Ideal Snacks

I get this one a lot – “What can I have for a snack?” And I always give the same response – “eat another meal.” I am not a fan of snacks or snacking! One, because it usually turns into a meal for me where I’ll eat 4 protein bars and 1/2 a kilo of cashews.. And two because it is a waste of stomach space! A well rounded nutrition plan shouldn’t have you craving for snacks, if it does it may mean your daily calories need to be raised accordingly (eat slightly bigger portions). Here’s a list of snacks most people consider healthy that will slow down fat loss:

• Rice cakes – super high GI refined carbohydrate that will drive blood sugar up almost as fast as regular table sugar. Definitely not ideal if fat loss is your goal!
• Fruit – packed with nutrients and minerals however also loaded with fructose, again driving blood sugar up quite rapidly in some cases. Before you get all crazy about the health benefits of fruit, find me a vegetable that doesn’t contain all the nutrients and minerals fruit has plus more minus the sugar.

If you must eat a small amount of food between meals here are my suggested ones plus some measures to ensure it doesn’t turn into a meal:

• Nuts (almonds, cashews, brazil nuts, macadamia, walnuts) and nut butters (not peanut: its not a nut, its a legume therefore contains a considerable amount of carbs!) – only a handful of any of the above or a table spoon of the butters. Exercise some control with these – its very easy to have a handful then 5 mins later be tipping the scraps from the bag into your mouth.
• Vegetables – eating vegetables alone doesn’t sound that appealing to me but if you are so inclined then go ahead. I don’t apply restrictions for vegetables in terms of quantity.
• BCAA (Branch chain amino acid) – 15g should tie you over for a few hrs.
• And the best solution for me… Eat another meal! Snackers usually only eat 3 times per day, not enough in my opinion. 4 should be your baseline!