If you are working from home and then you know how our eating habits have dived down. Staying healthy while working from home is difficult while we struggle to strike some work-life balance.
Decreased physical activity and unhealthy work-from-home snacks have added to our health woes.
Let’s face the truth it is so much easier to order something or break open a bag of chips when tired and hungry. But these sugary and fried snacks are just the snacks you should be avoiding.
For one thing, they add to your daily calories without any nutritional benefit. Secondly, they leave you craving for more.
Eating fried snacks generally makes you lethargic and sluggish. They provide a surge of energy that is short-lived, leaving you hungry and tired again.
Characteristics of a healthy work-from-home snack.
A healthy work-from-home snack should keep you full longer, provide a steady supply of energy, and contain essential nutrients. They should also be tasty to eat. Good healthy work-from-home snacks fight the mid-day slump, keeping you healthy and happy. Also Read- Healthy Snacking: 5 Reasons to Snack Healthy.
A healthy work-from-home snack should fulfill the following three criteria:
1. High in fiber
Fiber provides bulk keeping you full and satisfied. Fiber ensures you have constant energy and balanced blood sugar levels. Fiber improves digestive health and delays gastric emptying, increases nutrient absorption.
2. High in Proteins
Proteins are the most crucial nutrients generally missing from our diet. The regular three-meal pattern seldom supplies us with the protein required daily. Adding protein foods as snacks help meet your daily protein requirements. Make sure that your healthy work-from-home snack is also high in protein.
3. Healthy calories
Your healthy work-from-home snack should be adequate in calories. Ideally, it should contain 150-250 kcal. Also, check for the source of the calories. Calories from healthy carbs, good fats (omega 3, healthy oils), and proteins are a big Yes. While the calories from unhealthy fats (hydrogenated fats, saturated fats), refined and simple carbs are a big No.
Other points to remember while buying your healthy Work-From-Home snack are:
- Check for the serving size of the snack. You don’t want to end up eating the whole bag of the snack. It is always good to portion-size your snack to avoid mindless munching.
- Choose snacks that are unprocessed or less processed.
- Go for snacks that are low in chemicals and preservatives.
- Check for its sodium content.
- Make sure your snacks contain less or no added sugar.
- Always read nutritional labels.
6 Healthy Work-From-Home Snacks To Stock up
We have compiled a list of a few healthy work-from-home snacks that can be made at home or bought online or from a shop.
1. Roasted Chickpeas:
Roasted chickpeas are the best snack to snack on while working. Half a cup of chickpea contains 10g of protein and 5 gm of fiber.
The combination of protein and fiber keeps you full for longer, curbs cravings, and keeps you healthy. Chickpea contains most of the amino acids needed by the body compared to other legumes. Chickpeas have several other health benefits to offer. Read-Chickpeas – 7 Proven Health Benefits Of Chickpeas
You can buy roasted chickpeas online, available in different flavors, from tangy to spicy, making it a crunchy and healthy Work-from-home snack.
2. Popcorn
Everyone loves popcorn. Popcorn provides healthy energy and fiber, keeping you energized. Several popcorn brands are available online with out-of-the-world flavors, and if you are a Foodie then some gourmet popcorn can cheer you up
3. Seed mixes
Though small, these seeds are high in nutrition. They are with protein, fiber, vitamins, antioxidants, and omega 3. Make your healthy seed mix at home or buy online.
Seeds to go for in your seed mix include- flaxseeds, pumpkin seeds, papaya seeds,
Chia seeds, sunflower seeds, and sesame seeds.
You can throw in some nuts and dried fruits in your seed mix and make a healthy and wholesome trail mix.
4. Dried fruits
Dried fruits make a healthy alternative to candies and other sweet treats. Our favorite candies and other sweet treats are high in sugar, refined carbs but devoid of healthful nutrients.
Fruits too contain sugars and carbohydrates. But they are your good carbs coupled with fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
Some dried fruits to keep handy are dates, raisins, figs, apricots, amlas, berries, and many more. Nowadays, other fruits like kiwis, mangos, chickoo, apples are available as dried fruits too.
5. Nuts
Nuts make a perfect healthy snacking option while working from home. Like seeds, nuts also come in a whole package containing proteins, fiber, and healthy fats.
Almonds, walnuts, macadamia nuts, pine nuts, Brazil nuts are few nuts you can stock up on as your WFH Snacks.
6. Dark chocolate
Chocolate is something we all crave. Chocolates made from good quality cocoa offer several health benefits. Cocoa contains antioxidants and several nutrients.
However, the chocolate bars available commercially are filled with milk solids, sugar, emulsifiers, added flavors, and colors.
Always go for dark chocolates with more than 70-75 % cocoa solids. Try to buy bean-to-bar chocolates or Couverture chocolate bars as your work-from-home snack to stay healthy.
Where to buy healthy snacks?
Buying healthy snacks is not as difficult as it was a decade before. Millennials today are aware and conscious of their health. This awareness has lead to an increased variety of healthy snack brands.
With the covid-19 pandemic, people have started to critically analyze the lifestyle they had been living and are on the road to make amends.
Gone are the days when our only snacking options were chips, biscuits, cakes, puffs, and other unhealthy junk. Brands have innovated snacks to make them healthy as well as tasty. Also Read- Healthy Snacks for Weight Loss- 5 Things to Look For
For example, traditional healthy Indian snacks like chickpeas are roasted and flavored to meet all your cravings. Dried fruits, nuts, and seeds are available as energy bars and trail mixes.
The chips are no longer potato-based and fried. Today we have vegetable chips and whole-grain chips, not fired but baked to make them healthy for you.
The online e-commerce market is thriving, and you will always find a healthy snack /health food section in them. You can buy healthy work-from-home snacks online on e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, Beat my sugar, Qtrove, to name a few.
Premium health stores which keep artisan made, organic and healthy products and retail outlets are your other options.
These healthy snacks are not cheap like unhealthy junk snacks. But they are definitely worth the price.
Always read nutritional labels and ingredient lists before buying a healthy snack. It will help you verify whether the health claims made are authentic or just hype.
To sum it up
We hope this blog will help you choose and buy healthy snacks. Working from home or not, what we eat is always a choice.
Be mindful of what you are eating and work out a little. Take a break from work to stay healthy while working from home, both mentally and physically.
