Portion Controlled Snacks
No doubt you have seen the commercials for the 100 calories snack packages, featuring oreo’s, Chip Ohoy, wheat thins and more. Lately, more and more food companies are coming out with portion controlled treats. Its a good idea because American’s are fatter than ever. There is an obesity epidemic and a large part of the reason is because our portion sizes just keep getting bigger and bigger. Limiting our snack calories can really help. Just be sure to eat just one package, because 6 packages still equals 600 calories! You can also make your own low calorie snacks and focus on nutrition and food that you like. Try 1/2 an apple and 2 teaspoons of peanut butter or even eat the whole apple with just a thin spread of about 1 teaspoon of peanut butter. 1/4 cup of fat free ranch dressing and some mixed veggies is always good especially since you really don’t need to count the vegies but watch that you don’t eat too much dressing. Nuts are a great and healthy snack but much too easy to overindulge in if you are not careful, so count them, 10 almonds is about 100 calories, so is 10 cashew nuts. The best thing is to start looking at labels and get a good calorie counter book. One of the best ones out there is “The complete book of food counts” by Corinne Netzer. It has the calories, carbohydrates, protien, cholesterol, sodium, fat and fiber counts for more foods than you can even imagine. Just look up different foods that you love, you can add it up and soon you will have an awareness of how many calories this is or that is. Just don’t become too obsessive! You can and should still enjoy food just not too much of it!
