If you are looking for new healthy snacks to enjoy, take a look at the list below. These snacks help to keep the weight off and keep your body running optimally. The next time you are struggling and wanting to eat something unhealthy for you, look and this list and choose something on here instead!

• Air Popped Popcorn - Can be found in Walmart. Try to stay away from calorie packed microwave popcorn.
  
• Nonfat Cottage Cheese - Great source of protein.
  
• Frozen Grapes - Can help satisfy your sweet tooth.
  
• Protein Bars
  
• Hard Boiled Eggs
  
• Orange Slices
  
• Sugar Free Jello
  
• Broccoli - Excellent source of vitamins K, C, and A, as well as folate and fiber. Very good source of phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and the vitamins B6 and E.
  
• Sliced Chicken Breast
  
• Green Salad
  
• Hummus
  
• Cherry Tomatoes
  
• Nonfat Yogurt - Contains active cultures.
  
• Peanut Butter - Great source of protein.
  
• Frozen Mangos
  
• Frozen Yogurt - Great alternative to ice cream.
  
• Fruit Smoothies - Jamba Juice and Smoothie King are great places to find smoothies
  
• Walnuts
  
• Sunflower Seeds
  
• Baby Carrots - Excellent source of vitamin A. Vitamin A helps to prevent night blindness, dry skin, poor bone growth, weak tooth enamel, diarrhoea and slow growth.
  
• Bean Salad
  
• Tuna - Quick and easy high protein snack.
  
• Sliced Apples - Apples are a good source of dietary fiber and vitamin C.
  
• Pickles
  
• Olives - Rich in vitamin E.

I didn't see chocolate on the list?!? What are your opinions on Dark Chocolate... healthy / not healthy?

I eat a lot of popcorn. At least every couple of days I have some, I go stretches where I have it every day and sometimes twice.

I can make it on the stove top with a little oil faster than my microwave can cook it so that's what I do.
I tried using olive oil a few times but it just doesn't taste right, I use primarily Canola oil.


That's a new one on me, I'll have to try that next time I get grapes.
Frozen strawberries taste pretty good.


One of the awesome things about living in Florida.
The orange tree at my appartment complex seems to have some sort of fungus though, so I end up buying oranges anyway.


I get large bags of frozen skinless chicken breast from the resturaunt supply store here.
I throw them in my small frying pan with a little water, some season-all, and a lid on top for a few minutes and they come outnice and moist. I like to put a little ranch dressing on them and eat them as-is.


I love yogurt.
I tried some whipped yogurt one time but by the time I stirred it up and was left with half a cup of yogurt I felt soo ripped off I wanted to cry.
I get the following flavors of this stuff now.

• French Vanilla
• Key Lime Pie
• Lemon Burs
• Orange Crème (tastes just like an orange dreamcicle)
• Strawberry Cheesecake

I just noticed a few other flavors I need to look for next time.

• Pomegranate
• Harvest Peach
• White Chocolate (I'm almost scared to try this)

And awesome on celery.
I don't like either on its' own, but together they rock.


When I was in 9th grade my Math teacher told us that some kind of ice cream he had actually had more vitamins and minerals in it than a bowl of breakfast cereal.
I still eat ice cream for breakfast more often than I eat cereal to this day, though it's not very often.
I wish I could remember the product names.


I have a blender and a produce stand right across the street.
Though I almost always forget it's there and end up buying frozen fruits from the grocery store.


I think the only thing on earth that likes sunflower seeds more than I do, is my hamster.
Every time I feed her I eyeball some of those seeds, I haven't tried one of hers yet though, that other stuff in her mix doesn't smell too tasty.


I like to fill a tiny bowl with ranch dressing and eat baby carrots out of the bag untill my bowl is empty.
Probably about a dozen or so carrots.
My mom used to tell me that if I ate a lot of carrots I would be able to see in the dark.


I tried to make my own pickles once with nast results.
When I was a kid we used to cut an elderly ladys grass and prune her bushes just so we could have some of her home-made pickles. They were awesome.
I just buy the Claussen halves now.


Green or black ?
I'm quite fond of black olives, but the green ones are just plain nasty I thnk.

I love Vanilla Bean yogurt from Tillamook... Tillamook Vanilla Bean Lowfat Yogurt. I always ate Yoplait yogurt before, but now I can't stop eating the Vanilla Bean! I looked for a Vanilla Bean flavor from Yoplait, but all I could find was Vanilla and it wasn't quite the same.

Here is a description from the Tillamook site:

Black olives! I love black olives, myself, and the green ones are gross!

I found this info on olives on the foodscout website:

Vanilla is usually one of the best flavors for anything.

I'll have to start watching the labels when I get black olives from now on. I always figured the only difference was some had pits and some didn't.

I used to always choose the chocolate flavor over vanilla, but as I've gotten older, I found myself consistently choosing vanilla over chocolate! It's so good. I guess your taste buds change a lot over the course of your life!

Why do taste buds change? I like stuff now that I couldn't eat without gagging when I was a kid and yet there are still things I can't eat. There is nothing I used to like that I don't like anymore. How do taste buds change?

I read that taste buds change every 7-10 years.

Here is a little information about taste buds.

Taste buds can recognize four basic kinds of tastes: sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. The salty and sweet taste buds are located near the front of your tongue. The sour taste buds line the sides of your tongue, and the bitter taste buds are found at the very back of your tongue.

Everyone's taste buds are different and everyone tastes food differently. Your tastes change as you get older. As a baby, you had taste buds not only on your tongue, but also on the roof and sides of your mouth. With all of those tastes buds, you were really sensitive to different flavors and foods. As you get older, the taste buds begin to disappear from the roof and sides of your mouth. The more time that goes by and the more you age, your taste buds become even less sensitive -- this is why you are more likely able to eat foods that you once didn't like as a child.

A couple interesting tasting facts:

• In general, girls have more taste buds than boys.
• Taste is the weakest of the five senses.

I always thought if it tasted good it meant our body needed more of whatever it was tasting, and if it tasted bad it meant the body already had enough of whatever it was.

I never could figure out why else we would have taste buds to begin with.

Well, icecream ALWAYS tastes good to me. So do pies and cakes! Does that mean my body needs more of those desserts!?

You don't believe that taste buds are simply meant to enjoy the food we eat? You don't think we should be enjoying the food with the way it tastes?

I have actually heard that is why pregnant women get cravings for weird combinations... that the baby wants potassium and needs fat so a pregnant mom gets a craving for banana and mayonnaise sandwich.

I have also heard that diabetics crave sugar and starches due to their illnesses.

Joebert, I think that we get cravings due to our deficiencies in our diet, not necessarily our telling us what we like, just something that we need and if we know where to get it we eat it... maybe exposure to the foods from cravings trains our taste buds that we like certain things... like acquired tastes... like sauerkraut!

Yeah I've heard that about pregnant women too. It makes sense to me, because they never get any weird cravings before or after the pregnancy, only during it. So they must be craving the nutrients that the baby needs! I also heard that if the pregnant woman stops liking some food that they originally loved, it is probably because the baby already has enough of the nutrients in that food.

Maybe not the deserts, but some of the ingredients.

A common ingredient in cakes and other baked goods is baking powder, which is generally derived from "one or more acidic salts" amongst other ingredients according to that Wikipedia article.

Some ice creams contain sodium citrate which is a form of salt.

Maybe the body is responding to the salt and remembering that baked goods and ice cream are a place to get salt.


It depends on which side of the bed I wake up on in the morning.
Some days I just can't seem to leave well enough alone.


It's not that I don't think we should enjoy it, I more or less want to know exactly why we do.