Healthy Processed Food Choices! - Mind Over Munch

Hey munchies! I have done a few videos now sharing unhealthy processed foods or debunking healthy ones and I got so many comments saying okay I get that these aren't ideal choices but what processed snacks can I have? So today I am sharing five of my favorite healthier processed snack foods. Of course processed is never ideal we want to make the bulk of our diet whole foods but we're human we're busy and a lot of people still depend on processed foods. So if we can educate people about which choices are at least more appreciated by our bodies as fuel than others the better. So there are a few ways to approach this. Some people say macro friendly is better period. So how many calories, fat, etc. Some people say clean is better period. So ingredients. I think both need to be considered. So clean is definitely important less is more but sometimes clean ingredients can still be dense in calories and fat and the truth is calories and fat do matter. I'm not saying we have to count our calories or track our macros but whether we count or not our bodies are still counting and the fact is we only need a certain amount of calories and fat and those numbers are going to vary based on our size, our weight, our gender, our lifestyle, our activity level, our genetic predisposition, blah blah blah. Also it's true if you're eating clean all the time probably you need to be less concerned if at all with macros, calories, etc. But guess what if you're watching this video looking for snack ideas that probably means your diet still contains processed foods which is fine. I eat these snacks but the point is if people were to the point where they didn't need to be aware at all or concerned at all with calories and fat then they wouldn't be eating most of these foods anyway. This disclaimer is just here to let you know before someone tries to attack me which I know is inevitable because it's YouTube that these snacks were determined based on which are the best options accounting for both ingredients and macros. Also please note that none of the products shared here are sponsored all thoughts are my own. First up popcorn so this is one of my favorite healthy snacks. It has lots of antioxidants and fiber. It's one of the only snacks that is actually 100% a whole grain. It is also very low calorie and minimally processed. Now keep in mind we're not talking about popcorn that you get at the movie theater that is loaded with butter. That is doing more bad than good. I am talking about air popped popcorn. Now I do have an air popper that I use for popping my own popcorn and I've shared that in other videos before. I love it, it's amazing, you don't need any oil but if you're gonna buy a snack popcorn is a better one to buy. The microwavable bags where you put the bag in the microwave and it you know pops up into a big poof of popcorn those are fine but a lot of them do contain chemicals in the lining of the bag so a lot of people prefer to avoid them. I prefer to just buy the pre-popped bags that are air popped if I can't make it myself. So the pre-bagged options can be really great but we do need to read the labels and watch out for the claims. All of these really like to advertise 35 calories a cup. That's really great, low calorie but who only eats a cup of popcorn? Not me ever. So looking at these the other thing to keep in mind the nutrition is not per cup the nutrition is per usually 28 grams. So all of these are noted to be 28 grams but one of them is noted to be three and a half cups, one is three and three-quarters cups and one is four cups. All grams are not created equal apparently. You might notice on certain bags that some popcorns have four grams of fat in a serving and some have eight. Make sure you look at the serving size because sometimes it's the exact same brand and the popcorn flavor is maybe a little bit different and one has four grams of fat at 28 grams per serving and one has eight grams of fat but it's 56 grams per serving so it's the exact same nutrition but the serving size is doubled. Mystery. Ingredients are key when it comes to processed snacks as I said earlier so we always want to take a look at that list and remember less is more. So this brand has really nice design, looks pretty healthy, emphasizing the health claims, talking about how it has nothing but ingredients that you'll love. This one is more like you know you think about it when you go to a party or a snacky food it's like less emphasis on the health even though it is still saying 35 calories, 100 you know percent whole grain whatever. When you read the ingredients for these two you'll find that they are exactly the same. So in the ingredients you love bag you have popcorn, sunflower oil, and sea salt and in this bag you have popcorn, vegetable oil which may be corn, canola and or sunflower oil and sea salt so it's exactly the same in exactly the same order. Now one might assume that something like a white cheddar popcorn would be worse for you because it's cheese right and that may be the case with some brands but you have to read the label. Now for sure when you look at the ingredients here the list is much longer. This is not as clean of a popcorn but when we look at the macros it's not so different. It actually has less calories and fat than the sea salt but it also has one gram of sugar, less fiber, and a little bit more sodium. You win some you lose some. So the sea salt is obviously the cleaner choice but we can't deny the fact that some people might consider this one more macro friendly. I'm not saying that's true. I'm not saying I agree with it. I'm not saying I don't like this either though. Next up jerky. So beef jerky, turkey jerky, I've even had salmon jerky. If you're looking for a high protein snack that is not a supplement jerky is about as good as you're gonna get macro wise but of course they're not all created equal. Now first of all in general turkey jerky is gonna have less fat than beef jerky just because turkey breast is not fatty and beef is. For a serving you can get 10 to 12 grams of protein. That's pretty darn good. The problem is the serving size. So one ounce, 28 grams, is a pretty typical serving size but they're supposed to be four servings in here and they're supposed to be two servings in here and I don't know about you but if I was gonna eat this I would just eat the whole bag. So you gotta keep that in mind when you're reading the ingredients and then also keep in mind sometimes they decide to say there are three and a half servings in here which is just oh so convenient. Another problem with jerky is the added sugar. So I'm not just talking teriyaki flavor. Almost all of them have you know sugar, cane sugar, brown sugar, molasses. The other jerky issue, jishu, has been sodium and additives. So most companies are aware that this has been an issue and have been trying to accommodate. They have stopped using quite as many additives but always read the label. Most of these actually advertise no preservatives, no nitrates, no added MSG, all natural, minimally processed. But just be aware because the sodium can be really high. Anyway at the end of the day remember that less is more. So some of these brands have really long ingredients lists and it just isn't necessary. So when you're picking out your jerky try to find one that has a shorter ingredients list, a little bit less sodium, and if you can manage less sugar. You should be able to get a high protein, low calorie ratio. It's not that hard but you just gotta find the right brand. This one has 11 grams of sugar per serving and remember if there's three and a half servings this is now 11 times three and a half, 38, 39. Oh it was 38.5. Nice! Next up dried fruit. Not all dried fruit is created equal. So if I asked you which of these was a healthier choice which one would you choose? Well since you can't tell me I'm gonna go ahead and guess that a decent amount of you said the strawberries were a healthier choice. Now I'm gonna guess that you may have said that because the pineapple is noted to be sweetened and the strawberries are not and they also have some other added claims. Good source of vitamin C, good source of fiber. Great! The truth is these are not any different. Why? They are both sweetened. So why does the strawberries not say that they're sweetened and the pineapple does? I don't know but we wouldn't know that unless we looked at the back and read the ingredients. The first ingredient, pineapple. First ingredient, strawberries. Second ingredient, sugar. Second ingredient, sugar. When we compare the macros for a 40 gram serving there's only a 10 calorie difference and just a 5 gram difference in sugar and the truth is plain pineapple that hasn't been sweetened with anything just normal raw fruit has more sugar, almost double the sugar naturally as strawberries. So really the strawberries could have the same amount of added sugar or more and we just don't know. When it comes to dried fruit you're better off trying to find unsweetened. It is not an easy task. I've had some luck at health food stores and the bins sometimes but you still have to read the labels because those will still say first ingredient, blueberry, second ingredient, sugar or whatever. So you have to read. Better than dried fruit if you can't be sure if it's sweetened or not is freeze dried fruit. Pretty much the water is removed, the flavor and nutrition are preserved. So this entire package is 28 grams and it's a 110 calories and 14 grams of sugar. The only ingredient is strawberries. Now remember this entire package is one serving. This entire package is four servings. Makes a difference. And there's also no sodium in this one because there's nothing added to it. Next up is nuts. So we all know that nuts are a healthy snack. Lots of good healthy fats, some protein. When you look at a bag like this, raw mixed nuts, this is fantastic. The only ingredients are almonds, cashews, walnuts, hazelnuts and pistachios. There is nothing added. So the problem with nuts is when we start buying those mixes or trail mixes that have added chocolate or dried fruit and you all know the deal with chocolate since I already did a chocolate video. But since we just touched on the dried fruit, let's just hit that really quickly. This is a trail mix. First ingredient noted with sweetened cranberries, unsalted roasted almonds, raw walnuts, roasted pepitas and raw pecans. When you look at the ingredients here, this is an omega-3 walnut trail mix. You would think the first ingredient might be a walnut but actually it's dried sweetened cranberries which is then noted to be cranberries, sugar and sunflower oil. So remember the ingredients are noted by priority or weight. So whatever the most prominent ingredient is in a product has to go first. That's like the law. So the most weighty ingredient in here is those sweetened cranberries. Now it is good to know cranberries actually are decently high in omega-3 so this isn't really making any false claims but we still pick it up and we think it's a really healthy choice. It is using those sweetened cranberries. That being said there is only six grams of sugar in a quarter cup so it's not so bad. There are worse choices. Remember that beef jerky had 11 grams in a serving. Also do keep in mind even though nuts are really healthy and have a lot of micronutrients and antioxidants they are still very high in calories and fat so we want to just make sure we're not over consuming because remember at the end of the day our bodies still know if we consumed more calories than we need and I don't know about you but for me it's really easy to overdo it on the nuts. So next we have these roasted beans or legumes in snack form. So chickpea snacks have become a thing and I'm really excited about it because they taste really good. As is the case with most processed snacks you can get these in many different flavors so I've had like habanero and ranch and you know whatever. When you pick out those types of flavor varieties make sure you read the ingredients list because what starts as something really clean only chickpeas, sunflower oil, and sea salt can become something with a really lengthy ingredients list that is not so clean even if the macros aren't that different. So this is pretty much a chip that uses chickpeas instead of potatoes. There's only four grams of fat per serving whereas chips can have anywhere from you know eight to fifteen grams so you're pretty much cutting the fat by half to you know seventy percent probably because they're using less oil and they're baking them not frying them. These are also decently high in protein six grams of protein for 130 calories not bad. Now edamame is really impressive in the protein department so this is freeze-dried edamame. I also buy roasted edamame but I don't have any right now and pretty much it's the same macros for a serving about a hundred and twenty calories, five grams of fat, twelve grams of protein. So for the same calories and serving size and almost the same fat you get double the protein. Also it's really delicious. This is actually more protein than any of the beef jerky's. How about that? So don't get caught up in those health claims of thinking well I need to eat beef jerky because it's high in protein because even though that's true it is high in protein there are other options as well. So those are my chip substitutes. Speaking of chips I know that I told you I had five snacks but I actually have a bonus sixth snack that I wanted to share with you. This is coconut chips. I don't know if you've ever had these. These are toasted and sweetened. They are so good. They're so good you can't actually, I can't actually stop eating them. They are clean as can be. The ingredients, coconuts, cane sugar, and sea salt. Boom you're done. The problem and the reason I decided to include this was what I talked about at the beginning of the video and that is macros matter. When we take a look at these macros, 170 calories in a serving with 11 grams of fat, nine of which is saturated. Remember though saturated fat in coconuts is not the same as saturated fat from unhealthy processed foods or meats. 11 grams of sugar. Now remember these are supposed to be a chip substitute. Chip substitute. A serving of these regular old potato chips, 160 calories, 10 grams of fat, one and a half which is saturated, and less than one gram of sugar. Okay so my point here is not to tell you to eat Lay's and not eat toasted coconut chips. It is not to tell you that these are better than these. It's just to put it in perspective and let you understand that if you overdo it on this it's not really much better than overdoing it on this. Also the ingredients for these Lay's are only potatoes, vegetable oil, and salt. So they both have three ingredients. This is very clean but it's still dense in calories and fat and sugar. Just like this, I mean you think about it, a potato, potato's not bad for you. It's once they douse it in oil and fry it that it becomes bad for you. So don't demonize foods. You know this is not a bad food and this is not a good food. Both are fine, they are what they are, but just recognize that we have to consume both of these in moderation, not just one of them. At the end of the day too many calories and fat from a good thing can be just as damaging as too many calories and fat from a bad thing. I hope you guys got some snack ideas but most importantly I hope you learned something from this video and if you did would you mind giving it a thumbs up and sharing it on social. I do love making these kinds of educational videos because I think they offer light bulb moments for a lot of people but remember I don't make these to tell you what to eat or what to not eat. I'm also not trying to tell you how to eat. I do it so that we can be honest and see the facts and make educated decisions. So if we decide to eat choices that provide less fuel that's allowed but do it because you make the informed decision while aware of what that means not because we're blind or listening to health claims by sneaky marketing companies. I will stop rambling now. Thank you for watching. I love you. I will see you next week and remember especially when it comes to eating processed foods it's all a matter of Mind Over Munch.