Today we're making you the masters of your health, Weight Loss Management Consultant at Fortis Hospital, tells us the top 10 worst grocery snacks available today.
Worst Snack Cheese:
Mozzarella, cheddar, ricotta, there are many flavours of cheese made into small cubes and dices to make them look like ready-to-eat snacks. Definitely delicious they might be, but a dice of 28 grams gives you 80 Calories with 50 calories coming straight from the fat content present in the cheese. Although, nowadays, certain brands are coming up with the low-fat cheese variety, cheese should be a treat only once in a while.
Worst Snack Soup:
Soup, if prepared with healthy ingredients and methods at home can be healthy, but the same is not true for the thick packet soups with too much salt (may induce hypertension), added solids and preservatives available in markets today. Most of the times, packed soups are so thick that one can almost eat the soup when it gets a bit cold (high starch content), so sticking to soupd made with fresh veggies at home is a better idea.
Worst Snack Dried Fruit:
The main issue being added preservatives and flavourings to make nuts and dried fruits more appetising and to give them a longer shelf life. So if you eat a dozen salted almonds or pistachios every day, you are doing your body more harm than good. Look for varieties that aren't enhanced for flavour.
Worst Snack Canned Fruit:
Canned fruits are extra sweet because of the extra sugar and corn syrup acting as major preservatives for the fruit. But this sweet canned fruit is loaded with too many calories and is a liquid candy for adults. It is better to stick to fresh fruits or fruit juices to avoid all that sugar for sure.
Worst Snack Applesauce:
This preparation is basically apples treated with high sugar corn syrup again. So, again too many calories to eat at a time and to eat as a snack. It's more of a meal. And then there are certain healthy versions with less sugar but all said and done, apples are better than the applesauce snack.
Worst Snack Pickles:
Pickles contain a truck load of sodium and are sometimes loaded with too much oil for taste and preservation. Keep the quantity just to a taste to make sure you take in minimal salt and be careful with the variety of spices added to your pickle by reading the labels if you have a soft stomach.
Worst Snack Potato Chips:
Most packaged potato chips are fried, which makes them high in fat. Now we have the baked variety to make it better but still there is too much salt in the chips, and this can still induce hypertension and affect your overall health and weight, if consumed regularly. There is negligible good nutritional value, if any, in this snack and thus we consider it a strict no no.
Worst Snack Popcorn:
The usual popcorns heated in a bed of hot sand are definitely healthy. We do not vouch for the ones that are soaked in butter to enrich the taste. They also have an extra dash of fats to be avoided. Thus, stick to the regular dry popcorns.
Worst Snack Crackers:
Crackers are, again, an easy way to get fat. They contain fat; they have carbs and a lot of salt, and thus do not make a very healthy snack. There are certain brands that boast of low salt and low fat in the crackers and thus may be considered for occasional treats.
Worst Snack Crispy Namkeens:
These spiced crispy mixes can pose a problem to your health because of the kind of fats they contain. Sometimes trans fats are present in liberal measure, which makes the snack harmful for the consumer. The excess salt is another devastating factor, so be sure to read the labels. A major drawback here is that many times the nutritional lables are incomplete or simply not present.
