times, especially given that:
You could just add full fat foods to your diet, reduce the level of fast carbs (which are the main reason you get hungry quickly) and you won't need to have snacks. (This has worked for me for 5 years.)
Seeds and lentils are a good source of veggie protein that also helps keep the hunger away. I like to put a thick layer of tahini (sesame seed paste) on a slice of high-fibre bread (carbs, but not fast ones). You can then put other toppings on that if you like. Also, the more dark green veggies you eat with every meal, the more of the carbs you eat will make it to the large intestine where they'll be consumed by your gut bacteria (which is good for you!). When glucose doesn't enter your bloodstream, that helps keep unnecessary hunger away. Personally I like baby spinach or teen spinach. It's recommended to eat as much dark green vegetables as you can to augment your potassium intake.
Obligatory disclaimer: Different people's bodies work differently and if anyone reading this must eat frequently for some reason, I'm not contesting that. I'm just saying it isn't something everyone should be striving to do without question.
Here are a few other ideas for savoury snacks:
I was going to say roasted chickpeas or kale chips. Edemame is also a great shout. Basically beans are good outside of actual meals too.
Popcorn can be good. air popped or pan popped.
I would go to an allergist, specifically to find out whether all kinds of nuts are bad for you.
If you're willing to give up the traditional popcorn flavor you can get away with little to no salt without a bland result. Because popcorn is rather bland on its own you can open your spice cabinet and throw in virtually any combination of ground spices that sound good together in general. If it would taste good on pasta or potatoes it's probably good on popcorn too, although you do need to pay attention to how well the spices work raw. My wife has done this a fair bit and while things like curry powder on popcorn sound a little odd they're still quite good.
Chipotle Cinnamon seasoning would be my personal recommendation. I keep it around because I like it on cubed butternut squash, but it's a good one for popcorn also.
Pan popped popcorn is surprisingly quick and easy, and you can add all different flavourings to it. Salt, pepper and MSG works very well!
I’m currently dieting and find popcorn useful as a mindless snack food. It makes me feel like I’m snacking substantially but it’s mostly air.
I like raw, unsalted pumpkin seeds, though they can require a lot of chewing. Some of the more lightly swwetened cereals like kix might also suit. Or even plain cheerios?
Shelled pumpkin seeds are great! They're pretty cheap, and sometimes even cheaper if you look for "pepitas" in the US.
Funny you should mention those two things, because I like to top a bowl of Cheerios (or other bland cereals) with pumpkin seeds (the hull-less pepitas like @Minori mentioned). Provides a good bit of protein and nutrients as well as extra flavor and texture.
Haven't seen it mentioned yet, but roasted beans! I usually do chickpeas, but you can use basically any bean, black beans and shelled edamame also worked well. Use a lot of spices/herbs and you don't need much salt. Roast them at a slightly lower heat, and you can turn them into nice dry crunchy snacks! They don't stay crispy the longest without proper storage unfortunately though.
We keep a mix of cumin, onion/garlic powder, rosemary, oregano, paprika, and ancho chili powder specifically for this. Take a can or two of beans, drain them, oil them, toss them in the spice mix and a little Parm, and then roast at 400 for like 25-30 minutes.
Some people like them with still a soft inside, but I like to keep going until it's fully dry and is crunchy like popcorn. They make a great snack that's also pretty healthy!
I was gonna say crunchy chickpeas could be a good switch since nuts are no-go. There's lots of options in terms of how to prepare them so you can decide how much sugar or salt is in there. I do mine with olive oil, garlic, and a little salt. meanwhile my dad makes his super spicy
The only potential difficulty is that chickpeas are a legume, so someone with a peanut allergy may have a mild reaction to chickpeas.
That's good to know! I hadn't considered that
Fruit is my go-to snack right now.
If you want crunchy snacks, roasted edamame/soybeans are a good option. I'd also recommend any kind of toasted/puffed rice snacks you can find at an Asian grocer or the international section of some supermarkets (look for "senbei" or "arare" rice crackers). As another option, corn nuts are great, but they may be a bit salty depending on the brand (Trader Joe's has some that I like).
corn nuts are so good! I ended up getting some triscuits; not great but tasty... and harnessing the power of electricity.
I'm also going to get some small nori sheets and some other things. asians have snacking locked down. good call.
I have a peanut allergy, so I share your pain!
Couple more ideas: some granola bar type things are nut-free and might suit your tastes. Another old favourite for me are sunflower seeds; especially since peeled seeds are so easy to find nowadays.
peeled seeds?! that's bloody fancy --- love it.
This nut thing sucks. Now that I'm avoiding them, all I want to do eat peanut butter. There's a lot of nut-free stuff on the market and granola bars are a great idea. I've been doing lots of granola anyway. I think I should just make a proper batch of it. I wish I liked popcorn.
side note: why the hell is granola so expensive?! madness.
Fortunately, granola is cheap to make at home! There are a million variations you can experiment with if you have time.
Personally, I hate peanut butter, but sunflower seed butter is fairly similar. Another option for savory dishes is tahini which is made from sesame seeds. If you try making tahini at home with roasted sesame seeds, my family all agree it tastes almost exactly like peanut butter! Here's a reference recipe in case you wanna try toasting and grinding sesame seeds yourself.
I love gomaae! I should make this this week. I never really considered making seed butters outside of the basics.
thanks for this! I might hit you up down the road for more.
Sure, feel free! Once you start thinking of all the alternative go-to's you won't miss nuts at all. :)
i’m allergic or whatever to red and yellow food coloring (i am a pioneer, of sorts) — when i first started avoiding that stuff, it felt like everything had dye. now i barely have to check for it.
thanks again! i appreciate it
Cottage cheese with all the fat is good stuff. Filling and tasty, no too moreish
I know you wanted to avoid the veggie ramp, but veggies and hummus are a great snack option. Hummus is pretty easy to make yourself if you don't have a storebought brand near you that you like, and I'll often get more vegetables out just to serve as hummus delivery vehicles, which very much helps with my vegetable intake.
I should get into hummus again. My ex-in-laws always had it around and it was great. I make it ultra smooth using bicarb to remove the skins etc etc. super classy :)
I'm not sure how much sugar you're trying to avoid, but I like to snack on fruit. Oranges are my particular preference when they're in season. I also grow a lot of berries (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, and gooseberries) that I like to go outside and snack on each day when they're in fruit.
I also have some small bowls (I think they are called rice bowls) for preparing mini meals. They're good for pouring myself a tiny bowl of cereal, warming up some leftovers, making some quick chia pudding, etc.
A snack that I sometimes make: take carrots, celery root and parsnip root. Cut them into long sticks. Mix them with a generous amount of oil and cornstarch and bake them until crispy. Toss with the spices of choice, and it’s done.
I've tried something like this a couple times, but my family has never been satisfied with the parsnips specifically. How do you usually spice and roast them?
I bake all of those vegetables at the same time in an air fryer. As for spices, I usually keep it simple; salt, pepper, onion & garlic powder. The cornstarch helps give the sticks a better, crispy texture.
How thinly do you slice them? I wonder if my issue is from cutting them into uneven matchsticks.
Hm, kind of hard to describe in words. About this thick: https://40aprons.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/air-fryer-french-fries-9.jpg
It’s important that all of the sticks have a similar thickness so they all cook evenly.
I like snacking on dry cereal sometimes..
Not sure if that's a controversial take haha but you have many options, while many are sweet, you can consider more base/plain cereals like rice/corn chex or corn flakes or cheerios.
Often times they're enriched with various vitamins so it's not a terrible choice!
Do these snacks have to be store bought or are you willing to make/bake/cook/airfry your own?
Do a quick YouTube search on tofu related snacks. With a little bit of seasoning, you can make yourself a few different salty (savory) snacks from tofu. Here is one of my more frequently used recipes for tofu as a snack.. The only difference I make is I air fry them instead of frying them in oil. Then for my sauce, I'll just get some hummus, guac, tzatziki, or whatever other dipping sauce you like.
Also, check out these zucchini chips. I also air fry these, get some dipping sauce, and I could eat multiple zucchinis in one sitting.
I’m going to have to try both of those recipes, thank you!!
You can get a cheap popcorn maker for about $20 USD.
I am the owner of a 1500W Poppery... but I don't like popcorn. When I make it, though, I do it in a wok with ghee :)
+1 for cheese, popcorn and Padrón peppers. Also, everyone here's being so healthy and responsible, but if calories aren't a problem you can make all kinds of unsweetened baked goods (like breadsticks for instance) that you can flavor using herbs. I also like dark, bitter chocolate.
Jelly is surprisingly low calory per unit of volume.
Those dry overpriced chips made with peas or shrimp flavor or whatever are usually quite tasty but they're really bad for my intestines.
If you're not counting carbs as sugar, rice crackers are a crunchy and only mildly salty or sweet treat. This is the one I've gotten from Costco a few times.
My local supermarket also stocks wasabi peas and these baked vegetable (or legume?) snacks which I find to be even more addicting than regular chips.
These probably aren't the most calorie-light options but they're satisfying to me and if a snack isn't satisfying then I'm just gonna end up looking for something else to snack on.
This granola right here!!! Just sub out the pecans for more pumpkin seeds. It is delicious and very easy to make.
My mouth is watering reading that recipe, I love granola!
wicked! thanks for this. That looks great.
...i keep a loaf of multi-whole-grain sourdough (complex carbohydrates, plenty of fiber), a bag of fresh bell peppers (quick sugar boost, high vitamin C), and big pitcher of freshly-brewed unsweet tea (gentle caffeine pick-me-up) on-hand: if i'm feeling snacky, i'll cycle between a couple slices of toast or a bell pepper while nursing large glasses of iced tea throughout the day...
...they feel like a reasonably wholesome staple ensemble; low-calorie, no added sugars, salts, oils, nor preservatives, and i'll often work through the full day before realising that i should eat a proper meal...
I'll suggest something a little different - premium jerky. Not the stuff you can find in a gas station or a supermarket. Buy stuff online from people that make small batches. There a lot of different flavors and kinds of jerky and jerky adjacent snacks. Try biltong - you might like it!
heck yes! jerky and biltong is an excellent idea! good call. My butcher always has jerky kicking around, but I rarely buy it. That's a good one, though. thanks!
I'll snack on Greek yogurt sometimes. I like the unflavored, full fat kind and drizzle a little honey on top. It's mildly engaging in that I like to get the right proportion of honey to yogurt for each spoonful if you're into that sort of thing. I've also put cereal or granola in too.
this is one of my favorite things. I've been rolling with it for a few years for breakfast. Perfection in a bowl. :)
My gotos when I'm in a healthy mood are greek yoghurt with things in it, or stovetop popcorn. Yoghurt needs no introduction, just put it in a bowl and throw stuff in it; I like granola and a spoonful of honey, sometimes berries, whatever's in season normally, the possibilities are endless. Popcorn is shockingly low in calories when done on the stovetop with just a bit of olive oil. Really cheap and quite easy to do. Once you embrace the fact that you are gonna burn it to shit the first time you try to make it and that's fine, it becomes a really quick and easy snack to whip up, at the cost of having to clean a dish (which to be honest is sometimes a dealbreaker in the snack business, we've all been at that point of laziness).
I'll throw in a wildcard too: Rice with stuff on it. I normally have rice in the fridge and I'll often just microwave some in a bowl, mix in a teaspoon of soy sauce (but you could honestly omit it if you're watching your sodium intake), and whatever seasonings you like. I strongly recommend sesame seeds, togarashi. and/or furikake, all things that are basically non-perishable and widely available in any asian grocery store; I throw all three in. I'll normally stick a fried egg on top or mix in any leftover meat I have too, or I'll just chop up a scallion.
A lot of for suggestions in here. Raw foods (fruits, veg, seeds, etc) are some in the best options if you want to have something slightly filling. Another thing I'd suggest though is you're favorite candy, but in extreme moderation. Measure out the caloric amount you're willing to reserve for treats and keep to that strict budget. It allows you to enjoy the things you like while also staying inside your goals.
I wish I could have just a little of the candy -- but once I dip in, I'm cooked for a few days. The other day I had two or three chocolate bars purely so they'd be gone and I'd stop thinking about them. I absolutely do not have an addictive personality and can drop important things with ease, but there's a set of chocolate bars that I just love and there isn't really any harm in having them... but I just don't want to anymore.
This got me thinking about raisins again, though. I love those and kind of forgot about them.