Healthful Snacking Secret Weapon

Here at Food and Health Communications, Inc, we know that healthful snacking can be tough. There are so many pitfalls and sneaky foods that seem healthful (but aren't), that navigating the snacking landscape can be more than a little daunting. That's why you need a secret weapon. In this case, the secret weapon is a visual reminder of healthful snacking habits. With these colorful posters on display, it can be easier to find healthful, tasty snacks and skip those nutrient-free options.Snacking Basics:For a guide to the basic building blocks for healthful snacks, check out The Four Pillars of Healthy Snacking poster featured at the top of the page. This poster outlines the new USDA guidelines for snacking, breaking down the key requirements for healthful options into 4 pillars. As well as being a great general guide to healthful snacking basics, this poster is a perfect tool to remind teachers, food service workers, students, and parents about snacks that can be sold during school sessions or events.Snacking Inspiration:Do you know that you need to be eating more healthful snacks, but aren't sure where to start? Then these snacking inspiration posters are perfect for you! Consider the 100 Calorie Snack Packs poster, for example. This visual weight management poster offers easy ways to eyeball the portions of popular snack foods, comparing 100 calorie portions of foods like fruits and vegetables to 100 calorie portions of processed snack foods like doughnuts and cookies. This poster is a great reminder that you can eat more grapes, carrots, or apples for the same 100 calories as you would for a portion of a cookie or bagel. You'll get way more nutrients too!Another great poster for snacking inspiration is the Snack Smart: Think "Out with the Bag" poster. This poster, like the 100 calorie snacks poster, compares high calorie snacks to low calorie snacks, but instead of offering a visual exploration of a 100 calorie serving, the Snack Smart poster looks at the calorie content of typical "snack sized" servings.  It also explores healthful "base" foods that you can use to build balanced snacks, along with a varied list of nutrient-dense, calorie-light snack options.Of course, you can't go wrong with the 5 Ways to More Fruits and Vegetables poster, which presents all kinds of snacking inspiration throughout the day. If you find it difficult to fit all of MyPlate's recommended fruit and vegetables servings into your day, then this creatively designed poster serves as a good reminder of simple ways to meet those goals.What Not to Do:What could be better than a little cautionary tale? The See Food Diet Poster is a great reminder that you shouldn't just eat whatever you see. Sometimes it can be a perfectly-timed reminder, if you happen to see it before digging in to a beautifully presented snack or dessert that is high in calories and low in nutrients.This poster offers a visual representation of the idea that eating unhealthful foods, as tempting as they may be, doesn't usually turn out well in the long run. After all, look at what happens to fish that are snared by tempting bait on hooks! This poster can serve as a reminder that mindful, balanced eating is absolutely the way to go! And it also presents the idea that, when you're in doubt about what to eat, choose MyPlate.The Beware of SoFAS poster is another wonderful guide to snack foods to avoid. It outlines the basics of why and how to avoid solid fats and added sugars, which can do a lot of damage to your body. This poster is a great way to introduce some of the key messages of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and its playful graphics add some levity to a serious topic.For more great resources, visit the Nutrition Education Store!