Are you hungry between meals and end up eating anything? Do you go out and do not know when you will return home and in the end you end up eating a processed snack? Have you just trained and you only see the option to buy a chocolate bar? In this article, with the collaboration of Rosario Luque, author of the book ‘Martina’s healthy recipes’, we answer these questions with low-calorie snack options, all of them made with 100% natural and unprocessed ingredients.
These snacks will help you stay satiated and have a balanced diet that you can adapt to your nutritional needs and, moreover… they won’t take you more than five minutes to prepare! Snacking between meals without gaining weight is possible, let’s see it!
Very simple and healthy snacks to snack between meals
Starting with the simplest combinations, you can create your own snacks by mixing these elements, which you can find anywhere if you have forgotten to prepare them in advance or even if you are traveling:
- Fruit: better if it is in season as it will have more flavor and better properties. Fruits will provide us with naturally present sugars and fiber. In addition, they provide few calories since they are mainly composed of water.
- Natural or toasted nuts and seeds: they are a source of minerals (iron, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc and potassium, among others); vitamins (from group B, such as thiamine, niacin and folic acid, as well as vitamins E, C, D and K, among others); and healthy fats such as Omega 3 and Omega 6. If you mix them with fruit you will enhance their benefits by helping the absorption of minerals.
- Chocolate: try to choose one with a percentage greater than 70% cocoa for its properties. Chocolate will help you relieve stress and has antioxidant effects.
- Dairy, kefir or fresh cheese and also vegetable-derived products such as soy or coconut yogurt or vegetable drinks: full-fat dairy will provide fat-soluble vitamins and satiety by being high in protein and healthy fats. Kefir, being a fermented drink, will improve your intestinal microbiota. Be careful when choosing commercial versions as some tend to contain added sugars or fats, such as cream. Whatever the option chosen, always check that they are products without added sugar, with few ingredients and without sweeteners.
In this way you can obtain combinations of healthy snacks such as:
Greek yogurt with raspberries and almonds.
- Kefir with kiwi and cashews.
- Fresh cheese with strawberries and pumpkin seeds.
- Chocolate 85% with a banana and a curd.
- Banana with peanut butter.
- Apple with cinnamon and goat yogurt.
- Pistachios with orange and strawberries.
More elaborate healthy snack ideas
In addition to the simple snacks that we have seen in the previous point, we propose other slightly more elaborate but equally simple options. You can leave these snacks prepared at any time to consume when you most want.
Chia seed pudding with red berries
To make this delicious snack you will only need to hydrate two tablespoons of chia seeds in almond vegetable drink (about 120 ml). We will let it rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour, then we will add red fruits. You can use them frozen or fresh.
Yogurt with oats and fruit
Using reused canning jars you can take yogurt anywhere with the topping you want, for example, a couple of tablespoons of rolled oats with a banana.
Detox smoothie with spinach and pear
For those days when you need to fill up on vitamins, you can make a smoothie with a handful of fresh spinach, a pear and a banana. We will add 150 ml of almond vegetable drink, a piece of ginger and a pinch of cinnamon, and grind until we obtain the desired texture.
Oatmeal smoothie with fruit
When we want something more satiating, this shake would be a perfect post-workout snack. You will need four tablespoons of oat flakes, 120 ml of semi-skimmed milk and a banana. With it you will obtain proteins and carbohydrates with a low glycemic index, such as oats, and with a moderate glycemic index, such as those contained in bananas, making a perfect combination to fill you up in a healthy way.
This is just a hint of the number of low-calorie snacks that we can choose in our day to day and that will make us feel satisfied. In this way, you will maintain a healthy diet and help you control those cravings without feeling guilty. Are you in for a snack between meals in a healthy way?