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Snack Foods

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Snack foods can mean any type of food that is small in quantity and not eaten as a primary meal (like breakfast, lunch, or dinner). Snack foods are normally eaten between meals and are mostly used to increase your energy, satisfy a craving, or reduce the feeling of boredom. Although some people use snack foods as a treat between meals, this isn't always a healthy suggestion. Generally, it's recommended to eat snacks when hungry, not just for enjoyment or out of boredom.

Unhealthy Snack Foods

The worst snack foods that people can eat are snacks that are high in sugar or fat. These may give you energy at first, but it's only a temporary solution. Typically, these type of snack foods are loaded with calories, which often negatively affect people by causing them to gain weight. Unhealthy snack foods are partially responsible for the widespread problem of obesity seen by many first world countries.

What do unhealthy snack foods consist of?

Sandwiches loaded with cheese and/or fattening condiments
Potato chips
Pastries and other baked goods
Chocolate
Candy

These types of snack foods are loaded with salt, sugar, and calories. Although they may be delicious and satisfy even the strongest of cravings, they are detrimental to a person's health if not eaten sparingly.

Healthy Snack Foods

Not all snack foods are unhealthy. There is a wide variety of snack food that is both healthy and delicious, and can help cure a person's in-between-meal cravings without adding to their waistline.

What do healthy snack foods consist of?

Bananas
Apples
Seeds and nuts
Carrots
Cherry tomatoes
Celery
Nutritional bars
Other types of fruit and vegetables.

These snack foods generally won't be harmful to your heath, and they will give you the energy you need from natural sugar (in the case of fruit) as opposed to refined/processed sugar found in a lot of candy and chocolate. These snack foods will suppress your appetite until your next meal. Studies have even shown that they will help keep you and your skin healthy looking, you will feel better, and they will not give you unnecessary calories that will likely lead to weight gain and subsequent health problems.

There are also energy drinks that some people will substitute for snack foods. Some of these are high in caffeine and sugar, but others contain many essential vitamins and nutrients, and can help suppress hunger in between meals.

Snack foods come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and range from very healthy to disgustingly unhealthy. How you consume snack foods will determine your level of satisfaction in between meals, and more importantly, it will have a significant impact on your health (both good and bad).