Fresh off the snack brackets, it's time to start talking about healthy snacks, which none of the snacks in the bracket were healthy. Popcorn could be healthy adjacent. Yeah. WGTS ninety one point nine.
Hey. I'm Claude and Jerry. We like healthy adjacent snacks, but helping us to make sure that we are snacking smart for our heart is Patricia Hertz.
She's a registered dietitian with the Center for Fitness and Health at Shady Grove Medical Center with ways to snack a little bit smarter, you know, instead of just going through a bracket and choosing the best ones.
I need those because what I snack on is what's available. So, Patricia, give us some advice here. What are some examples of snacks that we know are gonna harm our hearts?
So I would say, again, anything overly processed is no bueno. So the chips, crackers, and pretzels that we do tend to love for the crunch tend to increase our blood pressure because they are so high in sodium. Candies, cookies, and muffins, some of my personal favorites, do tend to be very high in added sugars. So they are definitely not beneficial to our heart because they also increase inflammation and they spike your blood sugars.
And then, everyone's favorites, fried snacks and or baked goods, they usually tend to be very high in, saturated fat and trans fats, which are going to lead to perhaps higher cholesterol levels, especially the bad cholesterol. You just want to make sure that you if you want them, it's absolutely fine. Just make sure to consume in moderation, not habitually.
Alright. Now how can we incorporate healthy snacking into our eating habits?
Yeah. Just do it. Just do it. Make those changes. We're all aware that, the convenience foods and snacks aren't necessarily healthy for us.
So what do we do for it now? You just have to sort of look at food through a different set of eyes. Don't look at foods to be convenient, such as chips, crackers, cookies, donuts. Yes.
It's absolutely fine to have them once in a blue moon, but habitually, it is not good for our heart. It's not good for our brains or our overall health. So really trying to think about if you want something crunchy, maybe think about, a whole food that could be crunchy, like carrots, peppers, some crunchy fruit, a jicama. And then if you want something sweet, maybe think about doing, a fruit salad or yogurts.
Any actual food or whole food can be a snack. It doesn't have to be a convenience food.
Are there any lifestyle changes we need to make to help supplement healthy snacking?
Yes. Absolutely. Water, water, water is what I would say. You want to make sure that your body is well hydrated.
Make sure to drink at least two, three liters of water a day. It's different for women and men. How especially if you're active, the more you sweat, the more water you need. Please make sure to keep those bodies hydrated.
I cannot stress that enough. Oftentimes, when we do reach for snacks, it's not necessarily hunger or actual hunger. It could present as water hunger. So it's it's so important to make sure that you are hydrating your body so that you're not mistaking actual hunger for water mistaking actual hunger for water hunger.
Alright. Maybe we need to do a bracket on healthy snacks. Just won't be as fun as the unhealthy ones, but we should snack smarter for for our heart. Thank you so much, Patricia, for hanging out this morning, trying to get us on the right track. You can hear this Health Minute and others at the website, wgts919.com.
And as always, a big thank you to Adventist HealthCare for sponsoring today's Health Minute.
