Food rich in protein or fibre fill us up the quickest. It is important to have snacks between our meals as we are then not as hungry when we get to the main meal and tend to eat less. But the challenge is which snacks fill us up the most. Here are five good snack food suggestions and things to consider:
- Lentils/legumes/baked beans: consider grabbing a tin of lentils/kidney beans/four beans or bakes beans as a snack. Between meals a 125gr tin contains both protein and fibre and will really fill you up. Each 25gr tin contains about 390kj but also 5gr of protein and 5gr of fibre. They are ideal to add to salads as an alternative to animal sourced protein. Because they are also high in fibre, they are effective at mobilising our bowels and also help in managing out cholesterol.
- Fava beans/chick peas: Like legumes, these rich in both protein and fibre are a perfect mid meal snack. They can come pre-prepared in 200gr packs of 2*25gr individual servings. There are various brands all available in the health food section. Pleasingly, they come plain or in a variety of different flavours (chilli, salt/vinegar, curry etc). If you want to prepare them yourself, get some chick peas and soak them overnight in water. Then place them on a baking tray and give them a light spray of extra virgin olive oil. Sprinkle some seasoning on them and cook on a slow heat till they ae crispy brown.
- Water crackers and cottage cheese or crème cheese. One of my favourites as they are an ideal accompaniment to an afternoon aperitif. For most people, 4-5 water crackers (home brand options are usually the lowest prices and lowest salt). The protein in the cheese will fill you up. I tend to use crème cheese, cottage cheese or ricotta cheese as they are lower in fat than other more matured cheeses.
- Carrot sticks and celery sticks with hommus or crème cheese or yoghurt. The vegetables are full of fibre and contain very few kilojoules. Carrots and celery are great vegetables as they require quite a bit of chewing to break them up. Remember, thirty chews each mouthful is ideal. The protein in the hommus, cheese or yoghurt will be very filing as it is an ideal source of protein.
- Boiled eggs. Nature’s vitamin pill. Eggs are predominately protein and will be an ideal snack between meals. If you boil eggs and leave then in the refrigerator, they last for about 5-6 days. As such, they are great to have available as a snack between meals or as a nice addition to a salad. Each eggs contains about 9gr of protein which should be enough to hold over hunger between meals.