Snack Naked 101: Deliciously Improve Your Health & the Health of the Planet
One of the most common questions my clients, community, friends and family ask me is: WHAT SNACKS DO YOU RECOMMEND?
It’s not only those around me who are obsessed with snacking. We live in a snack obsessed culture with only 4% of Americans never snacking. With 96% of us snacking away, it’s no wonder why snacking is a HOT topic.
We’re eating multiple snacks a day and some even combine snacks and call it a meal. The most common snacking behavior among Americans is to eat three meals a day with a few snacks in between to satisfy hunger between meals or as a treat. About 86% of Americans regularly purchase salty snacks and 64% regularly purchase dessert. (Are you in the sweet or salty category?)
Considering these habits, it shouldn’t surprise you that we’re spending A LOT OF MONEY on snacks. In 2017, total sales of salty snacks in the United States hit $27 billion U.S. dollars! And, because of our incessant snacking habits, the snack industry has a huge impact on our lives, our health, and the health of the planet.
Bars and packaged snacks, like pretzels, cauliflower puffs, chips, crackers, etc., are oh-so-tempting. Food manufacturers intentionally make them that way! They spend billions of dollars inventing addictive snacks and then spend even more money marketing those snacks to us so we think they’re healthy and necessary. They’re effectively convincing us that convenience is king and anything less than 100% convenient is….well, too inconvenient for us to entertain.
I challenge this and you should too!
The inconvenient truth about the state of our planet and our health forces us to think about the cost of these “convenient” snack products.
Let’s talk about packaging for a moment. In America, containers and packaging contribute over 23% of the material reaching landfills in the U.S. Though not all of those containers and packaging come from food packaging, it’s still a HUGE figure. Packaging makes up most of the litter found on our beaches and in our water. It’s unsightly and it harms fish, birds, and wildlife who ingest it.
And, most snacks are packaged in single-use plastic, which is made of 1000s of chemicals. These chemicals leach into the foods we eat and, while most of these chemicals haven’t even been tested for safety, of those that have, many have been found to be hazardous to our health. If we were snacking every once in a while, it’d be less concerning. But, check out those stats above. It’s common for us to be relying on plastic wrapped snacks multiple times a day!
Now, let’s talk about our health. The healthiest foods for us are ALWAYS going to be the ones that are unpackaged and unprocessed and in as close to their natural state as possible. These are REAL FOODS. The more real, whole foods we eat, the better we feel. Yes, it’s really that simple.
When I first started talking about snacking with my clients, I urged them to read the ingredients in their so-called “healthy” snacks. Many times, they were shocked at how many ingredients they couldn’t pronounce (like fillers, additives, dyes) and how much added sugar was present. No wonder they felt sluggish and bloated after eating them!
So, how do we snack in a way that’s healthy for ourselves and the planet? We SNACK NAKED.
“Snack Naked” is a phrase I came up with to encourage my clients and community to approach snacking differently. Snacks can support our health and the health of the planet when they are “naked” aka when they are filled with real, whole foods without any plastic packaging. Because the packaged snacks I approve of from a nutrition standpoint are all made with real, whole food ingredients anyway, why not cut out the middle man and go right for real ingredients themselves?
It’s incredibly convenient that the most nourishing snacks are simple and package free...and actually, they’re JUST AS CONVENIENT IN TERMS OF PURCHASING AND PREPARING.
Here’s how to Snack Naked (it’s easier than you think):
enjoy a fresh piece of fruit or a veggie (purchased loose aka naked)!
Simple foods are the real superfoods.
THink apples, pears, bananas, oranges, peaches, Nectarines, clemEntines, plums, berries (some farmer’s markets have them loose), Carrots (not baby carrots :)), peppers, celery, cucumbers.
Fill up on real, whole foods from the bulk section:
nuts, seeds, dried fruit, and whole grains. Enjoy the nuts, seeds and dried fruits on their own or…
(Here’s my guide on how to buy in bulk).
Make a DIY trail mix, energy balls or bars, crudité veggies (Carrots, celery, peppers, cucumbers) with dressing/hummus/guacamole, or a fruit parfait with fresh fruit, nut butter (from a glass jar) and hemp seeds.
Check out my recipe for a Sweet Fruit Parfait.
Keep your naked snacks naked by storing your homemade snacks in glass jars and/or reusable Stasher Bags.
Snacking on-the-go? No problem!
If purchasing a snack to-go from a coffee shop or restaurant, bring your own container or A cloth napkin and kindly ask for the restaurant to place your snack of choice into your own container or directly onto the cloth! It’s amazing what people say yes to when you ask nicely with a smile!
Pro tip: SNACK PREP. Make all your snacks for the week on one day. One and done!
Here’s why to Snack Naked (a recap!):
IT’S FUN. You get to choose what you’re in the mood for and make it your own. Go for simple recipes or more complex ones, but whatever you do, have fun with it! Don't be a slave to reading nutrition labels. The healthiest foods don't have labels.
Real, whole foods are the most nutrient dense, providing us with the nutrients we need to THRIVE.
Plastic poses a risk to human health and the environment at every stage of its lifecycle (from manufacture to consumer packaging to waste management, etc.). Some toxic chemicals in soft plastic packaging that leach into our food have been linked to cancer, heart disease, hormonal and fertility issues, weight gain, autoimmune diseases and other health issues.
Who’s ready to SNACK NAKED with me? Tag me @abbysfoodcourt on Instagram and use the hashtag #snacknaked so I can cheer you on. Together, we can feel amazing and save the planet.