We live in a society of nibblers. Long gone are the traditional conventional three square meals each day. Today, people eat at their desks, catch a snack in the afternoon and eat late night goodies. Most, if not all, of these snacks are carbohydrate based and packed with sugar. This poses challenging to individuals who are trying to follow the Atkins plan. Snacking is an essential part of keeping your blood sugar up, but most packaged snack foods are forbidden on the plan.
Sweet snacks are high in calories, full of empty carbs and offer no nutritional value. But they sure are popular. There is in fact a Snack Food Association that tracks sales of packaged snack foods. It is estimated that American citizens eat 3.1 billion pounds of chocolate. Snacking has grown more than a third since 1988. Sales of snack foods gross over billion a year.
If you’ve been a snack food junkie you’ve become used to eating carbohydrates of the worst kind. Fast foods are comprised of highly refined carbs like white flour, white sugar, corn meal and corn syrup. They are high in trans-fats ( that is a contributor to clogged arteries). All in all, they are in all likelihood one of the worst food options you could be making.
But there is hope! You can conquer your zest for fast foods by making Atkins-friendly snacking choices. Before you are allowed to make the switch, make certain to educate yourself. Understand just how dangerous trans fats can be by taking note of up on them. Then read the ingredients label of your favorite fast foods. You might be shocked to see how many trans fats, synthetic flavorings and preservatives that you are consuming.
Next, eliminate all of the fast foods in your house. If its not there, then you can’t eat it. Junk meals are not good for anyone in your home so ignore your family’s complaints and do what is better for the health of everybody.
Now you will have to replace those snack foods with some better choices. Abandoning your fast foods is not the identical to packing it in snacks. Snacks ought to be a part of your daily eating plan as it will help you from becoming too hungry and indulging in high-carbohydrate treats.
There are tons of -carbohydrate snacks that are easy to create and easy to have around the house. String cheese sticks or small cheese rounds are very simple to keep in the refrigerator. Meat snacks are also a great choice. You can buy jerky strips and other meat goods that keep well for long periods of time. When you buy cheese or meat sticks, make certain to read the labels carefully for hidden carbs.
There are low carb instant soups available that are very simple to manufacture and satisfying if your craving something hot. Low carb soy chips and celery can help with “crunchy” hunger pangs. Try adding peanut butter or cream cheese spread to include more protein to these snacks. Also, you can’t beat a few of nuts for a high-protein, quick snack.
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