14 DAY TRIAL // One of the downsides of an office job, as many of us know since we’ve had to experience that personally, is that the temptation to skip meals and snack instead on calorie-laden snacks is often too big to ignore successfully. As a matter of fact, this may appear even in those cases where a desk job is not the question, which is why Julie Upton, RD of Health.com, has come up with the top five best snacks that are both filling and not a danger for our waistline.
As health experts have repeatedly pointed out, eating right and snacking in between meals ensures that we don’t overeat later, when we sit down for the proper meal. With this in mind, Upton recommends five snacks that are extremely healthy and, what’s more important, very filling without coming with too many calories, which means the risk of overeating later on becomes almost inexistent.
First off, Greek yogurt. “Greek-style yogurt, like Fage or Chobani, have about twice as much protein (milk or whey protein) than regular yogurt and can keep me from thinking about my stomach for at least a few hours. At about 100 calories for 6 ounces, they pack up to 20 grams of protein (more than three eggs!). A small 2009 study from Maastricht University in the Netherlands tested hunger, desire to eat, and resting energy expenditure (a part of your overall metabolism) in adults who ate either protein-enhanced yogurt or yogurt with normal protein content,” Upton explains.
Hard boiled eggs are also a very good alternative for a healthy snack, since they too are very filling and don’t pack too many calories. Because of this, nutritionists often recommend eggs for breakfast (the most important meal of the day), but that doesn’t mean they can’t make for excellent snacks as well – as long as we have them in a designated area, like a kitchen or a cafeteria, of course. SoyJoy bars and Somersaults are also very healthy snacks, while also satisfying that sweet tooth we all have to one extent or another.
Last but not least, Upton includes pistachio on the healthy snacks list. “Pistachios are referred to as the ‘skinny nut’ because the shells help us subconsciously cut calories without deprivation. How? Studies show that the shell makes the serving size appear larger and fools our brains into thinking we’re full. Plus, the used shells act as a visual reminder of how much you’ve eaten. Nutritionally, 30 pistachios (or 49 nuts per 1-ounce serving) contain 100 calories and have 6 grams of protein and 3 grams of fiber,” the expert explains for Health.com.