I've been lurking around the board for a couple weeks and I have been really curious about the food I eat. I dont know if any of you can help me but I do have a couple questions. I like to have 1 snack a day that ranges from 100-150 calories to satisfy my sweet tooth. I know obviously no sweet food is going to be necesarily HEALTHY but I was wondering what would be the healthiest. If I were to choose between these two kinds of foods, which one should I choose if I want to be the best to my body? (I eat really healthy the rest of the day, its just this thing that keeps me satisfied) I'm stuck between choosing either..
- those 100 calorie packs (quaker mini delights, keebler right bites, etc) that you can buy in the grocery store
and
- foods I can buy at the local health food store, like glenny's 75% organic brownie and these cute mini fruit pies

Are those health food store foods really bad for you? The brownies and pies are only 100-130 calories, low in fat, high in fiber, kinda high in sugar but I dont eat any sugary foods all day. Basically my question is, which of these 2 kinds of food is worse for me. I would rather avoid one of them, even though I'm sure they are both not that great.Any help is appreciated

Well, junk food is junk food, and while eating some "healthy" junk food is better (lower GI, higher quality ingredients and more nutrition) than eating the 100 calorie packs which lack solid nutrition and tend to be high GI foods, why not save those for the odd snack and more regularly eat a "mini meal" or other whole food for those 100-150 calories (like an apple or banana with a few nuts, a nut butter or carrots with hummus and a few small whole grain crackers etc.)?

You would probably stay satisfied and feel better, longer!

If it were me, I would go for the chocolate health food things.
If they're high in fiber they are more nutritionally sound than the 100 calorie packs which are really junkfood in a smaller pack, I think.
Plus, the dark chocolate, or those fruit pies have antioxidants.

Just because it's sold in a health food store doesn't mean it isn't still junk food.

If you need a sweet chocolate fix, why not just have 100-150 calories of good quality dark chocolate? I think for the health benefits the darker the better (I look for over 70% cocoa solids.) Chocolate is good for you, but I doubt you get the benefit from the small amount of cocoa in a brownie. I always try to eat pure dark chocolate vs more processed chocolate treats when I have a craving. I find it more satisfying.

Nuts are also underrated and given a bad wrap. I know they are high in fat but they are good fats (so I am told) and in my history whenever I have snacked on nuts while dieting it hasn't impacted the weight loss badly. Dark chocolate is still great also.

Better yet, dark chocolate AND nuts!

I find that when I'm craving something sweet, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole grain bread really satisfies the craving. I think if you flush junk food out of your diet entirely, you will really appreciate the sweetness of some raspberry jelly, plus with rich creamy peanut butter, it's really delicious. I also think a pear or mango slices makes an excellent sweet treat!

Last week, I did have a momentary lapse of judgment and ate on of those skinny cow chocolate bars. Even at 100 calories and a gram of fat, my digestive tract just couldn't handle it and it was very painful and unpleasant, so no more junk food for me! Even "better" junk foods are still junk foods, so just know your limits and do what you can live with and are comfortable with for the long term...

I found for me that when I completely elminated all sugary foods I no longer craved them and no longer had a sweet tooth. I know it seems drastic, but the more I speak to others who have done this, the more I realize I am not alone and that there's really something to it. I know it's probably not the answer you were looking for, but maybe it's something you might want to consider.

Some healthier snack options:

-Strawberries, blackberies, raspberries and blueberries - high in fiber and other vitamins and minerals, super low calorie.
-Fresh mango
-A sliced apple sprinkled with cinnamon
-Baby carrots, perhaps dipped in a bit of hummus
-Baked Sweet potato "fries"
-A cup of cereal, dry
-Cottage cheese and berries
-Fat free yogurt and berries

Thanks for all the replies so quickly. I am not on a diet, I am just looking to eat more healthy. I eat really healthy all day so I was kind of hoping there was something I could eat to kind of, get away from it all, but still not go crazy. But I deffinitally agree that junk food is junk food and healthy junk food is still not good for you. I am deffinitally going to just stop buying the 100 calorie junk, and maybe keep around the brownies and pies for once a week or so. The reason I didnt mention fruit is because I snack on fruit all day and too much fiber makes me feel horrible! But the dark chocolate and nuts idea sounds amazing. I did some research and I'm going to head out and try to find the dark chocolate and cherry kashi bar tomorrow. If not I will just try and put together my own little creation of dark chocolate. Is there a brand of dark chocolate found in most grocery stores that is around 70% cocoa? I know a lot are 60%, does anyone know any popular, good tasting 70%?

I feel your pain (literally.) The same thing happened to me. I think it's due to the sugar alcohols that the Skinny Cow bars contain. I really don't understand why manufacturers put them in food when they do that to quite a few people. Next time I'll be reading my labels a little more carefully.

It depends on where you are located and what kind of stores you shop in, but these are some of my favorites:

Sharffenberger makes an AMAZING 82% (I like it really dark sometimes.)

Endangered Species chocolates makes a good smooth dark chocolate (plus, it's fairly traded) and I can find it at Target.

Equal Exchange Dark Chocolate is my favorite! It can be hard to find though.

Lindt is good and in most of our grocery stores.

Trader Joe's has a FTO Swiss 70% (might be 72%???) that's really good and not expensive at all.

Green & Blacks is good too.

It all boils down to personal taste, but I don't care for Hershey's or any of the larger candy companies from my childhood (tastes waxy to me.) Although, Hershey does own Sharffenberger now, the former owners still oversee production which is (as far as I know) still done in smaller batches. The quality is still good (at this point at least.)

Can you tell I'm a chocolate snob? Lol. Just don't get me on the subject of coffee...

Y'all beat me to everything I was going to say, lol!

We have tried many different types of dark chocolate with mixed results...it's really easy for them to taste too bitter for me.

The ones we consistenly love are the Endangered Species Extreme Dark Chocolate and ES Dark Chocolate with Cocoa Nibs. One square is about 30 calories, and if you pair that with say 12 raw alomnds at 72 calories - that is one awesome snack!

Not only are the dark chocolates good for you but one of the things that recently set us on this path was my sons behaviour issues. We found artifical stuff messes with his ability to act correctly and sometimes makes him lash out. In doing so I found out that most of the chocolate bars out there that are your average store kind contain VANILLIN not vanilla. This stuff is nasty! It comes from the waste left over from paper mills ugh... so read labels carefully they love to sneak that stuff into everything.

Thanks everyone! I went to the grocery store today and got green and blacks (mint) and endangered species (cranberry and almond I think?) and they were both reallly good! I love dark chocolate, luckily, but I wish the endangered species was as low calorie as the green and blacks. I can get 6 squares of the green and blacks for 95 cals but only 3 squares of the endangered species for 90 cals. Mmmm chocolate. Now I just have to find something to go with it with some fiber to make it a little more filling.

Organic and Fair trade, all the way, Baby!

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