Snacks

What is the difference between a meal and a snack? In a perfect world, a snack would consist of a "mini-meal," balanced with protein and fiber just like an ordinary meal. But most of us are just busy to whip up a balanced dish on the spot. Unbalanced snacks can be dangerous and send us into a downward spiral of low-energy, weight gain, and the urge to eat unhealthy "full" meals. Snack carefully! Snacks are meant to keep you balanced until meal time.

Snacks high in sugar and fat supply "empty" calories. They provide an initial insulin rush followed by a low-energy crash that makes us want to eat--you guessed it--more food high in sugar and fat. We can easily begin to feel helpless: we become chemically dependent; we've tricked our bodies into wanting useless calories.

The key to snacking is to follow the same rules for a full meal: balance protein and fiber. Here are some quick ideas:

A handfull of nuts and raisins
One oz. of cheese (cheestick) with an apple
A handfull of soy nuts
"Make your own" trail mix: Kashi (high-fiber, low-sugar cereal), soy nuts and raisins
Low-sugar, high-fiber yogurt with fruit (grapes, berries, etc.)

Myrna Bars

TRYING to make healthy food choices for yourself can be challenging enough, but getting your kids to do the same can sometimes seem impossible. Myrna Bars are a mother's attempt to pack as many functional food components as possible into two square inches of something that kids will actually enjoy eating. What started out as a snack has turned into a community philanthropic venture providing revenue for a local homeless shelter and local YMCA branches.