What is it about snack foods that make them so delicious and yet so unhealthy? You want to say "sugar" but there are other kinds of snacks that are not sweet. On days when I want to munch out on snacks I spend my time in the chip bags where there isn't much sugar, if any. I get sick of sugar pretty quickly but I could eat dried, fried potatoes all day long, especially when they are covered with salt. The same is true for pretzels.
Someone once told me that pretzels are healthier for you than potato chips but we're still talking about high carbohydrate foods and our bodies turn those carbs into sugar or fat.
I have a theory about why unhealthy snack foods make up more of our diet than healthy snack foods like fruits and vegetables. There are two parts to it.
First, unhealthy snacks are just easier to eat. They are not so messy (unless you eat Cheetos). And you don't have to eat unhealthy snack foods from a plate or bowl. You can just serve them right out of the package.
Second, unhealthy snacks don't require any preparation. A fast food hamburger is probably healthier for you than a bag of pretzels or baked potato chips. Unhealthy snack foods make us lazy. We can keep doing something else while we eat them, but if we try to eat something healthier than what is in the bag we have to stop and prepare it or go get it. We may not be able to concentrate on what we're doing either.
The messier the food, the more attention it demands from you, the less likely you'll treat it as a snack food. That is my theory. What's yours? :)
There are a lot of foods we can eat for snacks that may not require much prep time. Just look at some of the crazy things people can do with cheese. String cheese is a pretty nice snack but it's so dry I cannot eat much of it. And if I buy a big cheese wheel I can eat it with some fruit but just munching on cheese gets old pretty quickly.
Hamburgers are the classic "whole" snack food. You have to cook them, put them on buns, and add "fixings" like lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise. I love a good hamburger but I really have to be in the mood for one if I am going to cook it myself. Some people almost live on hamburgers but that is not me. Not yet.
Chicken is another favorite fast food but it's not really a good snack food. You can cook a whole chicken and carve the meat off the bones, or you can fry up some chicken nuggets and munch on them, but that's a lot of work. And I don't really like chicken nuggets. Fried chicken is a great "fast" food but it takes a lot of work to prepare. Still, if I'm going to eat chicken as a snack food there are a few different options. I like the chicken pot pie idea.
We can also season our own snack foods when we make them. For example, suppose you want a hot chili burger. You could season it with a chili paste or a chili powder. The paste is hotter than the powder, if you don't know the difference. You can also season chicken with chili paste and powder. In fact, you could add chili to almost any kind of food you prep for snacks. I once ate some chili-seasoned fried potatoes. Wow!
Gourmet foods don't measure up as good snack foods in my book. I know there are people who only eat gourmet foods but I think they are too expensive to be used as snacks anyway. I can't see myself driving up to McDonalds for a fried huckleberry pie pocket. And black rice cakes just don't cut the mustard for me.
We can stock up on apples, celery, and grapes but I get tired of eating them. I don't know why. Maybe there is just too much fruity sugar in the apples and grapes. Biting into celery is like playing a guessing game. You never know if you're going to crunch or slush with celery.
Maybe whatever comes out of a bag or box is just not going to be healthy because it's mass-produced for the least amount of money possible. They may use preservatives in snack foods but they are not Meals Ready to Eat. We munch on snack foods to give us something to do and satisfy occasional hunger cravings.
Maybe a lot time ago our ancestors used nuts and berries like snack foods. I imagine them walking through the woods, grabbing natural snacks Mother Nature provided. Sometimes I open up a can of nuts and munch away but it's really not the same thing as eating a bag of potato chips.
Let's face it: when it comes to snack foods we have met the enemy and he is us.
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