Six easy ways to put full stop on mindless snacking

If you think snacking is a mindless job and it has nothing to do with health benefits, then think again. Snacking consciously can be a perfect way of incorporating important, often missed out nutrients in our daily diet. For this, it is essential to pick your snack items smartly. 

Here are few tips which you can follow and ace the art of healthy snacking:

* Ensure that you choose to eat only those snacks that are made from right ingredients. This in fact is an accurate way of ensuring that the nutrients we need are added to our diet. A few of my favourite ingredients include kaala chana, nuts and seeds, olive oil and whole grains.

* Kala chana, a nutrition powerhouse, delivers a lot of fibre that helps regulate our blood sugar and is also loaded with nutrients that help save us from seasonal disorders by boosting our immunity. The easiest way to get a stockpile of multiple vitamins and minerals, even difficult to find trace minerals is to eat snacks that have nuts and seeds added liberally to them. Besides they also deliver high levels of essential fatty acids (EFAs), wholesome fibre, and much needed good quality protein (with all essential amino acids). My personal favourites are almonds, walnuts, flaxseeds and sesame seeds.

* Pick up snacks made in olive oil, as this is the smartest way to ensure omega 3 and to correct the good versus bad fat imbalance in our diet. It is the best way to keep our digestion humming along, keep constipation and cravings away. A snack made with whole grains (ragi, wheat, oats, jowar, amaranth, bajra) is the best way to add nutrition to our diet and stay full for longer too.

* Look out for promises and phrases like Fat-Free, Low in Calories, High in Protein. Don't take them on face value. All it takes is flipping the pack to the back and reading all ingredients, their proportions, style of making to understand the health and calorie quotient of the snack you are picking up.

* It is always better to opt for truly baked, healthy and wholesome snacks as they will actually be good for you. In fact, one of the best ways to lower fat consumption is to switch from deep fried snacks to baked snacks as they will help you keep both the calories and fat consumption down easily.

* Don't think of snacks as extras. Instead, consciously work healthy bites into your diet, and make some smart snacks a part of your food plan for the day. This way they will work for you constructively. Finally, always focus on eating snacks that deliver something extra (yes more than just satisfaction and calories). That way you add value to your daily diet via the snacks that you eat and score some health too along the way.

(With IANS inputs)

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