When most people are hungry they start to snack on chocolate, crisps and candy. Whilst snacking is not inherently bad you have to choose your snack foods carefully. In this article I am going to introduce you to dried fruit and nuts and discuss three reasons to snack on them.
1) DRIED FRUITS ARE SWEETER THAN MOST OTHER FRUIT:- One of the reasons a lot of people turn to processed snacks is due to their high sugar content. Chocolate and candy are a lot sweeter than most fruits. For most people an apple just does not cut it when compared to a chocolate bar.
However, dried fruits are a lot more concentrated and have most of their original water removed. Therefore, if you want a healthy snack but still want to satisfy your sweet tooth you should try dried fruit.
2) THEY ARE BOTH RICH IN FIBRE:- Dried fruit and nuts are both fibre rich food choices and therefore offer a number of health benefits. First, it acts as an appetite suppressant and helps fill your stomach by absorbing water and expanding in your digestive tract. Secondly, it promotes regular bowel movements and helps reduce constipation. Fibre also helps you fully absorb vitamin and minerals and moderate blood sugar levels.
Processed snacks contain little dietary fibre so by substituting them with dried fruit and nuts you can start to enjoy the above health benefits.
3) THEY ARE A GOOD SOURCE OF VITAMINS:- Nuts contain high levels of vitamin B6, vitamin B9, vitamin B12 and vitamin E. Dried fruit is also rich in a number of water soluble vitamins including vitamin C. Each of these vitamins have a number of health benefits.
Vitamin B6 helps your body break down protein into an energy source that it can use. Vitamins B9 and B12 work together to assist your body in the production of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) which play a key role in the production of new cells. Vitamin C helps your body produce the connective tissue collagen which is essential for the proper healing of wounds. Vitamin E acts as an antioxidant which protects your body from harmful free radicals.
Processed snacks are relatively low in vitamins so by switching to dried fruit and nuts you can make sure you are getting the recommended daily allowance (RDA) for a number of vitamins.
As you can see there are many good reasons to make dried fruit and nuts part of your diet. Whilst they are not substantial enough to constitute a full meal they are a perfect, natural and healthy alternative to processed snacks. So if you have not made the switch already drop the crisps, chocolate and candy today and start eating dried fruit and nuts instead.
Author Resource:-
Tom Parker owns and operates a number of useful fitness resources and websites. You can learn more about dried fruit and nuts and the benefits of fibre by visiting his websites.
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