"Snacks are meant to be smaller meals that help to prevent you from feeling hungry, keep your blood sugar stable, and prevent overeating. This also helps you to satisfy your caloric requirements for the day."

Snacking is having small meals in between your regular three meals per day. In Jamaica when we talk about snacks, we are actually referring to high calorie, high fat, and low nutrient foods like cheese puffs, chips, pastries, sweets, and sugary drinks. However, we all know that for the most part these foods simply fill us up with empty calories. How are we supposed to snack and consume healthy snacks?
Snacks are meant to be smaller meals that help to prevent you from feeling hungry, keep your blood sugar stable and prevent overeating. This also helps you to satisfy your caloric requirements for the day.

Examples of healthy snacks are, sandwiches, fruits, yogurt, crackers, sandwich, fruit juice, biscuit, crackers and cheese, nuts, cashews, drinks, bananas, plantain and potato chips (baked), meal replacement drinks such as Ensure or Supligen can also be used as snacks.

Based on the high requirements for some food groups e.g. Legumes, Fruits, and Vegetables; snacks can be used to make up for the shortfall if the representation of that food group in the three meals would seem too excessive. For example, if having a banana at breakfast would lead to you feeling overfull, you can have that banana during a mid-morning break, so you are still having one of your 3 fruits for the day, and pair it with a bag of peanuts and some water. You don't have to feel full after your snack, this will just stave off hunger and help you to focus better until it is lunchtime to have another meal.

When you think of snacking, this is what you should have in mind. Parents should note that these are excellent replacement choices to empty calorie foods.

Feel free to comment below on your healthy snack choices. Your turn!