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There's breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And then there's snacks! This article is all about the best snack foods out there. Those foods that we sneak in between breaks and treats we still manage to fit in after a filling dinner. We eat snacks for diet reasons and health reasons, but there's little doubt why we really choose the snack foods we do, their taste. Traditionally snacks were leftovers from meals but we've evolved nicely.
The first kind of best tasting snack food is actually completely natural, fruit. Many packaged and processed foods make a point to use fruit as flavoring. Fruits are sweet and delicious, and of course have the healthy benefits of vitamins, water, and fiber. Fruits are also generally associated with helping to reduce the risks of cancer, stroke, and heart disease. Excellent tasting snacks are oranges, plums, kiwi, grapes, bananas, and pears.
Nuts and seeds. Nuts are technically the large, dry, oily seeds or fruits of some plants. Supposedly these foods can also help to lower cholesterol and may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. Some of the best nuts and seeds are sunflower seeds, cashews, peanuts, mixed nuts, and roasted almonds.
Berries. Berries are smaller types of fruit that people just plain forget to include as a snack. They share many of the same nutritional benefits as fruits and are more convenient to eat on the go. The best tasting berries are strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, cranberries, and raspberries.
Dairy and meat. Snacks off the farm are great tasting as well. This is food extracted from a cow, goat, or other animal. Cheese, yogurt, butter, and cream are dairy products. Food made from animal tissue itself would be beef, sausage, poultry, fish, and eggs. Some of the best tasting snacks of this category is sliced cheeses, beef jerky, pepperoni sticks, ice cream, and pies.
Packaged or processed snacks. Packaged snacks always seem like the best tasting. Like my father always says, if it's made in a lab, it must be good. Packaged snacks are actually usually a combination of all the above foods. They have the stigma of being called junk food, and usually rightly earned. They are often high in sugars, fats, and calories. There is always an effort to make healthier snack options that are lighter and with less calories while still trying to maintain great taste. Packaged foods would be chips, candy, crackers, doughnuts, popcorn, cookies, chocolates, you name it. We could break packaged foods down further all day long, as entire grocery store aisles are dedicated to these snacks. For the most part, these foods in limited amounts won't do much damage to your health. Of course it's important to limit your intake of these junk foods and throw in some vegetables and organic foods to have a well-balanced diet. When in doubt healthwise, stay away from these packaged snacks and go with fruits, nuts, and seeds. Also, consult a nutritionist, dietician, or doctor, before adding these snack foods to your diet.
