Healthy Snacks for adults?

I guess you need to define "healthy" first. You can start by eliminating obvious "junk" foods, as in cola, sweets etc which are just a bunch of (potentially harmful) chemicals (flavouring, colouring artifcial sweeteners) put together to imitate fruits and fruit juices without any of the beneficial nutrients. Then you have to work out in what way YOU are UN-HEALHTY, ie are you overweight, low in iron, low in calcium, etc etc. The healthy foods for YOU will depend on your own needs. If you are overweight, you need less calories so you probably want to avoid foods high in sugars and refined starches and replace with more filling foods that are lower. if you have digestive upsets, you might need to avoid wholegrains and acidic foods like citrus which could be deemed "healthy" by another person, you get my point? The main goal should be making every bite count, so everything you eat should have some sort of benefit attached to it. Ideally to get a range of nutrients you need to "eat a rainbow", ie as much natural colour variation in your daily foods as possible. So a healthy snack would be a colourful salad or a fruit salad. But you might find a salad on its own unsatisfying, so a small filled rolled might fill you better, you'd get the nutrition of the salad instead of just a few slices of bread. If you make popcorn without using oil, sugar or salt (ie just corn) then its a much lower calorie nibble. You can chop up carrot sticks as something crunchy instead of crisps. If you're lazy (like me) then buy the little bags of baby carrots so you don't have to pre-prepare. Often its the convenience of junk food that is appealing so prepring things in advance when you are not already hungry can help with this. As far as something nice with your tea. Perhaps you could bake yourself some banana cake, without any sugar/honey or other sweetener and add to it some blueberries. I bake this for my toddler adding peaches/finely chopped figs etc. Its not diet food but a small slice with a cup of tea would be much more nutrient rich and lower in sugar than most other similar options, certainly better than a chocolate bar or crisps. You can also bake small savoury cheese muffins which you can add grated zucchini, chopped fresh herbs, spinach, capsicum etc. A pottle of natural (un-sweetened) yoghurt is another good choice.

yuk so should I stop buying Honey Nut Cheerios and Golden Grahams for the kid's breakkie?

From http://www.coolquiz.com/trivia/explain/docs/honey.asp: [i'>Honey is a sweet, thick sugary solution made by bees. The composition of honey consists of varying proportions of fructose, glucose, water, oil and special enzymes produced by bees. The first step in making honey begins when field bees fly from flower to flower collecting the sweet juices or nectar that a flower provides. With their [b'>tongues[/b'>, the field bees [b'>suck out[/b'> the nectar and store it in sacs within their bodies. After filling their sacs with these sweet juices, the field bees fly back to their bee hive and [b'>regurgitate [/b'>the stored nectar into the [b'>mouths[/b'> of house bees. These house bees are assigned the job of adding [b'>enzymes from their bodies[/b'> to the nectar. The enzymes cause the water in the nectar to evaporate-thereby turning the nectar into honey. Lastly, the nectar is stored in a cell of a honeycomb. Overtime, the nectar ripens and becomes honey.[/i'> Sounds tasty and healthy doesn't it? :\:

I'm a reformed chocoholic. After a summer in Canada binging on all my favorite chocolate and other junk food, I traded my bad habits for healthier habits. For breakfast, I love the 'jordan's' line of granola, or I will have eggs Benedict which is filling. If I'm craving something sweet later, I eat 'Love life' brand of dried mangos, or Appetiser grape juice ( i drink 2 bottles a day, also high in antioxidants). I find appetiser juice great at suppressing my appetite in the afternoon. Other snacks i would recommend is popcorn, and edamame (steamed soybeans with cracked sea salt), or salmon basted with honey and cooked. I add it to a salad with roasted pine nuts. I do add a little ranch dressing mixed with honey. Yum! some nice suggestions there, but isnt popcorn unhealthy? More to the point - Eggs benedict is in no way healthy, neither are dried mango slices, or appeltiser,,,,, and neither is honey........ honey's unhealthy? LOL Honey is pure sugar - it's healthier than say white sugar but it's still pure sugar.... I thought it was natures nectar and gave you energy and made you better when you were ill like that Malacca honey!?

I'm a reformed chocoholic. After a summer in Canada binging on all my favorite chocolate and other junk food, I traded my bad habits for healthier habits. For breakfast, I love the 'jordan's' line of granola, or I will have eggs Benedict which is filling. If I'm craving something sweet later, I eat 'Love life' brand of dried mangos, or Appetiser grape juice ( i drink 2 bottles a day, also high in antioxidants). I find appetiser juice great at suppressing my appetite in the afternoon. Other snacks i would recommend is popcorn, and edamame (steamed soybeans with cracked sea salt), or salmon basted with honey and cooked. I add it to a salad with roasted pine nuts. I do add a little ranch dressing mixed with honey. Yum! some nice suggestions there, but isnt popcorn unhealthy? More to the point - Eggs benedict is in no way healthy, neither are dried mango slices, or appeltiser,,,,, and neither is honey........ honey's unhealthy? LOL Honey is pure sugar - it's healthier than say white sugar but it's still pure sugar....

I'm a reformed chocoholic. After a summer in Canada binging on all my favorite chocolate and other junk food, I traded my bad habits for healthier habits. For breakfast, I love the 'jordan's' line of granola, or I will have eggs Benedict which is filling. If I'm craving something sweet later, I eat 'Love life' brand of dried mangos, or Appetiser grape juice ( i drink 2 bottles a day, also high in antioxidants). I find appetiser juice great at suppressing my appetite in the afternoon. Other snacks i would recommend is popcorn, and edamame (steamed soybeans with cracked sea salt), or salmon basted with honey and cooked. I add it to a salad with roasted pine nuts. I do add a little ranch dressing mixed with honey. Yum! some nice suggestions there, but isnt popcorn unhealthy? More to the point - Eggs benedict is in no way healthy, neither are dried mango slices, or appeltiser,,,,, and neither is honey........ honey's unhealthy? LOL

I'm a reformed chocoholic. After a summer in Canada binging on all my favorite chocolate and other junk food, I traded my bad habits for healthier habits. For breakfast, I love the 'jordan's' line of granola, or I will have eggs Benedict which is filling. If I'm craving something sweet later, I eat 'Love life' brand of dried mangos, or Appetiser grape juice ( i drink 2 bottles a day, also high in antioxidants). I find appetiser juice great at suppressing my appetite in the afternoon. Other snacks i would recommend is popcorn, and edamame (steamed soybeans with cracked sea salt), or salmon basted with honey and cooked. I add it to a salad with roasted pine nuts. I do add a little ranch dressing mixed with honey. Yum! some nice suggestions there, but isnt popcorn unhealthy? More to the point - Eggs benedict is in no way healthy, neither are dried mango slices, or appeltiser,,,,, and neither is honey........

I'm a reformed chocoholic. After a summer in Canada binging on all my favorite chocolate and other junk food, I traded my bad habits for healthier habits. For breakfast, I love the 'jordan's' line of granola, or I will have eggs Benedict which is filling. If I'm craving something sweet later, I eat 'Love life' brand of dried mangos, or Appetiser grape juice ( i drink 2 bottles a day, also high in antioxidants). I find appetiser juice great at suppressing my appetite in the afternoon. Other snacks i would recommend is popcorn, and edamame (steamed soybeans with cracked sea salt), or salmon basted with honey and cooked. I add it to a salad with roasted pine nuts. I do add a little ranch dressing mixed with honey. Yum! some nice suggestions there, but isnt popcorn unhealthy?

I'm a reformed chocoholic. After a summer in Canada binging on all my favorite chocolate and other junk food, I traded my bad habits for healthier habits. For breakfast, I love the 'jordan's' line of granola, or I will have eggs Benedict which is filling. If I'm craving something sweet later, I eat 'Love life' brand of dried mangos, or Appetiser grape juice ( i drink 2 bottles a day, also high in antioxidants). I find appetiser juice great at suppressing my appetite in the afternoon. Other snacks i would recommend is popcorn, and edamame (steamed soybeans with cracked sea salt), or salmon basted with honey and cooked. I add it to a salad with roasted pine nuts. I do add a little ranch dressing mixed with honey. Yum!

what about those dry meaty snacks that South African people like!?

How about lightly salted nuts? Dates are good if you like sweet things.

I just made some granola for the first time last night. No sugar but sweetened with a little maple syrup. DH and I are sitting in front of the telly right now munching away. It's so easy and so delicious: http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/easy-granola-recipe-00000000031329/index.html

Lots of idea on this thread: http://www.expatwoman.com/forum/messages.aspx?TopicID=139648 HTH :)