Health Digest Survey: What Are People's Go-To Healthy Snacks?
A filling snack can be just the thing to hold us over between meals. Even better, some snacks can help us power through a busy day when we start to feel our energy levels dip after that morning coffee has worn off. Although energy drinks and sugary treats may be effective at kicking us into high gear fast, experts at Northwestern Medicine state that the boost we get from these snacks is often short-lived, leading to a crash later on. Rather, reaching for food items like edamame, whole grain snacks, or black tea, are more likely to give us the long-lasting start-up we're looking for. The reason being, foods that are packed with fiber, protein, magnesium, and complex carbohydrates take more time for the body to break down, meaning your energy levels will be prolonged throughout the day.
To find out people's preferred go-to healthy snack, we issued a survey to 610 readers of Health Digest and asked them to select their favorite snack out of six response options. Answers ranged from fruits to veggies, yogurt, nuts, and everything in between. Here's what people said they reach for when their stomach starts to rumble.
The least selected answer was hard-boiled eggs with 44 votes, making up 7.21% of total responses. Containing a wide range of amino acids, Healthline explains that hard-boiled eggs are a great source of protein, vitamin D, calcium, zinc, and B vitamins.
Most people reach for fruit as their preferred healthy snack
With 52 votes was Greek yogurt, accounting for roughly 8.5% of total answers. As a powerhouse combination of protein and complex carbohydrates, Greek yogurt takes more time to digest, leaving us fueled with energy for longer periods of time (via Northwestern Medicine). 63 people selected cheese and crackers as their go-to healthy snack of choice. In addition to being a great source of protein and healthy carbohydrates, pairing your cheese with whole grain crackers in particular gives your body a dose of fiber that can help keep constipation at bay, reports SFGate.
The third most popular answer amongst readers was veggies and dip for their preferred healthy snack, accounting for just shy of 14% of total responses. Battling it out for first place, however, was nuts and fruit. With 133 answer selections was nuts, ranking in second place. Experts at Northwestern Medicine explain that nuts are packed with nutrients that can replenish our electrolytes. Not to mention, walnuts, in particular, can give us a healthy boost of melatonin, which can help regulate sleep. Fruit stood as the ultimate winner with 233 votes. Specifically, experts suggest melon as a great go-to healthy snack. Melon is made up primarily of water, making it a great source of hydration to prolong energy levels throughout the day.