One of the misconceptions surrounding staying active and losing weight is that you need to cut out all snacks based on a study by the NHS. The truth of the matter is that snacks are an integral component in keeping your energy up and powering up your active lifestyle. The right sort of snacks that give you the nutrition and right boost you need to keep active. On that vein of thought, what are the “right sort of snacks” that you can tap into?
The Versatile Banana
Generally touted as the UK’s favourite fruit, bananas remain to be a good snack option. Some nutritional highlights are the fact that bananas are a good source of potassium, vitamin B6, and fibre to name a few. It also contains natural sugars that give it a sweet taste and gives your body boost so you can stay active for longer. One of the best ways to use bananas for snack time is to freeze it. When you’ve got the right tools to properly freeze your bananas, you open up more snack options like a banana smoothie, frozen banana pops, and even peanut butter and banana ice cream sandwiches!
The Humble Sweet Potato
Historically, the UK had their sweet potatoes imported from Africa and South America until 2015 until Joe Cottingham of Watts Farms managed to grow them locally. Now the British market can enjoy a good source of fibre, beta-carotene, vitamin C, and other good nutrients. If you’re going to use sweet potatoes as a snack, you should bake them. Sweet potatoes already rank low in the Glycaemic Index so they keep you full longer. Baking them makes them nutrient-dense and contain about 25% more magnesium than regular potatoes.
Delectable Dark Chocolate
Living an active lifestyle doesn’t mean you cut out sweets altogether. In fact, dark chocolate remains to be one of the healthier snack options for active people. Dark chocolate is rich in iron, fibre, zinc, copper, and many other helpful nutrients. It can also help improve your blood flow and lower blood pressure making your body fit and able to handle activities for longer periods of time. Not to mention that the cacao promotes the release of endorphins which generally make you happier and be in a better mood.
In the pursuit of fitness and an active lifestyle, every meal time counts. In this case, the snacks that you choose also play a part in boosting your energy and giving your body the nutrients that it needs. Tapping into the right kind of snack options help you maintain a more active lifestyle and you’ll get to enjoy fabulous flavours along the way.
Join us at Bramcote Leisure Centre, Chilwell Olympia and Kimberley Leisure Centre and our fitness team will design a personalised fitness programme and plan to work alongside your healthy eating plan.
