3 Tips to Healthier Snacking – Apple to Zucchini
By Kirrily Tutt and Sally Anderson
Scouring the supermarket for quality products can sometimes be a full-time job. Our clients are constantly asking for new options for quality snack foods that are convenient, yet healthy. We put our detective dietitians to work to find some of the most nutritious food options to look out for, and to help take the hard work out of shopping for you.
Snacks
Savoury Snacks
Snacks are a great way to increase the nutrient variety in your diet, and they also help with balancing energy and concentration levels throughout the day. Savoury options are often loaded with salt and poor-quality oils. See our go-to list of savoury snacks to help making snack time healthier.
Sweet Snacks
Sweet snacks don’t need to mimic that of dessert. We look for wholefood snacks which are minimally processed & either none, or small amounts of added sugar. Convenient snacks can make a part of a balanced diet, so long as you choose well. Here are some of our favourites.
Yoghurt
Natural yoghurt is the ideal choice as you can have the ability to add some sweetness with the addition of fresh or frozen fruit. When looking for a plain yoghurt, ensure you are comparing the fat content per 100g. Full fat varieties are approximately 4% fat (4g per 100g). When looking for a light variety, this is anything under 2% fat (2g per 100g), with the high protein strained yoghurts around the 0.5% fat (0.5g per 100g). Higher protein will help you feeling full for longer, and assist in repairing exercised muscle. They offer a great avenue to increase your protein intake, an excellent post-training recovery food. Yoghurt is considered a functional food as it can provide a little boost for our gut bacteria in supplying probiotics with the addition of live cultures.
3 EASY LABEL READING TIPS
- Read the ingredient list first! One really easy tip we always discuss with our clients when doing label reading education, is to ignore the nutrition numbers panel. Often, we can get too bogged down with numbers and forget to look at what is actually in the product. The ingredient list should be short, with recognizable ingredients of things you might have in the pantry.
- Look out for the type of oil that is listed. Olive oil is best, the next best is canola or a vegetable oil that has been listed as to which type in brackets after it. e.g. Vegetable oil (sunflower). Where they have not stated which type, and it simply reads ‘vegetable oil’, it is most likely palm oil, and this is not a good type of fat for our health.
- If you are to look at the numbers, ensure to compare products per 100g, not per serve size, as these will often differ.
Sally Anderson, Andrew Hall and Steph Cronin are dietitians from Apple to Zucchini that consult here at QSMC. If you would like to book in with them, please contact our reception team to find out more information. You can contact us by calling 07 3891 2000 or email reception@qsmc.net.au
