Heart-Healthy Snacking: The Best of Both Worlds for National Snacking Month and Heart Month

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February brings us two important topics to celebrate: National Heart Month and National Food Snacking Month!

You may be asking yourself, are snacks even good for me? Yes, they are! A snack is typically eaten between main meals. Benefits of snacks include providing a boost of energy when several hours have passed between meals (which causes blood glucose levels to drop), helps reduce your appetite to decrease overeating at the next meal, can help maintain good nutrition if one has a poor appetite but cannot eat full meals due to an illness for example, and provide extra nutrients when choosing snacks like fresh fruit or nuts. The downfall of snacks is if the frequency of eating them is too much it can lead to reduced hunger at meals times causing some to skip a meal entirely. Many of us also prefer ultra-processed snacks such as chips, ice cream, candy, soft drinks, and cake which are not always the best option to fuel our day. A way to curb the downfalls of snacking is to meal plan when you should be eating snacks throughout the day. Think about when you typically feel hungry in between meals. If snacking occurs very often think about why you feel hungry, is it because of a certain emotion (such as boredom) or are you hungry? A good snack will help curb your hunger till your next meal and be enjoyable! A good rule to aim for is for your snack to be between 150-250 calories per snack. 

Why not try some “heart healthy” snacks in the spirit of heart month? These snacks can help hit those crunchy, sweet, creamy, and savory/salty cravings! 
 - Apple slices with peanut butter
 - Hummus paired with carrot and celery sticks, cherry tomatoes, bell pepper slices, or cucumber rounds 
 - Roasted chickpeas 
 - Popcorn (air popped) 
 - Pears dipped in low fat cottage cheese 
 - Rice cakes & whole grain crackers 

 M.S. 

Comments

  1. Grace MaragosFebruary 3, 2025 at 9:14 PM

    This is such a great way to combine two very important things happening this month! I love how you provided specific snack ideas and also just a general calorie range to shoot for so people don't feel too limited.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Erin CarbajalFebruary 6, 2025 at 2:22 PM

    I never knew that February was national food snacking month! I’m obviously going to be religiously observing that. I thought this was a very informative, succinct, and educational blog. It got to the point of what, why, and how. The examples are also easy, pretty portable, and not some crazy health craze that overdoes cottage cheese and stevia.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Abigail El-RichaniFebruary 18, 2025 at 9:11 PM

    I didn't know February was national snacking month either. Throughout my rotations, I have learned a lot about how are bodies need snacks throughout the day to sustain itself. I really enjoyed reading your blog post.

    ReplyDelete

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