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Clean eating is very important in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. A lot of people believe, however, that the only way to eat clean is to stay away from store bought foods.
While it’s true that lots of packaged snacks can be unhealthy, with more and more options available in the grocery store every day, it’s no longer impossible to find healthy choices on the shelves.
You don’t have to stick strictly to fruits and vegetables and other fresh ingredients— though fruits and vegetables are certainly great, too —just pay attention to the ingredients on the snacks, and you can keep on eating clean!
Here’s how to eat clean even with store bought snacks, and a product that’s great for just that purpose.
There are a lot of different aspects to clean eating, and it’s important to remember that eating healthy doesn’t rule out store bought snacks— it just means you have to be careful about what you choose to buy and eat!
The main idea behind clean eating is to make sure that you are prioritizing your health and energy with everything in your diet. First and foremost, you want natural foods as opposed to processed ones.
This is one of the things that can make people skeptical of packaged snacks, and though natural foods are great, not all of these snacks are processed or bad for you.
You should also endeavor to include as many unrefined foods into your diet as you can, which means whole grain rice and quinoa. White bread, white pasta, and white rice don’t have as many nutrients as whole grain or gluten-free alternatives, so it’s best to avoid them.
You should also try to include clean sugars such as honey, syrup, coconut sugar, and dehydrated sugar cane juice into your diet. Artificial sweeteners and added sugars can add up quick, so always read the labels of your food to make sure you know what you’re getting into.
Beans, legumes, and nuts are all great foods for clean eating, too! Beans are full of fiber and nutrition while nuts are a very healthy source of fat and protein.
Clean eating is about more than sticking to healthy foods exclusively. It’s important that you include protein, carbohydrates, and fats into your meal so that you can have a good balance of nutrients.
Protein specifically helps you build your muscles, and curb your appetite! If you include it in your meals, you’ll be more likely to feel full, so having some protein that you space out throughout the day is much better than not including any at all.
In addition, it’s good to have some fat in your meals, despite the belief that fat-free foods will help you lose weight. A lot of “diet foods” that are low in fat come with chemicals and preservatives that are worse for your health than natural ingredients.
Stick to olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, ghee, and butter as opposed to margarine or processed oils so that you can use healthy fats for maximum clean eating.
However, it is of course still important to watch out for foods that contain a lot of fat, salt, and sugar. All of these things aren’t very bad for you in moderation, but these are all common in processed foods and will rack up the calorie count. When eating clean, it’s best to avoid these in excess.
Another big, important part of clean eating is changing the way you think about eating. Many people eat three meals a day, but five to six smaller meals a day is actually far better for you— it will stop you from either skipping meals or overeating, and even out your blood sugar levels.
You’ll also want to drink a lot of water. It’s absolutely vital to stay hydrated for your health, and drinks can actually contribute a lot to your calorie count. Stick to healthy beverages like water, smoothies, unsweetened tea, low-fat or skim milk, and natural fruit juice. You should avoid coffees, sodas, and fruit juices with a lot of added sugar.
A lot of people believe that it’s much easier and healthier to stick to the script of clean eating when making food at home, but store bought snacks can be just as healthy for you, if you just know the right place to look!
Sometimes, you just don’t have time to make homemade, healthy snacks, as much as you might want to. However, you don’t have to make all of your snacks yourself in order to eat clean!
There are plenty of tasty and healthy store bought snacks that you can use to stock your pantry— we all need foods to grab and go with, as there’s not always time for meal prep or space in our bags.
A very popular thing to do is pair a nut butter— like peanut or almond butter —or seed butter with store bought crackers or fruit! It’s a very easy and healthy snack to put together. Not all crackers are too salty or bad for you.
Nuts themselves can be a great salty snack— almonds and pistachios specifically are very filling to snack on, and they’re very good for you! Fruit is also a great snack, and packages of dried fruit are a great grab-and-go store bought snack. Many stores sell energy mixes made up of nuts and fruit, so they pair very naturally together.
On the subject of fruit by itself, though, there’s a lot of healthy and organic snacks you can find with fruit as a base. Organic smoothies are perfect for when you’re on the move, and there are many different kinds of healthy fruit snacks. In addition, lots of natural yogurts exist— just make sure you check the ingredients to avoid extra, unneeded sugars.
For example, yogurts that come with granola to mix in are very good for you. Some Greek yogurts can be so sweet that you’ll feel like you're treating yourself to a dessert, but they’re still very healthy for you!
And speaking of dessert, oatmeal is very good for you! Try oatmeal cookies as a healthier alternative to a favorite treat.
Coconut chips are a great healthy alternative to salty chips, but it’s also very possible that you want a salty snack rather than a sweet one. Well, in that case, don’t fear! Even though salt is something to avoid in excess when eating clean, there are a lot of salty store bought snacks that are still good for you.
For example, many stores that focus on organic food sell things like protein pretzels or maple popcorn that are healthier than what you’d find in a typical grocery store.
You could also go the route of hummus rather than nut butter and pair it with some carrots for a simple, healthy snack! You could always make hummus yourself, but isn’t it just easier to pick some up next time you’re at the store?
Beef jerky is also a snack that a lot of people might think is unhealthy, but it’s a good source of protein and great for when you’re on the move and need some more energy. Trail mix, too— ‘trail’ is right in the name, it’s a snack for people in a hurry!
Arguably, the best store bought snack for someone who’s in a rush is a nutrition or granola bar, however. Individually packaged, travel size, and made specifically to give you the energy and nutrients you need to hold you over until the next meal, these snacks are simply the most convenient in many ways.
Every grocery store offers countless options in the bar department however, but how are you supposed to decide between them?
You could check all of the labels to see which of these healthier alternative snacks is the healthiest, or you could just take our word for it when we say we have the perfect product for you.
Recently returned to our website are the Simple Botanics Simple Squares, a great snack for people who want to eat clean. They come in two new flavors— Honey Nut and Chocolate Chip Honey Nut.
This product, as the flavor names might suggest, takes advantage of honey as a sweetener and nuts as a source of protein to provide with all the flavor and protein you could want out of a snack without a crazy number of calories attached.
In fact, each individual bar is only 190 calories with just 13g of fat. You can purchase 12 right on our website for $23.99, and they’re all individually packaged inside the box— the perfect on-the-go snack for your convenience.
In addition to being made with natural ingredients that will help encourage clean eating, our Simple Squares are also dairy free, dairy free, soy free, gluten free, refined sugar free, and non-GMO— so they’re perfect for people with dietary restrictions.
Ingredients include cashews, organic gluten-free oats, almonds, honey, allulose, almond butter, organic coconut flour, kosher salt, vanilla, and chocolate chips (cane sugar, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter) in the flavor named after them.
Simple Squares are a great store bought snack that you can eat without worrying if it will throw off your clean eating habits. They’re healthier than a lot of snack options that are on grocery store shelves, and you don’t want to have to pore over the labels in the store to make sure you’re not purchasing something super unhealthy.
With our product, you’re getting exactly what you want— a snack that’s conveniently packaged and easy to eat while on the go, but made from ingredients that keep your best interests in mind.
If you’re looking to incorporate more healthy snacks into your diet, think about the practices and snacks outlined here for you, and specifically consider Simple Squares as a great option available to you.
