Nutritious Snacks - Healthy Snacks For Someone Trying To Lose Weight

I am forever seeing the question “What are some healthy snacks for someone trying to lose weight?”.  I have even been asked this question time after time and always answer with the same thing time after time.  Unfortunately many seem to be disappointed with the answer but I think this is more due to lack of understanding than not wanting to eat what I suggest.

The answer I give is very simple but is often overlooked because people see this food as insufficient  or not filling.  So what is it I suggest?

FRUIT!

We have had it drilled into us that it is important to have our 5-a-day.  We have had it drilled into us that a fruit snack is something like 1 banana or 1 apple.  This is exactly why people do not wish to turn to fruit for snacking purposes.  It doesn’t fill us up, it doesn’t provide nutritional satisfaction or emotional comfort.

Fruit is, along with greens, packed full of essentially all the nutrients our body needs, but it is not calorie-dense, so in order to be fulfilled nutritionally we need to be eating much more than 1 banana or 1 apple.  Fruit is also not heavy like other foods such as grains and meat, or packed full of addictive substances, so we do not get the emotional fulfilment many of us want from food from fruit.  We may not even realize that we want emotional comfort from food.  I didn’t realize how much I used food as an aid to emotional issues until I started becoming aware of my eating habits.  I still now find it sometimes difficult, but I find comfort in my husband, distraction or exercise.

So how much fruit should we be eating?  A lot!  If you find yourself hungry, eat 5-6 apples or 5-6 bananas or even more than this (or less) depending on how you feel.  Listen to your body and stop eating when you are satisfied.  If you incorporate fruits (as well as greens) into your diet more and more, your cravings for unhealthy snacks will decrease and you will feel much better physically and emotionally.

If you are out on the run, and lugging 5 plus bits of fruit about seems a bit big annoyance, take some dates out or maybe some sun-dried fruits.  Make sure though that if you take dried fruits out with you, you have plenty of water.  Whereas if you have 5 apples, they will help keep you hydrated, you need to replace the water missing from dried fruits with drinking water.

The more fruit you eat the more you will learn to love it and the more you will miss it when you don’t have it.  Fruit is very good for you - it will satisfy that sweet tooth for you much better than a chocolate bar or candy will and won’t leave you moody or tired.