Healthy (And Yummy) Snacks and Desserts
In This Chapter
▶ Recognizing snacking saboteurs that can get in the way of effective weight loss
▶ Keeping healthy snacks around by planning ahead
▶ Finding ideas and recipes for lower-glycemic snacks and desserts
Snacking can be a great weight-loss strategy, but it can also be a weight-loss saboteur.
Whether snacking helps or harms your weight-loss efforts all depends on how you approach it. Unfortunately, you can easily fall into the trap of eating too much or eating the wrong kinds of foods that wind up adding more calories to your day. Not being prepared to snack wisely can also mean grabbing whatever you’re able to find, which in many cases is a high-glycemic or high-calorie food. Carefully choosing healthy low- glycemic snacks is the key to successful weight loss, and I help you figure out how to do that in this chapter with the assistance of some delicious recipes and healthy-snacking ideas.
When it comes to sweet treats, the good news is a low-glycemic diet is flexible enough that you can enjoy them — in moderation. Moderation is the key because desserts are typically extra calories. Limit your portion sizes and try to eat desserts slowly, really savoring each bite. When you do, you’ll be surprised how small a taste of a sweet treat can actually satisfy you. Also, make an effort to choose lower-glycemic dessert options. There are more than you think, and they’re quite tasty. I share a few examples of delicious, lower- glycemic desserts in this chapter.
Introducing Snacking Saboteurs
Snacking is one of the biggest challenges people face with weight loss. You may find yourself grazing throughout the day because of time, or you may discover that you tend to wait too long to eat, which can affect your metabolism. Finding the right snacking balance will help you stick to your low- glycemic guidelines and reach your weight-loss goals.
In the following sections, I delve into the details of the two primary snacking saboteurs and give you ways to combat them.
The negative effect of mindless grazing
Grazing is a typically mindless way of snacking, meaning you don’t know how many crackers you just ate and you probably aren’t paying too much attention to the calorie count of the large mocha and scone you just grabbed at the local coffee shop. The result of mindless grazing? Much higher calorie levels than you can possibly imagine. Those calories add up without you even realizing it, because you feel like you’re eating very little throughout the day.
I put myself to the test many years ago when I worked in a long-term care facility. Family members routinely brought in donuts, cookies, and chocolate candies for the staff. These treats would linger on the countertop so every- one could take some during the workday. I partook, but I really thought I didn’t eat that much. After all, I was the dietitian, and I wanted to be a good example of balancing these types of snacks. To see just how much I consumed while grazing, I decided to jot down each thing I grazed on during the workday. A piece of candy here, a half a donut there. When I added up the numbers at the end of the day, I realized I’d consumed a whopping 850 calories! That’s a lot for mindless picking. Even I didn’t realize how much I was eating because I only grabbed little bits and pieces throughout an eight-hour workday.
I’m sure you too have occasionally found yourself picking on food items throughout the day without being mindful of the amount and kinds of foods you’re choosing. But do you really understand why that happens? Following are a few reasons why people find themselves in grazing patterns, as well as ways to avoid falling into the mindless grazing trap:
✓ Feeling like there’s not enough time in the day: People are busier these days than ever. Grabbing whatever’s around therefore seems much easier than taking the time to choose a nutritious snack. However, snacking healthfully is actually quite easy if you make eating a priority. Crazy,
I know. But if you don’t make your meals and snacks a priority in your life, you’ll completely lose focus of your weight-loss goals. Prioritizing healthy eating doesn’t have to mean huge amounts of time or effort, just a little forethought. The payoff is totally worth it: If your body is properly nourished, you can tackle your busy day with gusto! (I offer some tasty low-glycemic snack ideas in the later “Planning Out Healthy Snacks: A Top Weight-Loss Strategy” section.)
✓ Eating because of emotions or stress: This is a big culprit for many people. You may find yourself reaching for a soda and a quick snack from the vending machine many times during a stressful day. Awareness is the key to emotional eating. Keeping records of your food intake and emotions doesn’t take much time but is valuable in becoming aware of and overcoming your old habits and emotional-eating triggers. Turn to Chapter 13 for additional advice on defeating emotional eating.
✓ Wanting to keep junk food out for the kids: Although the occasional treat is nice, leaving junk food such as chips and cookies on your countertop is a big trap. It’s so easy to grab a cookie here and a few chips there. Before you know it, that mindless grazing has added up to a whole day’s worth of calories. Keep your countertops clear of junk food and put out a bowl of fruit instead. You’ll be amazed how your family will eat better choices when that’s all you give them, and you won’t be tempted by “just a bite” here and there.
The problem with waiting too long to eat
Waiting too long to eat a meal or a snack is the exact opposite behavior of mindless grazing (see the preceding section). Going five to seven hours with- out eating anything can negatively affect your metabolism (the rate at which your body burns calories). As you discover in Chapter 8, your body recognizes when it’s out of fresh sources for energy (read: meals and snacks), so it begins to slow down the rate at which it uses calories to compensate for this lack of energy — that’s the exact opposite of what you want to happen for weight loss!
When you wait too long to eat, you typically wind up eating way too much whenever you do finally sit down to a meal. What’s wrong with that? Well, you’re consuming more calories on a slower metabolism. If that scenario is the norm for you, losing weight is going to be pretty difficult.
The point of all this is simple: You really do need to eat to lose weight. Planning out your meals and snacks (and taking the time to eat what you planned) are steps on the road to weight-loss success.
Planning Out Healthy Snacks: A Top Weight-Loss Strategy
Planning out healthy snacks is a solution to mindless grazing and waiting too long to eat. You may read this advice as a simple suggestion you’ve seen before, but it’s a very important strategy and means the difference between staying stuck at a weight you don’t like and seeing the results you’re looking for.
Carefully choosing your snacks will help you stick with your low-glycemic plan and save you hundreds of calories.
Wondering how to go about picking healthy, low-glycemic snacks? Start by thinking about your average busy, stressful workday. You know you’ll be working late, and although you’re able to grab some lunch and dinner at the local takeout restaurant, you haven’t planned any of your snacks for the day. Your boss keeps a bowl of Peanut M&M’s on the counter, and there’s a vend- ing machine down the hallway. Throughout the day you pick on the M&M’s, grab a large latte from the coffee stand, and munch on a small bag of potato chips from the vending machine.
That doesn’t sound like much for an eight- to ten-hour day, but you’ve actually just consumed 948 calories in snacks. Not only that, but the potato chips are higher-glycemic, leaving you with a blood sugar spike and stimulating your appetite for more food. And thanks to the restaurant takeout, you’re looking at substantially more calories for your entire day.
Are you eating too much at snack time?
Eating too much during snack time can cause you to consume excess calories throughout the day, but how do you know how much to eat? Other than portion sizes, the most important tool at your disposal is your body’s fullness and hunger cues. (Believe it or not, your body has other levels than just really hungry and really full.)
As an experiment, wait about three to four hours after a meal and write down what your hunger level is at that time. Are you extremely hungry (1), moderately hungry (2 to 4), or neutral (5)? Eat a small snack, wait for about 20 minutes, and record how full you feel at that time. Are you still hungry? Are you feeling neutral or perhaps slightly full? Getting used to these different levels of hunger and fullness is a great weight-loss strategy that can help you control calories in an effective way.
Think about your hunger on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being “starving,” 5 being neutral, and 10 being “stuffed to the gills.” Many people get used to feeling very full after a meal and snacks. However, a snack’s job is to tide you over until your next meal . . . not necessarily to make you feel completely full. A good rule of thumb is to eat something small and allow yourself to feel neutral or just comfortably full. If you feel stuffed to the gills after a snack, you probably ate too much.
With a mindful, planned snack, you can change this scenario. Substitute a small coffee, an ounce of nuts with an apple, and a yogurt for the Peanut M&M’s, large latte, and bag of chips. These simple, preplanned swaps bring your snack total down to just 380 calories, and the choice of low-glycemic foods helps you feel more satisfied.
You have many low-glycemic snack options to choose from, whether you want to find something quick or make something at home. Here are some healthy grab-and-go snack ideas that take either no or little time to prepare:
✓ 8-ounce lowfat yogurt, fruity or plain
✓ 1 ounce of nuts with a piece of fruit (such as an apple or orange)
✓ 1 ounce of trail mix with dried fruit
✓ Mozzarella cheese stick with a piece of fruit
✓ 1 ounce of peanut butter spread on two celery sticks
✓ 1 ounce of peanut butter spread on one small sliced apple or half of a banana
✓ 1⁄3 cup lowfat cottage cheese with fruit
✓ 2 tablespoons of hummus with sliced bell peppers and carrot sticks for dipping (you can buy premade hummus at the grocery store, or you can use the Traditional Hummus recipe found later in this chapter)
✓ 2 tablespoons of hummus spread on half of a whole-wheat pita
✓ 2 cups of lowfat air-popped popcorn
✓ 10 baked corn tortilla chips with black bean dip (either store-bought or my Yummiest, Ugliest Black Bean Dip recipe, found later in this chapter)
Making Low-Glycemic Snacks at Home: Recipes for Success
Although store-bought snacks are handy to have on hand, you can actually prepare many tasty recipes in the comfort of your home. I’m a big fan of having fresh snack foods on hand. The following recipes are some great ones to make for your family or to bring with you for munching at work.
Yummiest, Ugliest Black Bean Dip
Don’t let the color of this recipe scare you. Even though this black bean dip turns out a strange gray color, it tastes fantastic. Great for the family, you may not want to serve this dip at a party without warning your guests about the color (unless maybe you’re hosting a Halloween party).
1 In a large nonstick skillet, cook the garlic, green and red bell peppers, and onion in the canola oil over moderately low heat, stirring continually, until the onion is translucent. Remove the skillet from the heat and set it aside.
2 In a food processor, blend the black beans, lime juice, spices, and water until smooth, adding up to 2 tablespoons more water if necessary to reach your desired consistency.
3 Add in the onion mixture and salsa, and blend until smooth.
4 Cover the dip and chill it for 3 hours. Serve with baked tortilla chips.
Tip: To simultaneously pretty up your dip and add some more veggies, add chopped tomatoes to the top of it before serving.
Grilled Zucchini Mini Pizzas
Veggies are great snack foods, and you can prepare them in a variety of ways. This recipe is quick and easy to fix, and it gives you a twist on just eating raw veggie sticks.
1 Preheat the grill or grill pan to medium-high heat.
2 Slice the zucchini lengthwise into 2 pieces. Then slice across in half to make four 4-inch pieces.
3 Sprinkle with the seasoning salt to taste.
4 Sprinkle about 1⁄2 ounce of the parmesan cheese on each 4-inch slice. Top with the olives.
5 Wrap the zucchini pizzas loosely in aluminum foil (so that the cheese doesn’t stick when heated) and grill them (with the bottom of the zucchini facing down) over medium heat for 10 to 15 minutes until the cheese is melted and the zucchini is soft- ened but still slightly firm. Then eat up!
Vary It! Dislike black olives? Go ahead and add your favorite vegetables (such as chopped tomatoes, chopped bell peppers, or any other creative concoction you can come up with) to the top of your Grilled Zucchini Mini Pizzas.
Traditional Hummus
Hummus is a staple in my household because it has so many uses. It makes a great low-calorie and low-glycemic snack option, and it keeps you from getting bored with veggies, whole-wheat pita bread, and sliced apples.
Choosing and Preparing Lower-Glycemic Treats and Desserts
Most people like eating sweets, especially after dinner. This behavior is actually a ritual for some folks, something they’ve been conditioned to do since a young age. However, most treats and desserts equal high sugar, high fat, a high glycemic load, and high calories, contributing to the consumption of excess calories, erratic food-craving cycles, and emotional eating.
You can enjoy treats and desserts on a low-glycemic diet as long as you balance them appropriately. Moderation is essential. Pay attention to your sweet tooth and make sure you’re indulging in the higher-glycemic, higher-calorie treats (think cakes and cookies) only on special occasions such as birthdays, parties, or holidays.
If you have a sweet tooth like me, then you want to find desserts that will work for you on a weekly basis. Following are a few ideas for treats that are low- glycemic and not terribly high in calories and fat:
✓ 1⁄2 cup frozen yogurt
✓ 1⁄2 cup lowfat pudding
✓ 1⁄2 cup lowfat chocolate pudding with fresh strawberries
✓ 1 ounce of dark chocolate
✓ 8-ounce fruit smoothie
✓ Baked apple slices
✓ Banana split made with vanilla frozen yogurt
✓ Frozen-Fruit Smoothie Pops (see the following recipe)
Frozen-Fruit Smoothie Pops
Frozen-Fruit Smoothie Pops allow you to enjoy a cold treat on a hot day without all the excess sugar. Your kids will love ’em too!
1 Prepare the fruit smoothie as directed.
2 Pour the smoothie into the paper cups, place the cups on a small cookie sheet, and put them in the freezer for 30 to 45 minutes.
3 Remove the cups from the freezer and carefully place a Popsicle stick in the center of each cup. Return the cups to the freezer and freeze overnight, or for 24 hours.
4 Peel the paper off the frozen pops and enjoy.
Warning: Make sure you use paper cups. If you use plastic ones, your Frozen-Fruit Smoothie Pops will stick to the cups.
Crustless Pumpkin Pie
Pumpkin pie is one of those classic fall comfort foods. It’s also likely one of the pies with the lowest calorie count and lowest glycemic load you’ll ever find. You can make pumpkin pie even better for you (and for your weight-loss goals) by simply omitting the crust for a sweet treat without all the calories and high-glycemic ingredients.
1 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2 Lightly spray a 9-inch glass pie pan with vegetable cooking spray. Mix all the ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Pour the mixture into the pie pan and bake until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes.
3 Allow the pie to cool before slicing into 8 wedges or storing in the refrigerator.
Apple Crisp
This is a lighter version of apple crisp that keeps your calories and glycemic load down while still allowing you to enjoy a yummy, hot dessert.
1 Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Combine the apples, water, 4 teaspoons brown sugar, lemon juice, and cinnamon in a medium-sized bowl and mix well.
2 Coat an 8-x-8 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray and then arrange the apple mixture in the dish.
3 Combine the remaining ingredients (including 1 tablespoon of brown sugar) in a small mixing bowl and sprinkle over the apples.
4 Bake for 30 minutes, or until the apples are tender and the topping is lightly browned.
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