Cravings and Addictions Begin Somewhere-- Healthy Snacks

Usually, I counsel patients on healthy eating and balancing their plate, eating enough vegetables, limiting sweet drinks, and daily physical activity. Oftentimes I counsel my patients on nutrition for specific disease states like Diabetes or cholesterol, but these days, I see a lot of obesity in adults, teens and children. The quality of the obesity is also getting scarier: I am seeing more patients with fatty liver issues(and a higher risk of non-alcohol-induced liver cirrhosis due to the fat content overpowering the liver), higher rates of diabetes in children, and higher rates of cholesterol and malnutrition. It is scary. I honestly believe the life expectancy of generations born in 1995 and beyond will have a much shorter life expectancy given the poorer average quality of diets and larger variety and availability of junk foods than previous generations.

So I'm hoping some healthy snack advice and great recipes might help.

If a sweet or creamy snack is desired, offer

• Smoothie made from blending 1 cup of low fat milk with 1/2 cup of fresh or frozen fruit
• Fresh apple slices dipped in peanut or almond butter
• Homemade souffle if you feel daring
• Fat free cottage cheese or yogurt with pieces of fresh or frozen fruit.
• Homemade sweet or savory baked sweet potato fries
• Homemade fruit chips you can dip in fat free vanilla yogurt
• Baked apple slices with cheese and honey
• Homemade candied nuts
• Homemade milk pudding, a family favorite for adults as well as the kids!

If a salty snack is desired, offer

• Pretzels with fat free cream cheese
• "Baked" potato chips with pico de gallo salsa
• Homemade popcorn with oil and spices instead of butter
• Slices of fresh fruit, jicama or cucumber with fresh spices (Hispanic around here use chile powder and/or lemon or lime, but Arab friends & family often feed kids the same veggies but with Arab-style spices-- zaatar (dried thyme & sesame), or cumin, sumac, salt and/or lemon)
• Homemade (savory version) baked sweet potato fries
• Whole wheat crackers with guacamole
• roasted peanuts or almonds
• Carrot, celery or broccoli sticks with light or fat free ranch dressing or guacamole 

*steps on little soap box, clears throat*
So, I find it scary that I've been seeing a 28 year-old mom regularly for 3 months now for diet management: her diet is weakened by her addiction to sweet and salty snack foods, and oftentimes replaces her meals with these. She has developed pre-diabetes, cardiovascular disease and the beginnings of fatty liver that are giving her blurred vision, night sweats, urinary frequency, unusual amounts of fatigue, chest pains, and scarily vivid dreams. Meanwhile, she still doesn't mind feeding her 4-year-old child top Ramen for lunch, Doritos for a snack on the way to see the dietitian, and after finishing the bag of Doritos in my office the child was promised ice cream if she is a good girl. Wait what? A junky treat after eating junk for lunch and snack?
I don't care if the child is thin, nor do I care if she will "burn it off," it is a poor quality fuel, and will cause problems internally after a year or two before mom even sees that child start to gain weight.
I know children should be allowed to be children, have an ice cream for a treat, have a candy with friends... I agree they should enjoy life rather than worry about what they eat. This is true.
Please, parents, if your child asks for something unhealthy and you know that they've eaten nothing but junk, then tell them sorry, not today, you've already had a lot of special foods today. You can have some in a couple weeks. Save the special food for a special day. If you do, that special day will be so much more special! They will understand if you spend 20 seconds explaining to them. Offer them a variety of healthy choices, like grapes, apples and peanut butter, strawberries, carrots, wheat crackers, yogurt, low fat milk or a string cheese, and give them the freedom to choose one of these healthy options they like best. If they are truly hungry, they'll eat  what is offered. If they keep begging, chances are that they aren't really hungry, they just want to see how far they can push your authority. They have the right of freedom to choose, but its your job to provide them with guidance of what to choose from. Please don't feel bad, they will get over it.
Your body deserves more than unreal snack foods that exist just to get you addicted. You are too good for that. You deserve better. And so do your children.
*steps off soap box, somber, deflated*

I love Nuts

Many arabs like to offer guests that visit a cup of tea or coffee and oftentimes bowls of salted or raw nuts for  snack with fresh fruit or sweet pastries. I get bored offering my guests the same thing as all the neighbors, so I have a little twist to make my snacks memorable and unique.

Roasted nuts with a little attitude.

So nuts, though they are high in fat, are also very healthy. You'll obtain from them alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), a plant-based omega-3 essential fatty acid, required by the human body. Many people take Omega-3 or Omega complex pills made from fish oils as a supplement for heart health. This type of fat aids in improving the HDL (good) cholesterol, and some studies suggest it helps the brain development of the fetus during pregnancy. Of the nuts, walnuts are particularly high in these fats, and are also high in antioxidants and provide a convenient source of protein and fiber. I prize walnuts as essentially the king of nuts for this reason, and I'd encourage using primarily these in recipes involving nuts. Also high in these healthy fats are almonds and cashews, which can also be used especially in families where a walnut allergy is an issue (like for my niece).

Sugar-and-Spice Candied Nuts

Makes approx 16 1/4-cup servings

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup dark-brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white granulated sugar (or splenda)
• 1 Tsblespoon paprika
• 2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon
• By replacing the first 4 ingredients with 2/3c white sugar and 1/3c unsweetened cocoa powder, you can create some chocolate-candied nuts that are also quite amazingly delicious.
• 1 pound walnuts, pecans, cashews, or raw almonds
• 1 egg white, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon water

Chocolate/sugar powder (left), and cinnamon/sugar powder after coating some pecans (right)!

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 
2. Mix sugars and spices in a large bowl that has a lid; set aside. 
3. Beat egg white and water until frothy but not stiff. Add nuts, and stir to coat them evenly. 
4. Remove nuts from the egg white, strain them momentarily to make sure they are not too drippy. 
5. Place them in the bowl of sugar and spices, put the lid on, and shake or toss until evenly coated. 
6. Spread sugared nuts in a single layer on a cookie sheet fitted with parchment paper or foil. Bake for 15 minutes, shaking the sheet occasionally to stir up the nuts. 
7. Remove from oven, and separate nuts as they cool. When completely cool, pour the nuts into a bowl, breaking up any that stick together.
8. And now munch delightfully!

Nutrition Facts for 1/4-cup of candied walnuts:
202 total calories, 10g total carbohydrate, 2g fiber, 4 g protein, 16g fat
(0.5 Carbohydrate, 3 Fat, and 1 protein exchanges)

Apple Chips

When your parents go to a farming community known for its apple orchards, and they get awed and excited by wall-to-wall apples, the results might sometimes be overwhelming. In my case, the situation is alarming.

My parents returned from Apple Hill in Northern California with two cases (approximately 18 lbs) of apples mixed between Fuji and Granny Smith varieties. I've had two apples every day for the last 2 weeks, and I'm really getting sick of them. Meanwhile, I am bringing home persimmons from friends that want me to make them into persimmon chips for a healthy snack, so I decided last night to try making chips from a few of the apples I've got.
I use usually the mandoline attachment for my food processor to slice the apples horizontally. But you can also purchase a small mandoline slicer for cheap.

Here's my Cuisinart food processor, with the regular blade removed and the mandoline slicer blade attached.

The horizontal cross section of the apple makes a cute little star shape where the seeds would be, and the slicer can slice directly through the seeds, so you only need to shake off any seeds and bake the slices for a couple hours. These apple chips are a great treat for little kids because of the rewarding little star in the center. :-) One small apple makes approximately 15 chips.

Soon I'll post another nice snack with baked apples (and an elegant appetizer with white wine or sparkling cider) involves roasting them with honey, cheese and fresh sprig of spice.

So here's the recipe for apple chips

Ingredients:

• 4 small granny smith or fuji apples

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees, or 200 degrees on convection if your oven is capable.
2. Thinly slice off the top and bottom of the apple, and peel the skin off with a potato peeler.
3. Using a mandolin or food processor attachment, slice the apples into thin 1/16 inch thickness (you can use a knife for this process, but for me it takes some time, and I have trouble getting my slices a uniform thickness, so I prefer to use the machine)
4. Place them on trays with holes for adequate ventilation, my version looks like flimsy aluminum chicken wire, but it works. Dry them in the oven for around 1 hour and 45 minutes, rotating the trays after the first 45-60 minutes of drying so they all cook evenly(if you use a convection setting on the oven, rotating is unnecessary).

You can buy grilling trays/pans for drying food or making chips in the oven here (I waited until spring for grillling season and found some at the dollar store).

Nutrition facts for a serving size of around 12 chips:
60 calories, 15gm net carbs, 4gm fiber, 0g fat, 0g protein (1 diabetic carbohydrate exchange, 0 fat and 0 protein exchanges)