Healthy, Quick and Easy Snack Ideas for Busy Practitioners
By Sandy Sher of www.live2bewell.com.au
Your daily food intake should not be about counting calories, going on a diet or losing weight. It’s simply about getting the best nutrition for your body. What you eat everyday is an essential part of being healthy.
Food can either be a powerful tool to achieving optimal wellbeing or a fast-tack to bad health. There are a plethora of benefits to maintaining good nutrition including weight loss, increased energy, vitality and reducing cholesterol level and high blood pressure.
Just like with main meals, when snacking, you need to consider all macronutrient food groups including carbohydrates, protein and fat.
Poor diet and nutritional intake throughout the day has been proven to negatively affect work performance, energy levels and stress tolerance. With the high demands of working in a busy practice, combined with long hours, it is pertinent that your food provides the right nutrition to help you get the best out of your working day. The key ingredients to consuming healthy snacks is being prepared and having the right ingredients at hand.
Below, we have put together five quick and healthy snack ideas to help you nourish your body.
1) Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Juices
These juices are jam-packed with vitamins and minerals that you may miss in your main meals. Fruit and veggies in their raw form provide the biggest nutrient boost, as they can lose some of their goodness when cooked. You can sip on a delicious blend throughout the day to keep your body nourished and energised. Freshly juiced and organic options are always best. Here are some healthy and delicious combinations to try:
- Beetroot, carrot, apple and ginger
- Spinach, parsley, celery, apple and lemon
2) Smoothies
Smoothies are a good way to get your calcium supplement for the day. Try using strawberries, which are high in antioxidants and Vitamin C. Making your smoothies with organic and biodynamic dairy products is highly recommended. If you can’t tolerate dairy, a great alternative to try is young green coconut milk and flesh, which is also high in electrolytes, helps improve digestion and boost immunity. Again you can sip this throughout your working day to ensure you are constantly keeping your blood sugar levels even and energy levels constant.
Try blending:
- Milk, yogurt, honey, strawberries and/or blueberries and ice
- Coconut milk and flesh, raw egg, dates banana, strawberry and ice
3) Cottage/Ricotta cheese with veggie sticks and avocado
Cottage and Ricotta cheeses are another great source of dairy and calcium. You can choose the lower fat options and they taste great with avocado and vegetables like carrot, cucumber and celery sticks. Keep a tub of each in the fridge at work and then just cut up enough vegetables for a couple of days to take to work and snack on throughout the day.
4) Boiled egg and fruit pieces
Boiled eggs are a great snack to have during the day with some fruit. They are super easy to prepare, have their own inbuilt packaging (the shell) and last quite a few days. You can boil up a 3-4 eggs at a time and take a couple into work each day to have between meals with some fruit. As they have both protein and fat, you will find they are quite satiating and you will feel fuller for longer. Adding a piece of fruit will ensure you are including a carbohydrate component to the snack.
5) Raw choc balls
If you have a bit of a sweet tooth, having a healthy treat like raw choc balls is a good way to help with your cravings. You can make them yourself, freeze them and take them to work when you are want a treat. The ingredients usually include dates, cocoa powder, water, coconut oil and desiccated coconut. Coconut oil can help with weight loss, stress relief, improved immunity and digestion. Raw cocoa has also been shown to be high in anti -oxidants and helps boost immunity.
The key to healthy snacking is to have variety of ingredients to choose from and to keep it interesting. Choosing unprocessed and natural produce over chemically laden products is always the best option for your body. Invest in a little time to think about some healthy options and your body with thank you for it.