PDHPE: What snacks should you be eating?

And what are the health benefits for a human like you?

There are a lot of tricks and traps for young players in the snacking game. Products that talk themselves up as being healthy are often anything but. You might think you’re doing your body a favour by skolling endless bottles of fruit juice, when really all you’re doing is feeding yourself sugar.

That’s a betrayal you don’t quickly forget.

So let’s have a look at some snacking options that are actually good for you. We’ll try not to make this too depressing.

Everyone’s going to tell you to eat nuts

As long as you’re not allergic, of course. Or at a school where they’re banned because of allergies. Or you’re worried about deez. Those factors aside, mixed nuts are the ideal snack because they balance protein, fibre and those healthy fats. Protein for growth and development, fibre to keep your digestive system running smoothly, healthy fats to reduce the risk of heart disease.

If you’re gonna eat chocolate, make it dark

This takes some getting used to if you’re used to smacking Caramello Koalas, but dark chocolate is the best option because it contains antioxidants, which neutralise free radicals, which are basically unstable molecules in our bodies that cause mayhem (and disease). Even still, you’re going to be eating tiny amounts compared to usual if you want to stay in the healthy range… because of the calories and such.

Veggie sticks and hummus are your meal-prep friend

Chop up some carrots, capsicum, celery or whatever. Team those puppies with a tub of hummus and you’re crunching your way to fibre, protein, B vitamins and iron. Plus, the hummus almost drowns out the gross taste of celery, which is nice.

A piece of fruit

Look, this one seems obvious, but we need to mention it as a snack option since we slagged off fruit juice earlier. Bananas have potassium, apples contain fibre, oranges have pips that you can spit at people… It’s all good.

An entire party bag of Chicken Twisties

No, wait. Not this. Don’t eat an entire party bag of any Twisties, not even those weird zig-zag ones.