When it comes to snacks (scratch that, when it comes to ANY kind of eating), it’s important to include some protein and, ideally, some fibre. Why? You need protein (and fibre) to keep your blood sugar stable and support hormone balance, so you have a constant supply of energy to get you through to lunch or your evening meal.
There’s also the small matter of the energy crash when snacks cause your blood sugar to spike. Unfortunately, many of the snacks we’d routinely eat fall into this latter category – including crisps, chocolate bars and many so-called healthy granola bars.
So what can you eat?
What you pack for a snack will depend on the facilities you have at work. No fridge? You’re going to want to pack your snacks every day from home. In practice, most of the people I see in clinic have access to a fridge. Perfect! This means you can keep small tubs of goodies like hummus and cottage cheese in the fridge and store bulkier items like oat cakes, jars of nut butters or assorted bags of nuts in your desk drawer (that is what the big one bottom left is for, isn’t it?).
Here are my top healthy snacks to keep at work:
1) 2 oatcakes with sugar free cashew or almond nut butter (superior to peanut butter but, hey, if peanut’s all you’ve got, don’t worry)
2) Hummus with crudités like raw carrot, cucumber, peppers, courgette, celery – choose the ones you like best
3) Fruit and nuts. An apple sliced with nut butter of your choice (or if this is too messy for you, apple or pear and a small handful of nuts)
4) Small handful of seeds (pumpkin and sunflower) and a chunk of cheese no bigger than a small match box
5) 2 oat cakes with cottage cheese and tomato or cucumber slices
6) Berries and 4 walnuts
7) 2 squares of dark chocolate and an apricot
8) 5 olives and a mandarin
9) Nairn’s ginger oat biscuit and 2 Brazil nuts
10) Small pot of Greek yoghurt with handful of raspberries
11) A handful of roasted chickpeas
12) Large handful of cherry tomatoes and 5 cubes of feta
13) Handful of homemade trail mix (your own mix of: seeds, nuts, toasted coconut strips and goji berries)
14) A seeded Ryvita with cream cheese and cucumber
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