Not All Healthy Snacks Are Created Equal

On the occasion where you just can't make it until your next scheduled eating time, a healthy snack is a completely acceptable and viable option. Having a light snack will keep your metabolism level high, it will lower your overall hunger level resulting in a less likelihood of overeating, and really, sometimes we just need to eat something because a glass of water or chewing gum just won't do. This can be a slippery slope though... especially with so many options for snacks available.

I want to take a closer look at the two snack options that recently made their way into our home. The brand names and the preferred consumers of these snacks shall remain nameless.

Snack #1 - Lightly Salted Almonds

Snack #2 - Banana Nut Granola

You can see from the food labels that each item has the same serving size of about 30g but the nutritional content in vastly different. The majority of people look right at the calories and if you were to do that, the winner of this little contest would be the banana nut granola with 40 less calories than the almonds. Look a little more closely though, notice the difference in the types of fat present, the types of carbohydrates, and the amount of protein.

The majority of the fat content with the almonds comes from monounsaturated fats, which happen to be the healthiest kind of fat; one point for the almonds. Next up are the carbohydrates in which you receive a substantial amount more in the banana nut granola mainly in the form of sugar instead of fiber; two points for the almonds. Lastly, the protein amount, 7g compared 3g; third point: almonds. Let's look back at that calorie total.

With 4 calories per 1g of protein or carbohydrates, there is a 12 calorie difference from the additional protein in the almonds and an additional 16 calorie difference from the sugars in the banana nut granola. In essence, that is a 32 calorie difference (comparing quality calories to non-quality calories) leaving the almonds only 8 calories higher per serving than the granola but even this is a bit misleading because the monounsaturated fat received from the almonds completely trumps this tiny caloric difference. It is much healthier to consume grams of monounsaturated fat than saturated fat.

To be completely fair, you do consume a bit more sodium from the almonds but the nutritional value from the vitamins and minerlas (vitamin E especially) once again outweighs the measly 100mg of sodium. The lesson here is to look more deeply into nutrition labels, don't take what you first see and make a decision off of that. Investigate what you are really getting from your snack and compare the positives and negatives.