Health OK Snacks for SuperBowl parties...
Today's post: Thursday, 1-31-2008
Why are health OK snacks so important?
It’s not just at the time the SuperBowl happens each year about now that people eat snacks. Many people make snacks as much as a quarter or a fifth of all their weekly food. Some go to a full third of the calories they eat.
The other factor is that the health damaging snack foods are some of the very worst foods people eat while the health OK snack foods are actually good for you.
That means that hosting or taking snacks pot luck style to a SuperBowl party is a chance to try out health OK snacks yourself & introduce them to your friends & family.
Dips:
First, let’s literally dispose of one category of what NOT to use. Last year, my wife & I were taking snacks to my parent’s house. I knew that two things to use to dip snacks into that are actually good for you & taste great are guacamole & hummus. But my wife wanted to bring some traditional dips as well. I went to an upscale grocery store in our area & went to that section. Ouch !! Even there, there were no health OK choices at all. Every one of the commercially made up dips except the guacamole they stocked had partially hydrogenated oils (which contain transfats) or high fructose corn syrup with some having both.
(In case you don’t yet know, partially hydrogenated oils (which contain transfats) & high fructose corn syrup are avoidable health poisons that are not yet outlawed & out of our foods.
Transfats are literally cardiovascular disease & heart attack starters. They have the same kind of effect as using lighter fluid to start up charcoal for a BBQ. The safe amount of those to eat is zero, absolutely none.
High fructose corn syrup is not quite that bad. It only tends to make you fat & trigger type II diabetes. It may be safe to eat on occasion. But eating it in the quantities people do who don’t know to avoid it -- is NOT safe. So, to be sure my wife & I don’t eat it in quantity, we do not eat it all. We also are doing our part to boycott an unsafe food additive by doing that.)
So, for dips at this writing, you have three health OK choices: buy guacamole; buy hummus: or make your own dips. Health OK components to consider running through a blender or adding to after you run the blender to make health OK dips are salsa, vegetarian beans, black-eyed peas, regular baked beans, hummus, nonfat yogurt, frozen chopped spinach, chopped onion, extra virgin olive oil, chili powder, & cilantro.
You can also make a somewhat healthier dip by substituting one of these for part of the sour cream in sour cream based dip recipes. A half hummus, half sour cream recipe would have half the saturated fat of a full sour cream recipe. But it would taste richer than a hummus only version.
Crunchy foods:
People often use crackers for crunchy snack foods. This is an extremely bad idea. Commercial crackers today still tend to use partially hydrogenated oils (which contain transfats). Almost as bad, they usually are badly over-salted and are made only or mostly from refined grains. About the only food component they contain is calories. So eating them tends to make you fat.
If for variety or for guests who would feel deprived, you would like to serve some crackers, there are two kinds that are almost OK.
Crostini makes an absolutely delicious cracker that is not too salty & uses olive oil instead of transfats. They sell those at Whole Foods Market stores. They do use refined grains. But they taste good & avoid the other health damaging components.
Safeway & other major grocery chains carry RyKrisp or Rye Krisp crackers. At least one of their versions has no fat at all. These are almost a little too crunchy for my taste. But that’s because they have whole grains, which are better for you. But be careful as one or more of the available versions have partially hydrogenated oils (which contain transfats). Just check the label to see which kind is OK & skip the other versions. The version that has NO fat at all is the health OK one.
Nuts:
Because some people are quite gravely & severely allergic to these, they are likely NOT a good idea for larger groups of people you don’t know well. This kind of allergy to peanuts is so wide-spread now, we suggest you never serve peanuts or mixes containing them to people you don’t know.
Only serve nuts to family or friends you know can eat nuts OK.
However, for people who can eat nuts safely, raw walnuts, raw pecans, & dry roasted almonds are delightfully good crunchy snack foods. Even better, they have so many health benefits, that people who eat nuts regularly live several years longer than people who don’t.
(I’ve found the best store for these to be Whole Foods Market stores. They carry these kinds of nuts in bulk & in packages -- both at reasonable prices.)
(Unfortunately, commercial nut mixes often do everything wrong. We do not recommend those !!
They often include peanuts because they are cheaper. They increase the shelf life by roasting them in partially hydrogenated oils (which contain transfats) or in polyunsaturated oils like corn or soy oil that tend to break down at that temperature & contain excessive omega 6 oils. Then they usually make them even less health OK by over-salting them.)
Crunchy vegetables:
Broccoli Florets; Cauliflower, Celery, & Carrot sticks work really with dips.
Radishes are also a nice change of pace. They are too small to dip well. But they are both crunchy & spicy.
Protein foods:
B & M Baked Beans are decent simply heated up & served. If you want totally vegetarian Bushes makes a decent, pre-cooked Vegetarian baked beans. Both come canned at major grocery stores.
If you can afford them, real crab meat, lobster meat, & shrimp are all health OK choices.
(Just don’t mix these into dips as some people are allergic to them. Served alone though, people can see what they are & avoid them if they are allergic.)
Cheeses are less health OK because of their sky high amounts of saturated fat. But for special occasions only, they have no other health problems; they are easy to set out in bite sized pieces; they are available almost everywhere; & they come in many varieties with abundant flavor.
Other foods:
Another snack food that works really well is stuffed olives. They are a little too salty to eat at all often. But they are health OK otherwise. And many of the versions taste great. They come with (or you can make them up to contain) sun dried tomato, blue cheese, feta cheese, garlic, blanched almond, etc.)
Fresh strawberries that have been washed & green leaves removed are an absolutely wonderful snack that is also really good for you to eat.
Drinks:
For non alcoholic drinks, Martinelli carbonated apple juice & cranberry juice is a decent choice for special occasions. And, some people like, grape juice, orange juice, tomato juice, &/or V8 juice.
Drinking all kinds of sodas & soft drinks is so harmful to the health of so many people, I personally feel that they should never be bought or consumed even on special occasions.
If you feel differently though, drink as little of them as you can stand.
Here’s why:
They usually contain high fructose corn syrup, sugar, or artificial sweeteners, a preservative that has been implicated as causing cancer, artificial flavors, water & nothing else besides the carbonation. Only the water is good for you. Sugar is OK only in strict moderation. And the other junk tends to reliably make people fat & cause health problems.
Of the alcoholic beverages, red wine & dark beer actually have extra health benefits. And, beer is a traditional drink for watching football. Even better, there are a huge number of really good dark beers now available.
Most alcoholic beverages, in fact, tend to boost HDL cholesterol.
But make sure to make the quantities small to moderate. Not only can people who drink too much cause problems at your party or get into an avoidable car accidents driving home, if they get into an accident where there is injury or significant property damage, as the host who served them too much alcohol, you can be sued in court.
I hope this post gives you some ideas as to what snacks to avoid year round & some that are either almost OK or are actually good for you to use instead.
Today's post: Thursday, 1-31-2008
Why are health OK snacks so important?
It’s not just at the time the SuperBowl happens each year about now that people eat snacks. Many people make snacks as much as a quarter or a fifth of all their weekly food. Some go to a full third of the calories they eat.
The other factor is that the health damaging snack foods are some of the very worst foods people eat while the health OK snack foods are actually good for you.
That means that hosting or taking snacks pot luck style to a SuperBowl party is a chance to try out health OK snacks yourself & introduce them to your friends & family.
Dips:
First, let’s literally dispose of one category of what NOT to use. Last year, my wife & I were taking snacks to my parent’s house. I knew that two things to use to dip snacks into that are actually good for you & taste great are guacamole & hummus. But my wife wanted to bring some traditional dips as well. I went to an upscale grocery store in our area & went to that section. Ouch !! Even there, there were no health OK choices at all. Every one of the commercially made up dips except the guacamole they stocked had partially hydrogenated oils (which contain transfats) or high fructose corn syrup with some having both.
(In case you don’t yet know, partially hydrogenated oils (which contain transfats) & high fructose corn syrup are avoidable health poisons that are not yet outlawed & out of our foods.
Transfats are literally cardiovascular disease & heart attack starters. They have the same kind of effect as using lighter fluid to start up charcoal for a BBQ. The safe amount of those to eat is zero, absolutely none.
High fructose corn syrup is not quite that bad. It only tends to make you fat & trigger type II diabetes. It may be safe to eat on occasion. But eating it in the quantities people do who don’t know to avoid it -- is NOT safe. So, to be sure my wife & I don’t eat it in quantity, we do not eat it all. We also are doing our part to boycott an unsafe food additive by doing that.)
So, for dips at this writing, you have three health OK choices: buy guacamole; buy hummus: or make your own dips. Health OK components to consider running through a blender or adding to after you run the blender to make health OK dips are salsa, vegetarian beans, black-eyed peas, regular baked beans, hummus, nonfat yogurt, frozen chopped spinach, chopped onion, extra virgin olive oil, chili powder, & cilantro.
You can also make a somewhat healthier dip by substituting one of these for part of the sour cream in sour cream based dip recipes. A half hummus, half sour cream recipe would have half the saturated fat of a full sour cream recipe. But it would taste richer than a hummus only version.
Crunchy foods:
People often use crackers for crunchy snack foods. This is an extremely bad idea. Commercial crackers today still tend to use partially hydrogenated oils (which contain transfats). Almost as bad, they usually are badly over-salted and are made only or mostly from refined grains. About the only food component they contain is calories. So eating them tends to make you fat.
If for variety or for guests who would feel deprived, you would like to serve some crackers, there are two kinds that are almost OK.
Crostini makes an absolutely delicious cracker that is not too salty & uses olive oil instead of transfats. They sell those at Whole Foods Market stores. They do use refined grains. But they taste good & avoid the other health damaging components.
Safeway & other major grocery chains carry RyKrisp or Rye Krisp crackers. At least one of their versions has no fat at all. These are almost a little too crunchy for my taste. But that’s because they have whole grains, which are better for you. But be careful as one or more of the available versions have partially hydrogenated oils (which contain transfats). Just check the label to see which kind is OK & skip the other versions. The version that has NO fat at all is the health OK one.
Nuts:
Because some people are quite gravely & severely allergic to these, they are likely NOT a good idea for larger groups of people you don’t know well. This kind of allergy to peanuts is so wide-spread now, we suggest you never serve peanuts or mixes containing them to people you don’t know.
Only serve nuts to family or friends you know can eat nuts OK.
However, for people who can eat nuts safely, raw walnuts, raw pecans, & dry roasted almonds are delightfully good crunchy snack foods. Even better, they have so many health benefits, that people who eat nuts regularly live several years longer than people who don’t.
(I’ve found the best store for these to be Whole Foods Market stores. They carry these kinds of nuts in bulk & in packages -- both at reasonable prices.)
(Unfortunately, commercial nut mixes often do everything wrong. We do not recommend those !!
They often include peanuts because they are cheaper. They increase the shelf life by roasting them in partially hydrogenated oils (which contain transfats) or in polyunsaturated oils like corn or soy oil that tend to break down at that temperature & contain excessive omega 6 oils. Then they usually make them even less health OK by over-salting them.)
Crunchy vegetables:
Broccoli Florets; Cauliflower, Celery, & Carrot sticks work really with dips.
Radishes are also a nice change of pace. They are too small to dip well. But they are both crunchy & spicy.
Protein foods:
B & M Baked Beans are decent simply heated up & served. If you want totally vegetarian Bushes makes a decent, pre-cooked Vegetarian baked beans. Both come canned at major grocery stores.
If you can afford them, real crab meat, lobster meat, & shrimp are all health OK choices.
(Just don’t mix these into dips as some people are allergic to them. Served alone though, people can see what they are & avoid them if they are allergic.)
Cheeses are less health OK because of their sky high amounts of saturated fat. But for special occasions only, they have no other health problems; they are easy to set out in bite sized pieces; they are available almost everywhere; & they come in many varieties with abundant flavor.
Other foods:
Another snack food that works really well is stuffed olives. They are a little too salty to eat at all often. But they are health OK otherwise. And many of the versions taste great. They come with (or you can make them up to contain) sun dried tomato, blue cheese, feta cheese, garlic, blanched almond, etc.)
Fresh strawberries that have been washed & green leaves removed are an absolutely wonderful snack that is also really good for you to eat.
Drinks:
For non alcoholic drinks, Martinelli carbonated apple juice & cranberry juice is a decent choice for special occasions. And, some people like, grape juice, orange juice, tomato juice, &/or V8 juice.
Drinking all kinds of sodas & soft drinks is so harmful to the health of so many people, I personally feel that they should never be bought or consumed even on special occasions.
If you feel differently though, drink as little of them as you can stand.
Here’s why:
They usually contain high fructose corn syrup, sugar, or artificial sweeteners, a preservative that has been implicated as causing cancer, artificial flavors, water & nothing else besides the carbonation. Only the water is good for you. Sugar is OK only in strict moderation. And the other junk tends to reliably make people fat & cause health problems.
Of the alcoholic beverages, red wine & dark beer actually have extra health benefits. And, beer is a traditional drink for watching football. Even better, there are a huge number of really good dark beers now available.
Most alcoholic beverages, in fact, tend to boost HDL cholesterol.
But make sure to make the quantities small to moderate. Not only can people who drink too much cause problems at your party or get into an avoidable car accidents driving home, if they get into an accident where there is injury or significant property damage, as the host who served them too much alcohol, you can be sued in court.
I hope this post gives you some ideas as to what snacks to avoid year round & some that are either almost OK or are actually good for you to use instead.
Labels: diet soft drinks, health damaging snacks, health OK snacks, high fructose corn syrup, Super Bowl snacks, SuperBowl snacks, trans fats, transfats
posted by David at 2:42 PM
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