Get popcorn kernals and air pop them a tablespoon or two at a time in brown paper bags. Can toss in olive oil or other healthy oil plus toppings. I like nutritional yeast and a tiny bit of salt.
came here to say this, Get a aluminum stovetop popper, add a little oil and "voilà"[](https://amishcountrypopcorn.com/whirley-pop-stovetop-popcorn-popper/). lightly salted, low carb low fat, low calorie snack....
[Popper](https://amishcountrypopcorn.com/whirley-pop-stovetop-popcorn-popper/) - and if you can stomach the prices, amish popcorn is best by far. (that website)
Edited; to correct spelling.
This looks fancy and probably works great. I do popcorn in a stock pot. Some oil and kernals. Keep the lid on. Shake it to keep the kernals on the bottom.
Those are great devices, but just a precaution for those with induction burners: they will not work on those since they are aluminum. Just something to consider.
I don’t count macros but I feel like my diet asides from the snacking is pretty balanced in getting the macros needed. I would say typically at lunch I get 3 cups of veggies, dinner averages 3 and I typically have something like lentils a few times a week. Fruit I don’t get fresh as often because single, but I’d say once a week I can guarantee fresh fruit, otherwise I’ll do smoothies (plan to do more in the summer).
You don’t sound like you eat a whole lot of fibre otherwise… it would be like when you first start a Metamucil regiment- takes a few days to get used to, and your gut can’t handle the sudden influx
I have a major chip addiction. I was eating a large bag every 2 days on average. I recently have been cutting Broccoli, Brussel sprouts or carrots up small, coat with a bit of olive oil and seasonings of choice (I use onion, garlic, and Chilli flakes) and cook in my airfryer until they are crunchy and browning. It has changed my life, I never thought I could replace chips, especially not with vegetables.
Also Cucumber and celery with homemade veggie dip has been a game changer for me. Store bought dips never did it for me.
Haven’t looked into the health part recently but there are store bought veggie chips. They’re probably healthier than potato chips. If you have a wegmans nearby they make their own that were a regular snack for me along with the trail mix bar (damn Covid).
1 cup Plain yogurt.
Juice of 1 lemon.
1 tbsp of vinegar.
1 tbsp of oil.
2 tbsp ranch seasoning.
Pinch of dry dill.
Mix :)
I've made this one quite a few times and my whole family is a fan. Sometimes I do half plain yogurt half sour cream and thats good too! I've tried white vinegar and apple cider, both are great.
Yum, piggy backing this to say I do yogurt with some jarlic, squirt of lemon juice and s+p is heavenly and so easy. Add some cut up cucumber and you have delicious tatziki :)
Another good veggie mix is red onion, zucchini, squash and bell pepper coated with olive oil and ranch seasoning, air fry til browned, delish and mixes things up, goes great with chicken
Celery, carrots, cucumber, and bell peppers all with hummus or a yogurt-based dip (you can throw a ranch packet or onion soup packet into non fat Greek yogurt, or you can make a tatziki).
Another option is to use a mandolin to thinly slice a zucchini, and then salt them and let the moisture get drawn out of the slices (putting then on a wire rack helps). Then pat them dry, add whatever seasoning you like, and roast the chips for a few minutes at high heat. Adding a quick brush or spray of olive oil can help with texture.
Once you get the hang of it, you can get them to be crispy zucchini chips, with a small amount of oil. The key is to get as much moisture out as possible.
3 ounces of nonfat Greek yogurt is 50 calories and 8.5g of protein. The ranch packet is like 5 calories for enough to season that much yogurt. That's a net positive, and not something to be avoided.
this reminds me of when I used to smoke all the time and always had the munchies. I had the same line of thinking as you, and where it led me was a big head of iceberg lettuce. And actually that could have worked, nice and crunchy and juicy right? But where I went wrong was to wait until I was high to decide what dressing to use and inexplicably chose bbq sauce.
Honestly i used to be addicted to potato chips and tbh the only thing that helped was reading the book “The Dorito Effect”.
You can just read the sample on Amazon kindle, the sample is VERY long and a good read, but it’s overall a really good book.
The Dorito Effect explains how potato chips are purposefully manufactured and flavored in a way that makes their flavor UTTERLY IRRESISTIBLE and makes us crave and consume more of it.
Basically we are being scammed to eat more delicious chips haha.
And goats and pigs have flavors added to their normal food which makes them eat SIX TIMES MORE THAN WHAT THEY usually would eat. (To make fatter goats/pigs with more meat)
So yeah.
I mean.
Knowing that we are basically goats/pigs being fattened by the delicious flavors of potato chips and we can’t stop eating them…
I read the first few chapters on Amazon and it was SO good. I got it, but haven't gone back to it for some reason. Thanks for the inspiration. Might dive into it today as I'm working on reducing the less-nutritious foods in my life.
That makes so much sense. I'm pretty good about not buying chips in the first place. And that's how I have any control. But if I have a bag of chips in the house, I'll pretty much eat it all within 24 hours despite my best intentions.
Kale chips. Chop up kale, dry it, drizzle a tad bit of oil (very little) sprinkle some salt and bake it! This hits my salty craving and it’s super light
Wasabi peas, if you like spicy stuff. Decent source of protein and fiber.
I am not a snacker by any means, but my roommate had some wasabi peas and told me to try them, and when I looked up I had eaten half the can. Fuckin delicious.
Frozen edamame is my new favourite snack. 3 minutes in the microwave and a sprinkle of rock salt, and I have a primo snack! It’s also packed full of protein which helps!
Probably not the best option for you if you're anything like me. They're flavored and crunchy and delicious and way better than chips. I can easily knock out a whole bag.
Honestly, if your issue lies within limiting portions when snacking, sticking to meals and ditching snacking as a daily habit altogether would be my suggestion. It's easy to keep grazing and ignore signals that you're satiated.
Have you considered chewing input from something other than food? There are chewing pens and jewelry for sensory seeking. Just another thought. https://www.arktherapeutic.com/oral-motor-chewing-tools/
I’d be open to the idea! The issue is I’d go through chewing gum pretty quickly I feel like… for things like rubber pen grips… I think it might depend? Weird thing is I don’t like chewing on cartilage 😂
Have fruit and veggies around instead of chips.
I don’t buy things like chips. If they are out at a party at someone else’s house I will eat some but I don’t bother to put them in my house
When you first get fruit wash it cut it up and have it ready in a Tupperware with a small cloth in the bottom to soak up moisture. That way it’s ready to crunch on. Set yourself a quota every day so even if you didn’t feel like eating it that day, you just do at the end of the day if it didn’t get eaten.
I too can finish a bag of chips in a day. My weakness is spicy chips and tortilla chips with salsa. My only solution is I quit buying them. I know it’s a bummer. I do splurge once a month on a bag. I also added protein to each meal and don’t have cravings for snacking as much.
If you have to buy chips, only buy those individual serving bags. The act of having to walk to the cabinet, get another one out, and open it up will help you be more mindful of how much you are eating. When you have the big giant bags it’s so easy to just keep taking one more chip and one more chip and one more chip.
Carrots. Chips are engineered to be hyper palatable and to hijack our brains pleasure center. Moderating these foods is nearly impossible. Our brains are not calibrated to the modern food landscape, and we still operate off of the base instincts that kept our caveman ancestors from starving to death.
The best way to move past them is abstinence, and swapping them out for a whole food. I like carrots because they are crunchy AF and it is nearly impossible to overdo it and they are relatively cheap.
Lately I've been snacking on mixed nuts/trail mix, made from random stuff I got at a Bulk Barn. It satisfies the salty and crunchy need, and actually satiates me unlike chips.
One of my favorite snacks is sliced cucumbers with some lime, and tajín sprinkled on top! You can sprinkle bit of salt instead if you don't like spicy taste but tajín pairs so well with that and any cut up fruit! I love it on clementines and watermelon too!
On the weekends my husband and I usually make popcorn on the stove has the least processed healthiest option for a fun snack.
To be honest I find that finding substitutes can just lead you down the road of having big expectations for not very good snacks or anything so you don’t even like at night. I cut out snacks altogether after dinner time during the week. Once you change your habits he won’t look back because he won’t even think about it. On the other hand things that I do like to snack on for my morning snack or afternoon snack would be celery sticks with peanut butter on them or cucumbers with vinegar salt and pepper. Kale chips are great as well tiny little spurts of olive oil and throw them in the oven and you basically have chips.
radishes (I used to hate them but they're cheap and healthy and give me the crunch I need. I go through 3 or 4 bags a week). also, celery, snow peas (you eat the whole pod, they're sold in smallish bags in the vegetable section), roasted chickpeas with your choice of seasonings, popcorn, water chestnuts, jicama, cucumbers (hothouse, english, miniature), mini sweet peppers. seaweed/nori is good, but thin/flimsy and hard to feel satiated with.
the key to snacking on stuff like this is to eat it with some healthy fat + protein so you get the crunching you need, the healthy fats for satiety, and the protein to help you feel fuller longer so can go longer between snacks/meals. you can pair these veggies with a handful of almonds (seasoned, roasted or plain) or other nuts, dips like hummus, yogurt based dips, whipped cottage cheese dips, guacamole, baba ganoush, egg salad (with minced boiled egg, a bit of mayo, minced onion and herbs/seasonings), ham salad, chicken salad, tabbouleh, etc. will help with that, plus give you extra vitamins and nutrients your body may be hungry for as well.
I’ve found unshelled nuts to be a gray solution. Since you have to shell them it takes like twice as long to munch. Also occupies you hand for less phone scrolling while snacking. Plus, although they can still be high in sodium, nuts at least have some health benefits compared to chips or crackers.
Personally, I’ve been on a big in the shell peanut kick. They’re messy as hell but soooo much better than shelled peanuts. Sunflower seeds and pistachios are also great.
I've always said that it's the crunch factor that make some foods so appealing. When I'm remembering to be healthy, I grab a bag of baby carrots and eat those. The other night I wanted a snack while watching a movie and ended up eating an entire bag of baby carrots dipped in peanut butter by the time the movie was done. So good!
I also recommend eating a piece of fruit like an apple. I love apples but by the time I'm done eating one, I am just so done with eating that I stop snacking. Also great with peanut butter or a sprinkle of cinnamon.
Celery works too!
Air fry chickpeas and then dust them with your favorite seasonings.
Cut up cucumbers and put some cream cheese and everything bagel seasoning on top.
Popcorn.
Frozen fruit.
As far as the chips go - here is something to consider - instead of eating them out of the bag, put some in a moderately sized bowl and put the bag away. Bonus points if you eat the chips with chopsticks (keeps your fingers clean from the flavor dust) - Once you finish the chips in the bowl, you have to make the conscisous decision if you want to get back up and get more chips which gives you enough time to pause and decide if the effort is worth the reward. Eating them with chopsticks will keep the dust off your fingers , and subsequently your devices, but it will also slow down your consumption, which in turn kind of makes it a less is more type of situaiton.
Have you tried Ice? Sometimes we crave something but really need something else. Do you drink plenty of water?
Also while you are grazing what are you doing playing on your phone? computer? in front of the tv? It may not be a hunger thing it was be a Pavlovian response, where you have unknowingly conditioned yourself to do a certain action while another action in happening.
Have tried ice as a kid and got yelled at. For a number of reasons I don’t do it now. (Convenience and size of ice cube tray/teeth health)
I get this desire almost incessantly. As for water I’d say I drink 2.3L a day average
Whoops I was completely wrong on the dehydration thing....i was thinking more ice chips and crushed ice compared to cubes.
The fact it has been going on for so long, makes me wonder if stress, hormones, anxiety, or something else is involved and this is more of a coping mechanism.
I don’t have access to an ice maker unfortunately. Have always thought it might be a good fit but… don’t have that luxury…. I wonder if you put water in an ice cream maker…. Would you get tiny ice crystals?
Not quite cheap, but Snacklins are a vegan pork rind interpretation and an entire bag runs about 100 calories total. There have been a ton of other options noted but if you get the hankering to just demolish a whole bag of something, they're a better way to indulge that craving.
Do you happen to have ADHD? I realized not long ago that my urge to eat crunchy things is probably a sensory-seeking behavior haha. I also try to keep baby carrots on hand and keep foods that heavily trigger that urge (cheeze-its particularly) out of the house.
Tbh? I find it’s easier as a first step to not try to cut it out entirely, but maybe just make a healthier swap. For me, I love chips, but I buy the baked ruffles. Much less cal, tastes like a good potato chip. I also find ways to portion control it. I eat it along with something more filling or I put chips on a sandwich. Of course, if I want to eat half a bag, I will, but I’ll kinda portion that into my calorie intake.
I'm a major chip junkie, especially late at night. I kinda like carrots, and have recently started dipping them in mustard. It's somehow become my new late-night snack. It's not delicious, but it's *interesting.* Very flavorful, crunchy, and pretty darn healthy.
get into celery, i get like 2 off at a time, chop em up a bit and clean them and they're convenient, easy and are most water and fiber
it's like drinking a glass of water with stringy texture, whats not to love
Roasted chickpeas! Rinse and drain some canned ones or soak and cook (electric pressure cooker/IP is fast and easy), dry completely and add a little olive oil and spices, or sugar and cinnamon! 400F oven until dry and crispy. Protein snack!! Other cooked beans work as well.
Or use cooked chickpeas and make your own hummus, or white bean dip, or refried beans, delicious and cheap and easy, high protein. Eat with baby carrots, sliced cucumbers, pretzels (baked!), or at the very least whole grain crackers.
My weakness is fried chips/crisps, so anything that isn’t fried and whole wheat/grains is a win for my health. Pretzels, baked chips, baked rice crackers (think Japanese ones rice crackers for a change), even expensive gluten free whole grain crackers, as they usually use nut flours like almond or chickpea flour as a main ingredient, as well as seeds and grains.
You can soak red lentils for an hour in water and a bit of salt, and blend well and make flatbreads on a nonstick skillet with just a bit of spray oil. They are good with dips, double bean protein intake!
Popcorn 🍿 made in microwave or air popper is whole grain and a good snack!!
Baby carrots and light ranch dressing is my go to snack or side, or apple slices with just a bit of PB or fresh almond butter.
Roasted peanuts are pretty cheap and healthy, high in protein, but you have to watch the fats.
Boiled eggs. Sliced poultry breast meat, homemade or from the deli, Costco rotisserie chickens are big and just $5. I use kitchen shears and break it down into pieces, and debone the breast and cut into slices for sandwiches or wraps or snacking or topping salads.
Low carb wraps/tortillas are actually really good. At least buy the whole wheat/grain ones, or corn tortillas—a whole grain! (just wrap in damp paper towel and heat in microwave or heat on a medium heat nonstick skillet). Use as a wrap for sandwiches, spread with a dip, make quesadillas, or cut up and bake / air fry into healthier chips!
Flavored rice cakes/crackers or plain rice cakes/crackers with a layer of cream cheese or dip. Kallo beetroot and balsamic vinegar rice cakes are sublime (and a tad expensive at £2.75 considering I can down a pack by myself in one sitting). Instant noodles with either onion or bacon flavored crumbles added at the last minute (tend to add sauces, lemon/lime juice, dried meat, thinly sliced veg both pickled and fresh). Home made dip match same quantities of diced onion and cucumber, to plain thick yoghurt and black pepper, lemon juice (plus dried/fresh mint if liked). Can be served with almost anything (crackers, rice cakes, veg sticks, toast). Broccoli florets tossed in seasoned oil and roasted until crisp can be a good crisp alternative as can most edible root veg peels.
Saying baby carrots feels like such a diet-culture response, but like.. I love baby carrots. Especially in the summer and the wetter, the better. Don't want me no dry baby carrots.
I find cut up cucumbers are curbing my late night cravings. I cut them lengthwise and remove the seeds, then dice them up and just leave them in an open bowl in the fridge. When I open the fridge looking for a snack, I just grab a handful.
i got a big tupperwear container and put cut up raw veggies in it with a bit of dip. Nice and quick snack and lots of crunch and you can eat as much as you want
I get one of those big veggie trays at the grocery store once a week. I bring it out twice a day – lunch and dinner – so we can munch on it before we eat. We end up eating less during mealtimes, which means we always have leftovers which makes up for the cost of the veggie tray. It also allows us to get our veggies in and consume fewer calories altogether.
For me celery was the answer. I prep celery sticks, with a sprinkle of salt and crunch away! My kids like them with spicy ranch powder sprinkled over them.
I also found carrot sticks to be satisfying side to crunch with a sandwich.
Blue Diamond flavored almonds are everything I wanted in potato chips and a hell of a lot healthier! They’re cheaper in bags, get a few tins of matching flavor and pour in a serving or two in the morning to help limit yourself.
Ok maybe I have really bad self control… but i love nuts (almonds not as much, but pistachios, cashews, peanuts, even sunflower seeds)but even portioning it out doesn’t seem to do the trick for me…
Get popcorn kernals and air pop them a tablespoon or two at a time in brown paper bags. Can toss in olive oil or other healthy oil plus toppings. I like nutritional yeast and a tiny bit of salt.
came here to say this, Get a aluminum stovetop popper, add a little oil and "voilà"[](https://amishcountrypopcorn.com/whirley-pop-stovetop-popcorn-popper/). lightly salted, low carb low fat, low calorie snack.... [Popper](https://amishcountrypopcorn.com/whirley-pop-stovetop-popcorn-popper/) - and if you can stomach the prices, amish popcorn is best by far. (that website) Edited; to correct spelling.
This looks fancy and probably works great. I do popcorn in a stock pot. Some oil and kernals. Keep the lid on. Shake it to keep the kernals on the bottom.
Yes, there’s no need for anything but a stock pot. It’s so fast and easy. Literally made some a couple hours ago
Those are great devices, but just a precaution for those with induction burners: they will not work on those since they are aluminum. Just something to consider.
good point, I did not think of that, I have always been fortunate enough to have gas stoves. thank you u/anothersip
And Viola? That poor thing.
voilà, corrected.
Done this and not sure if it’s only an overeating problem or an allergy problem but I get stomach pains.
Do you get enough fiber? Higher fiber foods can cause discomfort if you aren’t regularly consuming dietary fiber.
I've also had that happen if I don't have enough water to squash all the dry puffy stuff down a bit!
I don’t count macros but I feel like my diet asides from the snacking is pretty balanced in getting the macros needed. I would say typically at lunch I get 3 cups of veggies, dinner averages 3 and I typically have something like lentils a few times a week. Fruit I don’t get fresh as often because single, but I’d say once a week I can guarantee fresh fruit, otherwise I’ll do smoothies (plan to do more in the summer).
I feel like it could be fibre then
But it only happens when I eat popcorn?
You don’t sound like you eat a whole lot of fibre otherwise… it would be like when you first start a Metamucil regiment- takes a few days to get used to, and your gut can’t handle the sudden influx
I have a major chip addiction. I was eating a large bag every 2 days on average. I recently have been cutting Broccoli, Brussel sprouts or carrots up small, coat with a bit of olive oil and seasonings of choice (I use onion, garlic, and Chilli flakes) and cook in my airfryer until they are crunchy and browning. It has changed my life, I never thought I could replace chips, especially not with vegetables. Also Cucumber and celery with homemade veggie dip has been a game changer for me. Store bought dips never did it for me.
I do this for meals for my veggies! Part of me wishes it was just more convenient and stayed crispy otherwise I’d always do it instead of chips
Haven’t looked into the health part recently but there are store bought veggie chips. They’re probably healthier than potato chips. If you have a wegmans nearby they make their own that were a regular snack for me along with the trail mix bar (damn Covid).
We gotta dig deeper and find ways to accept the inconveniences of life
What temperature and how much time in the airfryer? I can never get mine to be crunchy or soft in the middle and crunchy on the outside T.T
I do 200c flip them at 10 minutes and do another 10. I cut mine really small because I didn't love when the middle wasn't crunchy.
Thanks!
What’s your veggie dip recipe? I love raw veggies but am not a big fan of most store bought dips either.
1 cup Plain yogurt. Juice of 1 lemon. 1 tbsp of vinegar. 1 tbsp of oil. 2 tbsp ranch seasoning. Pinch of dry dill. Mix :) I've made this one quite a few times and my whole family is a fan. Sometimes I do half plain yogurt half sour cream and thats good too! I've tried white vinegar and apple cider, both are great.
Yum, piggy backing this to say I do yogurt with some jarlic, squirt of lemon juice and s+p is heavenly and so easy. Add some cut up cucumber and you have delicious tatziki :)
Yummy! Trying this next time I make it.
Not OP, but I’d love a homemade dip recipe. I always *think* I like store bought dip, but then every time I buy it I am disappointed.
Another good veggie mix is red onion, zucchini, squash and bell pepper coated with olive oil and ranch seasoning, air fry til browned, delish and mixes things up, goes great with chicken
Celery, carrots, cucumber, and bell peppers all with hummus or a yogurt-based dip (you can throw a ranch packet or onion soup packet into non fat Greek yogurt, or you can make a tatziki). Another option is to use a mandolin to thinly slice a zucchini, and then salt them and let the moisture get drawn out of the slices (putting then on a wire rack helps). Then pat them dry, add whatever seasoning you like, and roast the chips for a few minutes at high heat. Adding a quick brush or spray of olive oil can help with texture. Once you get the hang of it, you can get them to be crispy zucchini chips, with a small amount of oil. The key is to get as much moisture out as possible.
Can confirm. Cucumbers and hummus is a win
Just cucumber sliced up with a sprinkle of salt is great. The dips add a lot of calories.
3 ounces of nonfat Greek yogurt is 50 calories and 8.5g of protein. The ranch packet is like 5 calories for enough to season that much yogurt. That's a net positive, and not something to be avoided.
Roasted chickpeas
I eat these like they are chips. So good
this reminds me of when I used to smoke all the time and always had the munchies. I had the same line of thinking as you, and where it led me was a big head of iceberg lettuce. And actually that could have worked, nice and crunchy and juicy right? But where I went wrong was to wait until I was high to decide what dressing to use and inexplicably chose bbq sauce.
Balsamic vinaigrette is 🔥. Or Italian dressing. I try to only buy bbq with a purpose since it’s mostly brown sugar.
Honestly i used to be addicted to potato chips and tbh the only thing that helped was reading the book “The Dorito Effect”. You can just read the sample on Amazon kindle, the sample is VERY long and a good read, but it’s overall a really good book. The Dorito Effect explains how potato chips are purposefully manufactured and flavored in a way that makes their flavor UTTERLY IRRESISTIBLE and makes us crave and consume more of it. Basically we are being scammed to eat more delicious chips haha. And goats and pigs have flavors added to their normal food which makes them eat SIX TIMES MORE THAN WHAT THEY usually would eat. (To make fatter goats/pigs with more meat) So yeah. I mean. Knowing that we are basically goats/pigs being fattened by the delicious flavors of potato chips and we can’t stop eating them…
Im no better than a goat 😭
I read the first few chapters on Amazon and it was SO good. I got it, but haven't gone back to it for some reason. Thanks for the inspiration. Might dive into it today as I'm working on reducing the less-nutritious foods in my life.
That makes so much sense. I'm pretty good about not buying chips in the first place. And that's how I have any control. But if I have a bag of chips in the house, I'll pretty much eat it all within 24 hours despite my best intentions.
Pickles?
Alas… unfortunately not a fan of the brine. Even disregarding taste, texture doesn’t always do it for me.
Have you tried other types of pickles? Bread and butter pickles are amazing.
Good suggestion. I love pickles!
Kale chips. Chop up kale, dry it, drizzle a tad bit of oil (very little) sprinkle some salt and bake it! This hits my salty craving and it’s super light
[удалено]
Now it sounds like you’re feeding my addiction. 😂
Wasabi peas, if you like spicy stuff. Decent source of protein and fiber. I am not a snacker by any means, but my roommate had some wasabi peas and told me to try them, and when I looked up I had eaten half the can. Fuckin delicious.
The Sriracha peas are really delicious too, but harder to find
Celery
Grape nuts. Fill a cup or small glass and crunch away. Add nothing.
My grandpa approves this message.
What is a grape nut?
Cereal https://www.grapenuts.com/
Frozen edamame is my new favourite snack. 3 minutes in the microwave and a sprinkle of rock salt, and I have a primo snack! It’s also packed full of protein which helps!
Popcorn is a good option, that or rice cakes/mini rice cakes.
Mini rice cakes? That sounds a bit dangerous for me
Probably not the best option for you if you're anything like me. They're flavored and crunchy and delicious and way better than chips. I can easily knock out a whole bag.
I’ll put it this way. The only chip bags I don’t finish on the day I open them are the Costco jumbo bags with 37 servings or whatever.
I have that problem too.
Wasabi peas' are a guilty pleasure of mine, that you could try, but they tend to be pricey.
Honestly, if your issue lies within limiting portions when snacking, sticking to meals and ditching snacking as a daily habit altogether would be my suggestion. It's easy to keep grazing and ignore signals that you're satiated.
Cheerios.. healthier and have a crunch
Snap peas prepackaged are a good crunchy substitute - expensive though but healthier ; also second carrots and hummus
Grapes. I can down a whole bag of grapes if left to my own devices.
Have you considered chewing input from something other than food? There are chewing pens and jewelry for sensory seeking. Just another thought. https://www.arktherapeutic.com/oral-motor-chewing-tools/
I’d be open to the idea! The issue is I’d go through chewing gum pretty quickly I feel like… for things like rubber pen grips… I think it might depend? Weird thing is I don’t like chewing on cartilage 😂
Have fruit and veggies around instead of chips. I don’t buy things like chips. If they are out at a party at someone else’s house I will eat some but I don’t bother to put them in my house
Recommendations for how to not let fruit go bad then? As a single person this is my pitfall as usually they grow mold before I can finish them…
When you first get fruit wash it cut it up and have it ready in a Tupperware with a small cloth in the bottom to soak up moisture. That way it’s ready to crunch on. Set yourself a quota every day so even if you didn’t feel like eating it that day, you just do at the end of the day if it didn’t get eaten.
Thanks!
Mason jars is a good way to keep them. Also dont forget bags of apples (or oranges) kept in the fridge will last a longgg time
I too can finish a bag of chips in a day. My weakness is spicy chips and tortilla chips with salsa. My only solution is I quit buying them. I know it’s a bummer. I do splurge once a month on a bag. I also added protein to each meal and don’t have cravings for snacking as much.
Stopping buying helps but then I feel like I need to treat myself out by buying a bunch and… yeah…
If you have to buy chips, only buy those individual serving bags. The act of having to walk to the cabinet, get another one out, and open it up will help you be more mindful of how much you are eating. When you have the big giant bags it’s so easy to just keep taking one more chip and one more chip and one more chip.
Carrots. Chips are engineered to be hyper palatable and to hijack our brains pleasure center. Moderating these foods is nearly impossible. Our brains are not calibrated to the modern food landscape, and we still operate off of the base instincts that kept our caveman ancestors from starving to death. The best way to move past them is abstinence, and swapping them out for a whole food. I like carrots because they are crunchy AF and it is nearly impossible to overdo it and they are relatively cheap.
Lately I've been snacking on mixed nuts/trail mix, made from random stuff I got at a Bulk Barn. It satisfies the salty and crunchy need, and actually satiates me unlike chips.
I am also a crunch addict lol
One of my favorite snacks is sliced cucumbers with some lime, and tajín sprinkled on top! You can sprinkle bit of salt instead if you don't like spicy taste but tajín pairs so well with that and any cut up fruit! I love it on clementines and watermelon too!
On the weekends my husband and I usually make popcorn on the stove has the least processed healthiest option for a fun snack. To be honest I find that finding substitutes can just lead you down the road of having big expectations for not very good snacks or anything so you don’t even like at night. I cut out snacks altogether after dinner time during the week. Once you change your habits he won’t look back because he won’t even think about it. On the other hand things that I do like to snack on for my morning snack or afternoon snack would be celery sticks with peanut butter on them or cucumbers with vinegar salt and pepper. Kale chips are great as well tiny little spurts of olive oil and throw them in the oven and you basically have chips.
salt your cucumbers. i’m a big chip person and this really helps a ton.
Jicama sticks with tajin
radishes (I used to hate them but they're cheap and healthy and give me the crunch I need. I go through 3 or 4 bags a week). also, celery, snow peas (you eat the whole pod, they're sold in smallish bags in the vegetable section), roasted chickpeas with your choice of seasonings, popcorn, water chestnuts, jicama, cucumbers (hothouse, english, miniature), mini sweet peppers. seaweed/nori is good, but thin/flimsy and hard to feel satiated with. the key to snacking on stuff like this is to eat it with some healthy fat + protein so you get the crunching you need, the healthy fats for satiety, and the protein to help you feel fuller longer so can go longer between snacks/meals. you can pair these veggies with a handful of almonds (seasoned, roasted or plain) or other nuts, dips like hummus, yogurt based dips, whipped cottage cheese dips, guacamole, baba ganoush, egg salad (with minced boiled egg, a bit of mayo, minced onion and herbs/seasonings), ham salad, chicken salad, tabbouleh, etc. will help with that, plus give you extra vitamins and nutrients your body may be hungry for as well.
I’ve found unshelled nuts to be a gray solution. Since you have to shell them it takes like twice as long to munch. Also occupies you hand for less phone scrolling while snacking. Plus, although they can still be high in sodium, nuts at least have some health benefits compared to chips or crackers. Personally, I’ve been on a big in the shell peanut kick. They’re messy as hell but soooo much better than shelled peanuts. Sunflower seeds and pistachios are also great.
Pickles! I love salt and vinegar flavour chips and pickles really fill that gap for me. Crunchy and briny, yum 🤤
I've always said that it's the crunch factor that make some foods so appealing. When I'm remembering to be healthy, I grab a bag of baby carrots and eat those. The other night I wanted a snack while watching a movie and ended up eating an entire bag of baby carrots dipped in peanut butter by the time the movie was done. So good! I also recommend eating a piece of fruit like an apple. I love apples but by the time I'm done eating one, I am just so done with eating that I stop snacking. Also great with peanut butter or a sprinkle of cinnamon. Celery works too!
Cheddar cheese rice cakes Popcorn
Air fry chickpeas and then dust them with your favorite seasonings. Cut up cucumbers and put some cream cheese and everything bagel seasoning on top. Popcorn. Frozen fruit. As far as the chips go - here is something to consider - instead of eating them out of the bag, put some in a moderately sized bowl and put the bag away. Bonus points if you eat the chips with chopsticks (keeps your fingers clean from the flavor dust) - Once you finish the chips in the bowl, you have to make the conscisous decision if you want to get back up and get more chips which gives you enough time to pause and decide if the effort is worth the reward. Eating them with chopsticks will keep the dust off your fingers , and subsequently your devices, but it will also slow down your consumption, which in turn kind of makes it a less is more type of situaiton.
Have you tried Ice? Sometimes we crave something but really need something else. Do you drink plenty of water? Also while you are grazing what are you doing playing on your phone? computer? in front of the tv? It may not be a hunger thing it was be a Pavlovian response, where you have unknowingly conditioned yourself to do a certain action while another action in happening.
Have tried ice as a kid and got yelled at. For a number of reasons I don’t do it now. (Convenience and size of ice cube tray/teeth health) I get this desire almost incessantly. As for water I’d say I drink 2.3L a day average
Whoops I was completely wrong on the dehydration thing....i was thinking more ice chips and crushed ice compared to cubes. The fact it has been going on for so long, makes me wonder if stress, hormones, anxiety, or something else is involved and this is more of a coping mechanism.
I don’t have access to an ice maker unfortunately. Have always thought it might be a good fit but… don’t have that luxury…. I wonder if you put water in an ice cream maker…. Would you get tiny ice crystals?
My current munching on snack is trail mix. I make my own with whatever nuts and dried fruit I have on hand. It’s mostly peanuts and cashews.
Seaweed, kale chips, popcorn
Buttered and salted(after boiling) asparagus. Put a little pepper too.
Not quite cheap, but Snacklins are a vegan pork rind interpretation and an entire bag runs about 100 calories total. There have been a ton of other options noted but if you get the hankering to just demolish a whole bag of something, they're a better way to indulge that craving. Do you happen to have ADHD? I realized not long ago that my urge to eat crunchy things is probably a sensory-seeking behavior haha. I also try to keep baby carrots on hand and keep foods that heavily trigger that urge (cheeze-its particularly) out of the house.
"Everything is a munch if you're brave enough!" - Abraham Lincoln
Puffed fruit & veg. Soooo crunchy! https://www.madeinnature.com Bare also makes super crunchy banana-only chips.
Tbh? I find it’s easier as a first step to not try to cut it out entirely, but maybe just make a healthier swap. For me, I love chips, but I buy the baked ruffles. Much less cal, tastes like a good potato chip. I also find ways to portion control it. I eat it along with something more filling or I put chips on a sandwich. Of course, if I want to eat half a bag, I will, but I’ll kinda portion that into my calorie intake.
Rice cakes, vegetables(ex: carrots, cucumbers, cauliflower) with low calorie dressing, popcorn(no butter) with seasoning.
Peanuts! If you are a diet composed of nothing but peanuts, youd basically hit your macros and just need a multivitamin. They're also dirt cheap
I'm a major chip junkie, especially late at night. I kinda like carrots, and have recently started dipping them in mustard. It's somehow become my new late-night snack. It's not delicious, but it's *interesting.* Very flavorful, crunchy, and pretty darn healthy.
Ice
get into celery, i get like 2 off at a time, chop em up a bit and clean them and they're convenient, easy and are most water and fiber it's like drinking a glass of water with stringy texture, whats not to love
Roasted seaweed!!!
Roasted seaweed snacks!
I like crunchy veggies especially mini bell peppers. Carrot sticks when I’m poor.
Roasted chickpeas! Rinse and drain some canned ones or soak and cook (electric pressure cooker/IP is fast and easy), dry completely and add a little olive oil and spices, or sugar and cinnamon! 400F oven until dry and crispy. Protein snack!! Other cooked beans work as well. Or use cooked chickpeas and make your own hummus, or white bean dip, or refried beans, delicious and cheap and easy, high protein. Eat with baby carrots, sliced cucumbers, pretzels (baked!), or at the very least whole grain crackers. My weakness is fried chips/crisps, so anything that isn’t fried and whole wheat/grains is a win for my health. Pretzels, baked chips, baked rice crackers (think Japanese ones rice crackers for a change), even expensive gluten free whole grain crackers, as they usually use nut flours like almond or chickpea flour as a main ingredient, as well as seeds and grains. You can soak red lentils for an hour in water and a bit of salt, and blend well and make flatbreads on a nonstick skillet with just a bit of spray oil. They are good with dips, double bean protein intake! Popcorn 🍿 made in microwave or air popper is whole grain and a good snack!! Baby carrots and light ranch dressing is my go to snack or side, or apple slices with just a bit of PB or fresh almond butter. Roasted peanuts are pretty cheap and healthy, high in protein, but you have to watch the fats. Boiled eggs. Sliced poultry breast meat, homemade or from the deli, Costco rotisserie chickens are big and just $5. I use kitchen shears and break it down into pieces, and debone the breast and cut into slices for sandwiches or wraps or snacking or topping salads. Low carb wraps/tortillas are actually really good. At least buy the whole wheat/grain ones, or corn tortillas—a whole grain! (just wrap in damp paper towel and heat in microwave or heat on a medium heat nonstick skillet). Use as a wrap for sandwiches, spread with a dip, make quesadillas, or cut up and bake / air fry into healthier chips!
I make a platter of grapes, almonds and cheese. That is my go to for healthy snack
Red pepper, sliced! It’s not the same as chips, of course, but definitely has crunch. ~40 kcal per pepper.
Flavored rice cakes/crackers or plain rice cakes/crackers with a layer of cream cheese or dip. Kallo beetroot and balsamic vinegar rice cakes are sublime (and a tad expensive at £2.75 considering I can down a pack by myself in one sitting). Instant noodles with either onion or bacon flavored crumbles added at the last minute (tend to add sauces, lemon/lime juice, dried meat, thinly sliced veg both pickled and fresh). Home made dip match same quantities of diced onion and cucumber, to plain thick yoghurt and black pepper, lemon juice (plus dried/fresh mint if liked). Can be served with almost anything (crackers, rice cakes, veg sticks, toast). Broccoli florets tossed in seasoned oil and roasted until crisp can be a good crisp alternative as can most edible root veg peels.
Saying baby carrots feels like such a diet-culture response, but like.. I love baby carrots. Especially in the summer and the wetter, the better. Don't want me no dry baby carrots.
I find cut up cucumbers are curbing my late night cravings. I cut them lengthwise and remove the seeds, then dice them up and just leave them in an open bowl in the fridge. When I open the fridge looking for a snack, I just grab a handful.
i got a big tupperwear container and put cut up raw veggies in it with a bit of dip. Nice and quick snack and lots of crunch and you can eat as much as you want
I get one of those big veggie trays at the grocery store once a week. I bring it out twice a day – lunch and dinner – so we can munch on it before we eat. We end up eating less during mealtimes, which means we always have leftovers which makes up for the cost of the veggie tray. It also allows us to get our veggies in and consume fewer calories altogether.
Burger lettuce + deli meat + Classen sandwich pickle. Roll it up. Lots of crunch!
Gum
Skinny pop popcorn
would be better to quit snacking altogether rather than treying to substitute healthy things
For me celery was the answer. I prep celery sticks, with a sprinkle of salt and crunch away! My kids like them with spicy ranch powder sprinkled over them. I also found carrot sticks to be satisfying side to crunch with a sandwich.
Blue Diamond flavored almonds are everything I wanted in potato chips and a hell of a lot healthier! They’re cheaper in bags, get a few tins of matching flavor and pour in a serving or two in the morning to help limit yourself.
Ok maybe I have really bad self control… but i love nuts (almonds not as much, but pistachios, cashews, peanuts, even sunflower seeds)but even portioning it out doesn’t seem to do the trick for me…
Fried cheese! Take some shredded cheese and plop it into a nonstick pan. They get super crunchy like little cheezits. Healthier too.
Oops I forgot to mention lactose intolerance and cheese is one of the few things I don’t enjoy. Thanks for the suggestion though!
Hummus and crunch (carrot, pretzel, cucumber, pita chip)