Ask Lemmy

Are peanuts considered healthy?

Sometimes for a late night snack I'll do a tube of silken tofu with soy sauce and chili oil. Very few calories, a few grams of protein, and it feels kind of nice and refreshing out of the fridge. Basically works with any seasoning too

some type of bean salad with a bunch of veggies, tomatoes and a vinegar dressing, maybe some cheese? make a giant bowl that lasts a week and gets better each day. just leave it in the fridge and grab a small bowl as a snack when you're hungry. also works great as a quick meal/side

Just handy slices of raw vegetables like carrots tomatoes or pepper with a bit of spice.

A Fuji or honey crisp apple. Juicy, sweet, tasty, filling, a bit messy. The perfect snack.

Peanuts are apparently healthy, just not the salt that comes with them. I also really like peanut butter.

I used to straight up eat flaxseed with a spoon, and I felt better, until it made me sick.

A can of tuna mixed with sweet relish, mayo, salt, pepper, and a few minimally salted crackers.

Red seedless grapes.

Imitation crab meat with cocktail sauce on the side. Maybe cheddar slices or olives on the side.

I consider these healthyish at the moment.

Bananas.

Popcorn, minimally salted

I like popcorn. I can make a bunch with like 2 tbsp of oil and 1 tsp of finely ground salt. Look up "popcorn" by Bryan David Gilbert. I don't usually use the lao gan ma, but it's nice if you want to. Also I prefer a flat-bottom pot to the wok.

This is probably my #1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crispbread Either plain or with low calorie butter

Good suggestions for snacks but I think a lot of people missed the "when I want to shove something in my face as a force of habit." You really want to get the lowest calorie thing possible, ideal would be lettuce and celery since those are basically nothing but still give you something to eat. Next would probably be apple slices, berries have surprisingly low sugar, egg white is basically pure protein but a full egg is fine too. Sprouts can be good if you grow them right. I sometimes just slowly eat a spoonful of peanut butter over like an hour but...

I would also recommend having random drinks you can go between, like tea soymilk coffee, even diet soda. Just avoid anything with sugar or fat. Things like nuts are healthy but not a great constant snack food because they do have a lot of fat, so that should be an intentional thing rather than something to reach for.

Nuts, fruit, steamed veggies (with or without seasoning), popcorn, GOOD beef jerky, yogurt.
Highly recommend you read Ultra-Processed People. I found that learning about what's in the normal unhealthy snacks sort of makes you not want to eat them at all, which will make eating healthy snacks so much easier. Just my experience though.

Yoghurt (plain is ideal but I like a little bit of vanilla), nuts, rice cakes, homemade dried fruit oat bars, apples, and homemade protein bars.

Sometimes I just go to town on an entire container of cherry tomatoes

Popcorn is great. It's like fiber, butter, salt and spices.

Been snacking on pita, labne (Lebanese yogurt I love it it has just a hint of the taste of cream cheese but it's light and quot like yogurt) and toum (ingredients: garlic, oil, lemon juice, salt, magic). I imagine it's doing great things for my cholesterol and vampire infestation.

Oh! And there's the only one pounds bag of gummi worms. That's healthy because shut up.

Wife likes putting peas (with some BBQ rub on em, brush on a little oil or get em damp if you want the rub to actually stick) in the air fryer, she says it makes em poop

MOINKs ate pretty great if you want to put the time into it

Fruit, sardines, kimchi, pickles, cucumbers, bell peppers, dark chocolate....

Lots of veggies make tasty snacks if you chop them small, toss with olive oil, salt, and garlic powder, and roast them. Not as easy as grabbing a bag from a cabinet but still super easy. Does take some time, though.

Similarly, lots of leafy greens can be cooked up quickly and easily as a snack.

Marinated soft or medium boiled eggs, such as Korean mayak eggs, Chinese tea eggs, or Japanese ajitsuki tamago (ajitama).

Down that vein, deviled eggs.

Almonds, roasted veggies, celery with peanut butter, fruit.

It's also important to change how you eat.

Do you tear open a box/bag of something and gun it down in front of a screen?

Try making yourself actual meals. Use napkins and silverware and non-paper plates. Make a protein, a carb, and some greens. Sit at the dinner table, not in front of the TV.

Even if it's just a snack you can present it nicely. Cut the apple up and lay it out with bits of cheese.

Make the meal seem special.

Do air fried chickpeas count as healthy? Goes great with some spicy seasonings :3

A few suggestions based on whether you need more calories. If you are trying to gain weight:

Triscuit crackers and hummus

Nuts, whichever you like.

Whole fat Greek yogurt with honey or savory with olives and crackers (again, Triscuit if you need calories)

If you need to reduce calories:

Apple & a few slices of good cheddar

An avocado

Boiled egg

Popcorn made at home

NONfat Greek yogurt with fruit and/or a little honey.

A walk. Sometimes you are bored not hungry.

Mandarins

They are easy to peel and unlike banana peels, its peels are relatively dry and smell nice, you can keep them comfortably in your pocket until you find a trash bin.

Many people is mentioning nuts. Yes, they are healthy but they are very calorie dense.

Im right here with you, I've recently been replacing all the candy snacks I have with various rustic snacks. I'll have like, 6 cheese curds and salami slices, 3 dates instead of my peanut butter cups, I 've been really into Japanese style peanuts, peacans just on their own.

When it comes to quick and not unhealthy meals, I found out I can make cheese rice in my rice cooker. Follow the usual rice cooker instructions, just add a cup of shredded cheddar, a tbsp of butter, garlic, salt, pepper, and if you want it extra rich replace 1/3 of the water with milk.

If you're air frying any veg, I highly suggest mixing your seasoning in a little oil and vinegar, then tossing the veg in it. That half assed vinegarette feels really fancy and if helps get an even coating of seasoning. Balsamic brings sweetness, all the others bring sour. You can even make it in bulk, put it in the fridge, and if keeps basically forever.

If you do ramen a lot, toss some frozen veg mix in with it while it's boiling, then replace half the packet with a splash of soy sauce, and some garlic. It's less and somehow so much more.

Recently I've gotten into "soy meat" it's dried, crumbled, tofu that's a really popular meat substitute in Mexico. Pound of beef equivalent for 97¢ at the local Hispanic grocery. Since it's dried and functionally flavorless, you can mix you up a slurry of spices and the stuff will sponge it all up. Toss it in a pan and it comes out the exact same texture as ground beef, but you can make it taste like everything from plain beef to Italian sausage, maple cured bacon, even smoked pepperoni. I've taken to adding it to chilli, sloppy joes, pasta, not only because it halves the cost of meat, but because it can add such an amazing depth of flavor and it seems to naturally correct acidity.

Hope some of this helps. I personally fell for the idea that eating right had to be miserable for so long and now it's like, why is this not the standard? This is so fucking good!

Chips and salsa, so many great options. You should check the calorie count, but you could always make your own if you wanna really get into it. Swap the chips for a baked version if you wanna cut back on fried things.

Chickpeas, either out of the can or roasted

In shell peanuts

Bananas

Cheese and cold cuts from the deli

Yogurt

Everything in moderation of course