Healthy snacks are often mentioned in connection with physical and mental health. In principle, the trend continues towards the "right" diet and a healthy life. In the best case, you can not only do something for your body with a few healthy snacks, but also get rid of a few unwanted pounds.
This article is intended to show you what healthy snacks actually are, what the differences are and how they can help you lose weight. We will also show you approaches that you should take to heart if you want to lose weight.
the essentials in brief
- A snack is a meal eaten between main meals such as breakfast, lunch and dinner. Snacks should not exceed the size of a meal between meals.
- Raw vegetables are a healthy alternative to chips, chocolate and the like. Eating them raw preserves many valuable plant substances that are healthy for your body.
- Healthy snacks can help you lose weight. Just make sure you're in a calorie deficit. Basically, you should pay attention to the quantities.
Definition: What are healthy snacks?
Healthy snacks are usually foods that do not contain industrial sugar and do not contain too much fructose. In addition, they are often rich in healthy oils and protein.
What is a snack?
First, let's clarify what is a snack. In general, it can be said that snacks are meals that are eaten between the main meals.
The main meals are breakfast, lunch and dinner. They serve to satisfy the small hunger in between and should not exceed the size of a meal for on the go. (1)
What's the healthiest snack?
There is no one healthy snack. However, you can avoid sugar and fats. In general, snacks such as vegetable sticks with herbal quark, nuts and seeds, and plain yoghurt with fruit are healthy.
But you should also be careful here, fruits, for example, are healthy but in most cases also contain a lot of fructose. You should avoid it if you want to lose weight. (2)
Bananas are often referred to as a healthy snack alternative. They are perfect as a snack between breakfast and lunch. In addition, they have a lot of carbohydrates and electrolytes, so they are also great for sports.
Another alternative is legumes, they have many important ingredients. They include lentils, peas, beans and peanuts. This is followed by vegetables, fruits and whole grains.(3)
What Are Healthy Raw Food Snacks?
Raw food or raw food is becoming more and more popular. Raw food is a form of veganism. If you want to eat healthier, this is definitely an option.
When you eat more raw foods, your eating habits become healthier. Many plants contain secondary plant substances that are important for our immune system and can protect against cancer. (4)
In addition, raw food snacks help you lose weight because they have hardly any calories.
These plant substances would otherwise be destroyed during cooking. The easiest way to get the valuable ingredients is to eat raw food. A simple raw food variant is the salad, which you can refine with avocado or nuts.(5)
Another option are vegetable sticks such as peppers, cucumbers or zucchini that you can eat with a dip.
How healthy is raw food for the gut?
In principle, raw foods are healthy but not necessarily easy for the gastrointestinal tract to digest. The stomach and intestines first have to get used to the uncooked food.
In order not to overtax your body, you can spice up your raw food with some bread and spread. (Image source: Bernadette Wurzinger / Pixabay)
The high-fiber and raw diet causes significantly more work in our digestive tract. Normally, when you heat your food, the cell structures of the food are broken down, making the nutrients more readily available.
By cooking our food, we help our digestive tract. If we only eat raw food, the gastrointestinal tract can be overwhelmed. That's why you should refrain from eating only raw food. (6)
What are easily digestible healthy snacks?
Easily digestible snacks include foods that don't put too much work on the digestive tract. These are useful if you already have stomach problems and your digestive tract is attacked.
However, keep in mind that while these snacks are easy to digest, not all are equally healthy.
Tomatoes, fennel, carrots and zucchini are suitable as easily digestible snacks. You can prepare these as vegetable sticks. In addition, rusks and toast are easy to digest and are therefore suitable for in between meals. (7)
With dairy products, you should make sure that the cheese has a fat content of less than 30% and the fat content of yoghurt and milk is less than 1.5%.
Background: What you should know about healthy snacks
Below we have summarized the most important questions and aspects you should know about healthy snacks. With this background knowledge, it will be even easier for you to understand what healthy snacks are and what influence they have on your body.
What role do healthy snacks play in losing weight?
There are healthy snacks that have been scientifically proven to help you lose weight. This includes pistachios, for example. In theory, pistachios are 50% fat and have about 600kcl per 100g.
According to a study by ULCA in Los Angeles, pistachios reduced cholesterol and triglyceride levels in test subjects. In addition, they have a high content of B vitamins and minerals. (8th)
If you want to lose weight, however, you should replace another snack with the pistachios and not take them with you.
Which hormone controls hunger?
Hunger is released by the hormone neuropeptide Y agouti related peptide (AGRP) and melanin concentrating hormone (MCH) as well as cannabis-like hormones (endocannaboids).
Hunger and satiety are mediated by the hypothalamus in the brain. Two centers work in it. The hunger and satiety center. These centers release hormones into the blood. (9)
These hormones then ensure that food intake or eating stop is initiated in the body. How hard these centers work depends on signals sent out by the body.
This includes, for example, the blood sugar level. When the blood sugar level falls, the body sends out a feeling of hunger and when the blood sugar level rises, the feeling of satiety occurs. (10)
How many calories do you have to burn to lose weight?
First of all, you should be aware that losing weight does not necessarily mean that you will also lose fat. In most cases, the first thing you lose is water and in some cases muscle mass. (11)
From the nutrient table you can see that 1 gram of fat has a nutritional value of 9.3 kilocalories (kcal). So to burn 1 kilogram of body fat you would have to burn 9,000 kcal.
The body is unable to burn all of these calories and so only a portion is absorbed into the body. The digestive loss is about 2,000 kcal. Accordingly, you would have to save around 7,000 kcal to burn one kilogram of fat. (12)
Why shouldn't you eat carbohydrates in the evening?
As you have already read above, the blood sugar level rises as a result of eating. This means that the insulin level is driven up and thus sugar gets into the cells.
The breakdown of fat is hindered by the sugar in the cells. Normally, for most people, the only time they don't get energy from eating is at night.
Because of this, the night is particularly good for burning fat. During this time, the body can attack the fat reserves. If you now eat carbohydrates in the evening, this hinders the breakdown of fat. (13)
What should you eat every day?
To give you an overview, we have put together a list of 10 foods. In the best case, you should change your diet so that you eat these foods regularly.
| Groceries | particularities |
|---|---|
| linseed | Fiber, one tablespoon has 2.3g of fiber |
| beans | absorb cholesterol, best source of antioxidants |
| blueberries | antioxidant supplier |
| yogurt | Calcium supplier, source of probiotics |
| oatmeal | reduce cholesterol and blood pressure, provide beta-glucan |
| broccoli | high sulfur content |
| eggs | high-quality proteins, long-lasting feeling of satiety, good for the eyes |
| spinach | Source of vitamins A, C and K as well as fiber, iron, calcium, potassium, magnesium and vitamin E |
| mixed nuts | unsaturated fatty acids |
| oranges | Vitamin C supplier, rich in fiber and folate |
(14)
One of the foods you should eat every day is definitely flaxseed. They provide a lot of dietary fiber. You can sprinkle them over salads, fish, or other dishes.
Beans are also one of the foods you should eat regularly. The soluble fiber in beans absorbs cholesterol, allowing the body to eliminate it.
This prevents them from sticking to the arterial walls. They are among the best sources of antioxidants. You can eat them raw, mix them into salads, or mix them into a chilli.
If you want to eat healthy fruit that provides you with lots of antioxidants, you should eat blueberries. You can mix them with plain yoghurt or add them to a fruit salad.
You can consume yogurt to cover most of your calcium needs. In addition, it serves as a source of probiotics. These protect your stomach from bacteria, infection, and disease.
You can eat your yogurt with blueberries and oatmeal together. This not only tastes delicious but also provides you with everything you need. (Image Source: Aline Poce / Pixabay)
Oatmeal reduces cholesterol and blood pressure. They provide enough beta-glucan to reduce cholesterol levels by around 5% and the risk of heart attack by 10%.
The broccoli has a high sulfur content so the body increases the production of enzymes. In this way, carcinogenic components can be excreted from the body.
If you eat eggs regularly, they provide you with high-quality proteins. They are also good for the eyes. In addition, they keep you full for a long time, so they discourage you from unhealthy alternatives.
Spinach brings many benefits. It is a source of vitamins A, C, K and E, as well as fiber, iron, calcium, potassium and magnesium. You can eat it raw or cooked.
Nut mixtures are good as a healthy snack in between meals. They contain a lot of healthy unsaturated fatty acids. Walnuts and almonds are the best choices here.
Another healthy fruit is oranges. They provide you with 100% of the recommended daily requirement of vitamin C. It is also rich in fiber and folates.
Which snacks have the fewest calories?
Here we have put together snacks for you that have no more than 100 kcal. You should of course keep in mind that it's always the crowd that counts. That means just because the snack is low in calories doesn't necessarily mean you can keep eating.
| Groceries | calories |
|---|---|
| licorice | 30g have 80kcal |
| carrot | only 25kcal per 100g |
| Crispbread with cottage cheese and tomato | only 25kcal per 100g |
(15)
An example of this is liquorice. These have a lot of sugar but no fat. The licorice root from which it is extracted can even have an anti-inflammatory effect on our body. A quantity of 30 grams has about 80 kcal.
Another snack, for example, are raw food sticks. They are low in sugar and fat and can be eaten with quark or hummus, for example. The carrot contains only 25kcal per 100g.
As a somewhat filling snack, we have selected the crispbread with cottage cheese and tomato. The bread can also be topped with vegetables such as radishes or cucumbers. A whole grain crispbread with 30g cottage cheese and a tomato contains about 76kcal.
Healthy Snacks: 4 Effective Approaches to Weight Loss
In the following we will explain 4 aspects that will help you to achieve your desired weight. These factors are your diet, your drinking habits, your sleeping times and the stress you are exposed to every day.
- change nourishment
- Drink
- Sleep
- stress reduction
change nourishment
If you want to change your diet, you should make sure that you drink enough water. foods such as vegetables, fruits; You can eat herbs, sprouts, nuts, legumes and the like without hesitation.
However, you should try to avoid highly processed foods, white flour, sugar, and fried foods. Try to eat a balanced diet anyway. (16)
Drink
If you want to lose weight, you should drink lots of water. With a glass of water before eating, your stomach will be a little full and you will eat less food.
So you end up consuming fewer calories. Calorie intake can decrease by 13% if you drink a glass of water before eating. In addition, your metabolism increases if you drink water beforehand. (17)
Sleep
Sleep can support you in your desire to lose weight. It has not yet been scientifically proven that you lose weight while you sleep, but it has been proven in a study.
Participants who slept more or less were studied, and in those who slept more, 50% of the pounds lost were fat. An adult should get about 7-8 hours of sleep at night. (18)
stress reduction
Basically, you should avoid stress if you want to lose weight. In most cases, stress is associated with negative feelings. To compensate for this, most people eat more and, above all, unhealthy food.
Stress can cause fat to be stored. Stress hormones put a strain on the body and promote metabolic disorders. Instead, learn to relax. This can help you lose weight. (19)
Conclusion
In summary, healthy snacks provide you with the minerals, vitamins, and plant compounds that might be lost through normal eating habits. Healthy snacks are a good alternative to chips, chocolate and gummy bears.
In addition to the health aspect, they also have the positive side effect that they can help you lose weight. However, you should be careful not to only eat raw food. These can cause problems in the digestive tract.
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